Funny, they weren't fussed about the break-ins at the Labour Party and Alliance Party headquarters in the mid 1990s, nor the hacking of Labour's computers around 8-10 years ago.
But I'm sure the police will pull out all stops this time. When it happens to National hell that's bad, but if its Labour well, ho hum so what…
Can you provide references for you claims of break-ins and computer hacking?
The only thing I am aware of was that the Labour Party had left their membership details unprotected, which seems a bit different to the actual theft of computers. That was Cameron Slater and Graeme Edgeler at least though that no crime was committed.
"The question then is: does Cameron Slater have authority to access the server that hosts the Labour Party website? Well, it’s a publicly available website, that they put up there so that people can go to their website and download stuff from that server into their cache to read on their browsers. If Cameron doesn’t have authority (because, for example, it’s not express authority), I don’t see how any of us can lawfully look at it."
Both burglaries occurred in the lead up period to the 1996 election. Yes, I know who was behind them, but can't confirm the identities of the actual thieves who carried out the burglaries.
The Labour Party hack is well documented. Yes, there was controversy over whether it constituted a hack or not but that was just a distraction. Information was stolen from the Labour Party and the police did f**k all. In fact further down the track they actually had the gall to target Nicky Hager as a 'suspected accessory to a crime' while ignoring the criminal activities with which National’s Cameron Slater was associated.
Police bias when it comes to politically motivated criminal activity over the years has been a disgrace.
And don't forget the illegal raid on Kim Dotcom? What's happened to him?
No I am not. I have never heard of these break-ins of the Labour and Alliance Offices and I am curious what they were about. It may of course, if they were in the early part of the decade, simply be because I wasn't living here at the time.
Asking for a reference for something stated by a contributor does not seem, to me, to be in anyway a statement that you are lying. I just want to see what the story is about. I always supply, when asked, links to statements I have made. This was I thought precisely why the second paragraph of the rules for the site seems to require that justification for comments should be available.
Now are there any available links to these stories, please. I would love to see what it was that the Police refused to investigate.
Well. I apologise for jumping to conclusions. The two break-ins in 1996 were the Auckland Central Alliance Party regional headquarters and the Auckland Central Labour Party electorate office. They were linked of course and the aim of the exercise was to gather information about their campaigns. It isn't likely links are available online because of the passage of time.
And I know who ordered the break-ins.
I didn't say they "refused" to investigate but they didn't try very hard – if they tried at all. They're very good at ‘not trying’ when they don’t want to.
Thank you. As I suggested, I wasn't living in New Zealand in 1996 so it is not surprising I hadn't heard of them. I was, from early 1995 until early 1997 touring the West Island. All of it, and boy that is a lot of territory.
I shall have to track the story down offline. As you say, once you get into last century there is very little available to Googles gaze.
Stop your stalking of me and your childish venom. If I say I know who ordered the break-ins then I know who ordered the break-ins.
And yes, I had a good idea who actually did the job but couldn't be 100% sure so no, I did not go to the police. I don’t have a high opinion of the police when it comes to political criminal activity – and for very good reason that neither you nor anyone else here is privy to.
Oh, and btw you'll be delighted to hear it wasn't anyone in the National Party.
What has that got to do with the price of fish? A break-in is a break-in no matter when it happens.
Not only is it useful to compare the difference in responses, but those break-ins were politically motivated and that was a dangerous precedent and should have been taken more seriously by the police at that time.
... the raid was not illegal.
Well something was considered unlawful. I thought it was the raid itself.
You are right, an aspect of the raid was illegal, I think it was the preceding surveillance.
As for the relevance of 25 years, it is because these events are hardly quite the huge things the partisans make them out to be. So something of relatively modest consequence 25 years ago is close to being ancient history. For instance while I might have a very clear memory of what it was like on selection night in North Shore in 1995, for everyone else it is old history.
Be that as it may Wayne but while it is "ancient history" in the eyes of most people, the difference in police responses is still pertinent.
When individuals stole material/equipment for political purposes from Labour and the Alliance Party by way of unlawful entry to their premises it was no mere "modest consequence". It was dirty politics carried out with hostile intent, and caused the victims just as much consternation and anxiety as it would today.
But it was not regarded as important 23 years ago and I venture to suggest that was in part because it was… only Labour and the Alliance Party personnel who were affected.
Anyway, it is a flawed conversation now, because it looks like National’s break-in was part of opportunist burglaries in the area targeting mainly laptops.
"The only thing I am aware of was that the Labour Party had left their membership details unprotected, which seems a bit different to the actual theft of computers."
Not this again. Lay people routinely use the word hack to refer to things that tech people don't. It is normal in English for this to happen (tech vs lay language usage).
As for comparisons, most people who give their personal details to a political party don't expect those details to be accessed by political opponents for political gain. In other words, it was wrong. Let's not forget that Slater went on to orchestrate an attempt at hacking TS, amongst his many other dubious activities.
I’m unconvinced that my argument flies as well. I was thinking out loud. The arguments against it (for example, the one from lawyer Felix Geiringer in response to my comment) have quite a bit going for them. I don’t think it is clear cut.
When you put an internal link in a comment via a straight cut and paste, the system changes that to the name of the post (without all the URL detail). Your link still works.
Ok. Thanks. It just looks funny and I thought I must have screwed it up somehow. I assume this is only if the URL is the same as the place where you are posting it, which is of course what I was doing here?
I must revert to my old habit of clicking on any link I put up as soon as I post it. I always used to do it but I have gotten lazy. As you say it actually works just fine.
TS has some newish linking changes (happened while I was away). The other main one is that if you cut and paste a link to a TS comment, the link will revert back to the post (rather than the comment). The way around that is to use the html tags to insert a link.
The only thing I am aware of was that the Labour Party had left their membership details unprotected, which seems a bit different to the actual theft of computers.
The ignorant tend to call data theft "hacking" and imagine highly skilled coders wearing hoodies in dark rooms coming up with fancy ways to bypass security protocols. In reality, most of it is exactly like the example above: someone screws up and data that should have been protected is left exposed to the unscrupulous and unethical, who put time and effort into finding such exposed data. Whether you call data theft under those circumstances "hacking" or not depends on your enthusiasm for drama, but it's still data theft. If it's not illegal under our legislation, that's a problem with our legislation, not an endorsement of the theft.
But Slater is poisonous and a complete failure. His was a career in corrupt and criminal activity and that has been proven time and time again, so why on earth would anyone be fussed that he was hacked.
It's a good thing that Slater has been crushed because it rids NZ of a particularly odious form of cancer.
Solid public interest defence for publishing information derived from that theft, but didn't the hacker admit at the time it was illegal?
By contrast I've never seen Master Slater admit doing anything wrong – indeed he has wasted many a judge's time claiming absolute purity of thought and deed.
Just don’t tell Simon that Police officers are having coffees with MPs or emotional junior staffers from the electorate offices. The poor guy’s already worried sick about top cops having cups of coffee with Ministers.
I think most systems switched off 32bit and to 64 bit unix epoch times quite a long time again. I know I did. And that is even on the little Arm 32bit processors.
Most things I work on tend to use struct timeval. 64bit seconds since the unix epoch, and 64 bit micro seconds.
so according to the orange menace no one was hurt during the little bombing raid on their Airbase in Iraq by Iran.
well funny that, cause this is the second article now that speaks of wounded soldiers being evacuated due to injuries sustained during the attack.
The first eleven were evacuated to Ramstein Airbase in Germany with 'concussions' and now this diddy about 16 being evacuated to Saudi Arabia with severe injuries.
i consider the orange menace to be as competent as i considered ronald reagan to be competent, and both were/are currently adivised by the same people. its a bit the iran/contra affair redux. the iranians will be still there when america has nuked itself.
in the meant time its the boots on the ground that die.
And there was me thinking that "fatal" was like, y'know – dead?
"16 US military men with fatal injuries sustained during Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on Ain Al-Assad base earlier this month have been taken to a hospital…"
I did give the article another few secs of reading, but gave the fuck up with the Kuwaiti paper supposedly relying on "quoted [anonymous] informed sources as saying"
There were no injuries (let alone fatalities) because Iran gave prior notice of their retaliation precisely to avoid giving the US a 'go to' excuse for fucking war.
there is not one person in this admin that wants to go on record, not even the press secretary. tells you lot does it not? as for the no fatalities. yeah, right, tui.
These guys supposedly were in the hangar with the drones blahblahblah.
They had casualties and they had injuries. I am not the betting kind, but i bet you a pint.
There is a fucked up mix of war mongering "permanent state" actors and Democratic "cold war" warriors sitting right behind the US admin's "rapture" fundamentalists right now. The Iranian government is too rational and smart to offer them up an easy pretext to rain down destruction.
You really think the US wouldn't have been parading "dead babies" and getting on its moral high horse skeletal war horse given half a chance?
So yes, i think they will try to hide very much any dead bodies they may have found in the rubble, and will declare anything less then deadly injuries a 'concussions' and such.
The Iranians raised a point. Its simply “for those of us you kill we are able to take a few of yours”. Your turn.
I don't think thew White House would keep it quiet – that place leaks like a seive.
Whether the military would tell the white house anything that could be a c. belli is up for grabs – especially if the story about dolt45 choosing the artificial "worst option" of openly killing a sitting Iranian general is true.
The US military needs a break to retrain, recover, and refocus. Organisationally they're exhibiting classic overwork signs: navy ships are failing at basic things like navigating waterways without colliding with other ships, air crew are being killed because training hours are so low, soldiers are being deployed from combat theatre to combat theatre without a break in between.
Policy is one thing, the military-industrial complex is another, but admirals and generals know that if they're the ones in charge when something hits the papers that can seriously affect their post-military careers. Oh, and some of them probably care about their organisations, as well.
tl;dr: the US military wants to get ready for a near-peer confrontation, not another counter-insurgency in ME. This might affect whether they report precisely to the war-mongering white house injuries as being of US service personnel (vs contractors) occurring as a direct result of enemy action (no it was flying glass splinters and air pressure problems wot done it) and even (although I think this one is slightly farther-fetched) "no the attack was in Iraq and this soldier died in Saudi Arabia".
edit: although the US military is not really a monolith, either, so who knows
essentially the problem of poor recruiting and quality of recruit. Instate the draft and throw a bit of money to training and voila a little soldier is created to go kill kill kill.
and yes, the pentagon is gonna lie about this, in a way. They admit to people hurt but its only a bit of 'headache' a concussion so its nothing. And frankly who would care about Jonny and Jane Sixpack from somewhere US. No one. They get injured and die every other day currently in Iraq and Afghanistan and no one gives a care. These guys are nothing but tiny little blibs. There, gone. Kanonenfutter .
It's not even a recruiting problem as such – like any machine, every so often chunks of it need down-time for preventive maintenance. But yeah, if you step on the accelerator you burn through more fuel, and people are the fuel of armed forces.
Three service members were flown to a facility at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and the others were sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany after displaying signs of concussions, defense officials said Thursday. Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said Friday that al Asad is not outfitted with an MRI machine or other tools necessary for advanced brain injury examinations.
As a standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury, and if deemed appropriate are transported to a higher level of care,” Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a prepared statement.
Kinda like how they do for 'sonic attacks' being unleashed on embassy staff on small Caribbean islands? (Oh. And China too…not to forget being microwaved by pesky Russians…) 🙄
You don't think that a skeletal presence was maintained following Iran telling Iraq where and when missiles were going to strike? Because just maybe there was some precautionary thing around equipment or what not being left around an entirely abandoned base? Maybe 11 or so volunteers holed up in bunkers/shelters to give an instant evaluation of damage? Maybe given a "once over" for possible effects of percussion from blasts?
I've had considerable personal contact with various Iranian people, they are widely misrepresented and misunderstood in the West. I'm assuming the Western media has fucked up this latest episode as usual.
Peeps will no doubt make of this what they will…in spite of what's actually being said.
Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Setareh Sadeqi, a PhD candidate at the University of Tehran who lost family friends in the tragic Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crash. Anya and Setareh discuss recent protests in Iran sparked by the crash, which western media have framed as an popular anti-government uprising. They also talk about the recent crackdown on Iranian news and social media accounts online, including the censorship of Press TV UK.
All I know for certain is the theocratic Iranian regime are not people whom the liberal left in the west should entertain as 'allies' in any sense of the word. No matter how anti-American they may be.
I dunno … maybe it was when I was standing next to the Iranian on the phone to his family back home, when they were explaining to him how much the government was charging them for the bullets used to execute his father. But that was a few decades ago now; maybe the leaders of this regime have transformed themselves into really nice people since.
But I tell you what, you engage with the cite I gave, and I'll give your one a go.
No it was in 1981 in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, when members of the Baha'i Faith were executed. One of them was my flatmate at the time.
The bringing of fire to the Canadian Inuit was later …
I did engage with the cite 🙄 you gave. It's junk. The very first sentence is a bit of give away – referring to the assassination of Soleimani simply as "the death of", before going to on and attempting to turn corporate media reporting upside down (I haven't seen evidence of corporate media lionizing Soleimani as claimed in that link)…and he didn't foster instability in "Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen" as claimed. Neither did he lead "a group of armed thugs"…and that's just the first fucking paragraph!
But hey. I guess when the author of the piece is a former case officer who conducted operations against nuclear proliferation and terrorism for the CIA's National Clandestine Service , then a leetle bias might be par for the course, aye? 😉
You read any of his other stuff? The guy's a bit of a hoot.
Anyway. I gave you a link to an Iranian student living in Iran giving her perspective on recent events. Now I know she ain’t no ‘Bana of Aleppo’ and therefor unlikely to be courted by western media or western opinion, but hey…
Well using the same logic I feel zero obligation to trust your source either. I mean at least you can know who mine is, this student you reference, who knows?
So you just read stuff and other stuff and it's all stuff and you haven't equipped yourself of any critical faculty that might help you discern if agendas may, are, or are not in play? And so can't navigate information…
So what do you do?
Are you akin to those liberals who smear anyone not adhering to "the script" that comes down from on governmental/corporate high?
Given the gaslighting in response to my initial comment, I guess that might be the case, aye?
Correct me if I'm wrong please, but I've read you as being consistently anti-American for a very long time. Your immediate response to dismiss any source who has previously worked in American intelligence is indicative of this. And you are certainly not alone in this bias, there are plenty of other lefties here who routinely fulminate on the putative evils of American empire.
Like all empires it has certainly had it's inglorious moments. But the notion that it's record is nothing but evil incarnate is a nonsense. What none of ever do is ask the simple question "compared to what?". What other post-WW2 counterfactual empire would have been any better by comparison? The idea that absent the Americans the world might have been a peaceful nirvana is entirely unsupported by any reasoned interpretation of history at all.
And yes all sources have their bias. It's knowing what it is that's useful.
As for good analysis coming from ex-intelligence community types and such like, well…there's Snowden and Gen Lawrence Wilkerson, and Scott Ritter just off the top of my head. And of course, there are others (ex military etc) whose names aren't coming to mind right now.
And I've no idea why you reckon I think the world would be shangri-la if the US empire was no more.
So your happy with the hard right militant Salafist Islamist crowd then Redlogix? Because that is what the US has been supporting, and that is a problem. But my real issue with you logic, is to kill the guy who helped knock off ISIS, is a real kick in the teeth to anyone who supports the rights and freedoms of people.
The left should align with people not governments on that we can agree?
Because the reality on the ground is the US is an empire, and Iran is not, no matter how shit their government is. If we support empire and empire games we are no better than the imperialist of the past – who were always the enemy of the economic freedom and rights of people at large.
So your happy with the hard right militant Salafist Islamist crowd then Redlogix?
What on earth would make you think that? I'm on record here for years as being highly critical of zealots and fundamentalists of all kinds.
But my real issue with you logic, is to kill the guy who helped knock off ISIS, is a real kick in the teeth to anyone who supports the rights and freedoms of people.
Does this mean that the enemy of enemy is always my friend? For example was the West supposed to then cuddle up to the mass murderer Stalin in the aftermath of WW2?
If we support empire and empire games we are no better than the imperialist of the past
Again I’m consistently on record as being opposed to empire and the only regular here who has constructively proposed an alternative future without it.
For example was the West supposed to then cuddle up to the mass murderer Stalin in the aftermath of WW2?
No, but the west acted in a similar manner, and Iran is a good example of that. The west established a far right government which eventually gave rise to the islamic revolution. Let's talk central america, how much mass murder with the support of the west?
The west is not pure here, and the elephant in the room is the US has acted more and more like Imperalist arseholes since WW2.
Again I’m consistently on record as being opposed to empire and the only regular here who has constructively proposed an alternative future without it.
I think you think to much of your opinion. I hardly found your solutions reasonable nor constructive, some yes – but many of you suggestions are just the same old, same old, with a big dose of sleight of hand.
Like everyone else your own ideological prejudice get in the way. Hey I'm no different in that regard. We all do it.
Back to the point, all sides are lying – but the side with the ability to wipe the other side off the face of the planet is the one I want to hold the preverbal gas light to. The one in the more powerful position has more of a responsibility to act in good faith, and it's not.
For example if I had 100kg of TNT around your house and started a fight with you – is it my responsibility to not light the TNT because I'm angry or is it yours?
I hardly found your solutions reasonable nor constructive, some yes – but many of you suggestions are just the same old, same old, with a big dose of sleight of hand.
I didn't ask you to agree with them, just to acknowledge my consistent track record in proposing a detailed vision beyond 'the age of the nation state empire'.
There really is only one path forward from here, a universal vision of a united humanity, a global moral horizon and a political framework to implement this at the same scale.
That the same Dershowtitz "respectable" liberal intelligentsia have been happy enough to give a pass to as long as he was smearing Jewish critics of Israel as antisemites? That Dershowitz?
also at least one opinion piece about how lowering the age of consent to 15 and maybe even fifteen and no claims of anything irrespective of how old the partner is. Oh gosh golly me. And he was friends with someone who liked his girls very young. Good grief. But hey Harvard or something.
It varies a lot. Age of consent laws can be quite complex, but 14 is not uncommon, Germany and China being two examples. 16 is probably the most common age, while at the other extreme is South Korea at 20.
the insurance companies must be quaking in their boots. I would like to see some numbers on total write offs, etc. It is just one thing after the other.
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Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
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In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
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Re- the burglary of the National Party regional headquarters:
The blame game has started – just inferences at this stage. But it's sinister folks. It's politically motivated at the start of election year:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/video.cfm?c_id=280&gal_cid=280&gallery_id=216055
Funny, they weren't fussed about the break-ins at the Labour Party and Alliance Party headquarters in the mid 1990s, nor the hacking of Labour's computers around 8-10 years ago.
But I'm sure the police will pull out all stops this time. When it happens to National hell that's bad, but if its Labour well, ho hum so what…
Can you provide references for you claims of break-ins and computer hacking?
The only thing I am aware of was that the Labour Party had left their membership details unprotected, which seems a bit different to the actual theft of computers. That was Cameron Slater and Graeme Edgeler at least though that no crime was committed.
"The question then is: does Cameron Slater have authority to access the server that hosts the Labour Party website? Well, it’s a publicly available website, that they put up there so that people can go to their website and download stuff from that server into their cache to read on their browsers. If Cameron doesn’t have authority (because, for example, it’s not express authority), I don’t see how any of us can lawfully look at it."
https://thestandard.org.nz/was-a-crime-committed-when-slater-accessed-labours-computer-system/
Was that what you had in mind?
What were the Break-ins of the Offices you talk about?
edit. I can’t seem to get the link correct. It was a story here on the Standard but my cut and paste seems to lose the first part of the link.
David Cunliffe’s electorate office.
Ah yes. Forgot about that. From memory police did nothing about that one either.
So, you are inferring I'm lying are you alwyn?
Both burglaries occurred in the lead up period to the 1996 election. Yes, I know who was behind them, but can't confirm the identities of the actual thieves who carried out the burglaries.
The Labour Party hack is well documented. Yes, there was controversy over whether it constituted a hack or not but that was just a distraction. Information was stolen from the Labour Party and the police did f**k all. In fact further down the track they actually had the gall to target Nicky Hager as a 'suspected accessory to a crime' while ignoring the criminal activities with which National’s Cameron Slater was associated.
Police bias when it comes to politically motivated criminal activity over the years has been a disgrace.
And don't forget the illegal raid on Kim Dotcom? What's happened to him?
"So, you are inferring I'm lying are you alwyn".
No I am not. I have never heard of these break-ins of the Labour and Alliance Offices and I am curious what they were about. It may of course, if they were in the early part of the decade, simply be because I wasn't living here at the time.
Asking for a reference for something stated by a contributor does not seem, to me, to be in anyway a statement that you are lying. I just want to see what the story is about. I always supply, when asked, links to statements I have made. This was I thought precisely why the second paragraph of the rules for the site seems to require that justification for comments should be available.
Now are there any available links to these stories, please. I would love to see what it was that the Police refused to investigate.
Well. I apologise for jumping to conclusions. The two break-ins in 1996 were the Auckland Central Alliance Party regional headquarters and the Auckland Central Labour Party electorate office. They were linked of course and the aim of the exercise was to gather information about their campaigns. It isn't likely links are available online because of the passage of time.
And I know who ordered the break-ins.
I didn't say they "refused" to investigate but they didn't try very hard – if they tried at all. They're very good at ‘not trying’ when they don’t want to.
Thank you. As I suggested, I wasn't living in New Zealand in 1996 so it is not surprising I hadn't heard of them. I was, from early 1995 until early 1997 touring the West Island. All of it, and boy that is a lot of territory.
I shall have to track the story down offline. As you say, once you get into last century there is very little available to Googles gaze.
Fair enough alwyn. 🙂
Note in my response to James I clarified it was nobody in the National Party.
So someone who was not with the Nats wanted to know what Labour and the Alliance were planning?
Think back to 1996.
And look at the electorate mentioned in my comment @ 7:47pm.
Ah. Some things never change.
"Yes, I know who was behind them, but can't confirm the identities of the actual thieves who carried out the burglaries."
So if you cant confirm the identities – then you 'think' you know who it is.
Else go to the police. But I would guess you have zero idea at all.
Stop your stalking of me and your childish venom. If I say I know who ordered the break-ins then I know who ordered the break-ins.
And yes, I had a good idea who actually did the job but couldn't be 100% sure so no, I did not go to the police. I don’t have a high opinion of the police when it comes to political criminal activity – and for very good reason that neither you nor anyone else here is privy to.
Oh, and btw you'll be delighted to hear it wasn't anyone in the National Party.
Anne,
Without commenting on the merits of the issue, 1996 is nearly 25 years ago.
And as Kim Dotcom, he is awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court. Incidentally the raid was not illegal.
…1996 is nearly 25 years ago.
What has that got to do with the price of fish? A break-in is a break-in no matter when it happens.
Not only is it useful to compare the difference in responses, but those break-ins were politically motivated and that was a dangerous precedent and should have been taken more seriously by the police at that time.
... the raid was not illegal.
Well something was considered unlawful. I thought it was the raid itself.
You are right, an aspect of the raid was illegal, I think it was the preceding surveillance.
As for the relevance of 25 years, it is because these events are hardly quite the huge things the partisans make them out to be. So something of relatively modest consequence 25 years ago is close to being ancient history. For instance while I might have a very clear memory of what it was like on selection night in North Shore in 1995, for everyone else it is old history.
Be that as it may Wayne but while it is "ancient history" in the eyes of most people, the difference in police responses is still pertinent.
When individuals stole material/equipment for political purposes from Labour and the Alliance Party by way of unlawful entry to their premises it was no mere "modest consequence". It was dirty politics carried out with hostile intent, and caused the victims just as much consternation and anxiety as it would today.
But it was not regarded as important 23 years ago and I venture to suggest that was in part because it was… only Labour and the Alliance Party personnel who were affected.
Anyway, it is a flawed conversation now, because it looks like National’s break-in was part of opportunist burglaries in the area targeting mainly laptops.
"The only thing I am aware of was that the Labour Party had left their membership details unprotected, which seems a bit different to the actual theft of computers."
Not this again. Lay people routinely use the word hack to refer to things that tech people don't. It is normal in English for this to happen (tech vs lay language usage).
As for comparisons, most people who give their personal details to a political party don't expect those details to be accessed by political opponents for political gain. In other words, it was wrong. Let's not forget that Slater went on to orchestrate an attempt at hacking TS, amongst his many other dubious activities.
Besides,
When you put an internal link in a comment via a straight cut and paste, the system changes that to the name of the post (without all the URL detail). Your link still works.
Ok. Thanks. It just looks funny and I thought I must have screwed it up somehow. I assume this is only if the URL is the same as the place where you are posting it, which is of course what I was doing here?
I must revert to my old habit of clicking on any link I put up as soon as I post it. I always used to do it but I have gotten lazy. As you say it actually works just fine.
TS has some newish linking changes (happened while I was away). The other main one is that if you cut and paste a link to a TS comment, the link will revert back to the post (rather than the comment). The way around that is to use the html tags to insert a link.
That doesn't apply if you put the link in line with some text, but if you put it in its own line it won't work.
The only thing I am aware of was that the Labour Party had left their membership details unprotected, which seems a bit different to the actual theft of computers.
The ignorant tend to call data theft "hacking" and imagine highly skilled coders wearing hoodies in dark rooms coming up with fancy ways to bypass security protocols. In reality, most of it is exactly like the example above: someone screws up and data that should have been protected is left exposed to the unscrupulous and unethical, who put time and effort into finding such exposed data. Whether you call data theft under those circumstances "hacking" or not depends on your enthusiasm for drama, but it's still data theft. If it's not illegal under our legislation, that's a problem with our legislation, not an endorsement of the theft.
Sign Martyn Bradbury's petition to remove Dr Jian Yang from the National Party list.
https://www.change.org/p/national-party-nz-we-the-undersigned-demand-that-chinese-spy-jian-yang-be-removed-from-national-party-list-before-election-2020
Did that yesterday.
Me too!
Interesting that Goldsmith said the 'party' part of the office was where the laptops were, not the 'electorate' part of the office.
That suggests that the Chinese spy was the target.
You wern't that fussed when WhaleOil was hacked either.
* weren't (not often used in formal writing).
But Slater is poisonous and a complete failure. His was a career in corrupt and criminal activity and that has been proven time and time again, so why on earth would anyone be fussed that he was hacked.
It's a good thing that Slater has been crushed because it rids NZ of a particularly odious form of cancer.
Solid public interest defence for publishing information derived from that theft, but didn't the hacker admit at the time it was illegal?
By contrast I've never seen Master Slater admit doing anything wrong – indeed he has wasted many a judge's time claiming absolute purity of thought and deed.
Pretty sure that office is right next to a Police station.
Checked and yes…
Paul Goldsmith's office – 107 Gt South Road, Epsom.
Police Eastern Area HQ – 111 Gt South Road, Greenlane.
So yeah.
So it was the police wot done it.
OK. for the likes of James and co. I'm joking.
Edit: the Nats like to park their offices next to police stations. Maggie’s North Shore office is next door to the Takapuna station.
Woodhouses is on the same block as Chipmunks (the kids indoor playground).
Seymour must be envious.
Interesting how the suburb name changes..
It's called keeping up with the Joneses. Epsom is more upmarket sounding than Greenlane.
Maggie's office in Takapuna is on the second storey of the building so that she can look down on the cops next door.
Just don’t tell Simon that Police officers are having coffees with MPs or emotional junior staffers from the electorate offices. The poor guy’s already worried sick about top cops having cups of coffee with Ministers.
111 Great South Rd, Epsom is currently Presbyterian Support, not Police.
Google Streetview suggests that has been the case since at least 2015. Last image showing Police was in 2012.
One for @lprent – Y2k redux on the way (click tweet for thread):
https://twitter.com/jxxf/status/1219009308438024200
I think most systems switched off 32bit and to 64 bit unix epoch times quite a long time again. I know I did. And that is even on the little Arm 32bit processors.
Most things I work on tend to use struct timeval. 64bit seconds since the unix epoch, and 64 bit micro seconds.
Thank goodness
so according to the orange menace no one was hurt during the little bombing raid on their Airbase in Iraq by Iran.
well funny that, cause this is the second article now that speaks of wounded soldiers being evacuated due to injuries sustained during the attack.
The first eleven were evacuated to Ramstein Airbase in Germany with 'concussions' and now this diddy about 16 being evacuated to Saudi Arabia with severe injuries.
https://en.abna24.com/news//16-us-troops-flown-to-kuwait-hospitals-with-severe-injuries-after-irans-missile-strike-paper_1003700.html
That slap in the face was a fist on the nose it seems.
Trump is a weak President who makes hollow threats. Iran's Supreme Leader must me pissing himself laughing at Trump's impotence.
i consider the orange menace to be as competent as i considered ronald reagan to be competent, and both were/are currently adivised by the same people. its a bit the iran/contra affair redux. the iranians will be still there when america has nuked itself.
in the meant time its the boots on the ground that die.
And there was me thinking that "fatal" was like, y'know – dead?
"16 US military men with fatal injuries sustained during Iran's retaliatory missile strikes on Ain Al-Assad base earlier this month have been taken to a hospital…"
I did give the article another few secs of reading, but gave the fuck up with the Kuwaiti paper supposedly relying on "quoted [anonymous] informed sources as saying"
There were no injuries (let alone fatalities) because Iran gave prior notice of their retaliation precisely to avoid giving the US a 'go to' excuse for fucking war.
there is not one person in this admin that wants to go on record, not even the press secretary. tells you lot does it not? as for the no fatalities. yeah, right, tui.
These guys supposedly were in the hangar with the drones blahblahblah.
They had casualties and they had injuries. I am not the betting kind, but i bet you a pint.
There is a fucked up mix of war mongering "permanent state" actors and Democratic "cold war" warriors sitting right behind the US admin's "rapture" fundamentalists right now. The Iranian government is too rational and smart to offer them up an easy pretext to rain down destruction.
You really think the US wouldn't have been parading "dead babies" and getting on its
moral high horseskeletal war horse given half a chance?i think the dumbarse realised that he is in over his head when it comes to Iran. Its one thing to hold people / country hostage in order to make a bit of coin or to get some dirt on someone, its a completely different thing to start a proper war in the middle east, block the straight of hormuz, have the gallon go to 5+ bring home thousands of body bags and maybe have some cleric issue a fatwah on the fat fuck in the shitty house and his family. So yeah, i think someone might have picked up a phone and explained Donnie just what the fuck he was gonna tweet next. 'https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1214739853025394693?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1214739853025394693&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcnews.com%2Fpolitics%2Fdonald-trump%2Ftrump-tweets-all-well-after-iranian-missile-attack-targeting-u-n1112211
So yes, i think they will try to hide very much any dead bodies they may have found in the rubble, and will declare anything less then deadly injuries a 'concussions' and such.
The Iranians raised a point. Its simply “for those of us you kill we are able to take a few of yours”. Your turn.
I don't think thew White House would keep it quiet – that place leaks like a seive.
Whether the military would tell the white house anything that could be a c. belli is up for grabs – especially if the story about dolt45 choosing the artificial "worst option" of openly killing a sitting Iranian general is true.
The US military needs a break to retrain, recover, and refocus. Organisationally they're exhibiting classic overwork signs: navy ships are failing at basic things like navigating waterways without colliding with other ships, air crew are being killed because training hours are so low, soldiers are being deployed from combat theatre to combat theatre without a break in between.
Policy is one thing, the military-industrial complex is another, but admirals and generals know that if they're the ones in charge when something hits the papers that can seriously affect their post-military careers. Oh, and some of them probably care about their organisations, as well.
tl;dr: the US military wants to get ready for a near-peer confrontation, not another counter-insurgency in ME. This might affect whether they report precisely to the war-mongering white house injuries as being of US service personnel (vs contractors) occurring as a direct result of enemy action (no it was flying glass splinters and air pressure problems wot done it) and even (although I think this one is slightly farther-fetched) "no the attack was in Iraq and this soldier died in Saudi Arabia".
edit: although the US military is not really a monolith, either, so who knows
essentially the problem of poor recruiting and quality of recruit. Instate the draft and throw a bit of money to training and voila a little soldier is created to go kill kill kill.
and yes, the pentagon is gonna lie about this, in a way. They admit to people hurt but its only a bit of 'headache' a concussion so its nothing. And frankly who would care about Jonny and Jane Sixpack from somewhere US. No one. They get injured and die every other day currently in Iraq and Afghanistan and no one gives a care. These guys are nothing but tiny little blibs. There, gone. Kanonenfutter .
It's not even a recruiting problem as such – like any machine, every so often chunks of it need down-time for preventive maintenance. But yeah, if you step on the accelerator you burn through more fuel, and people are the fuel of armed forces.
No injuries?
Three service members were flown to a facility at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and the others were sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany after displaying signs of concussions, defense officials said Thursday. Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said Friday that al Asad is not outfitted with an MRI machine or other tools necessary for advanced brain injury examinations.
https://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/eleven-us-troops-flown-to-hospitals-from-al-asad-air-base-in-days-after-iran-missile-attack-1.615158
uh-huh
As a standard procedure, all personnel in the vicinity of a blast are screened for traumatic brain injury, and if deemed appropriate are transported to a higher level of care,” Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a prepared statement.
Kinda like how they do for 'sonic attacks' being unleashed on embassy staff on small Caribbean islands? (Oh. And China too…not to forget being microwaved by pesky Russians…) 🙄
Not injured., but deemed to be in need of a higher level of care following TBI screening.
Righto….
You don't think that a skeletal presence was maintained following Iran telling Iraq where and when missiles were going to strike? Because just maybe there was some precautionary thing around equipment or what not being left around an entirely abandoned base? Maybe 11 or so volunteers holed up in bunkers/shelters to give an instant evaluation of damage? Maybe given a "once over" for possible effects of percussion from blasts?
In the meantime while segments of the Western press were happy to frame Quassem Soleimani as the loss of a deeply beloved hero, while in Iran itself the regime is widely hated and ordinary Iranian's struggle with deteriorating living conditions.
I've had considerable personal contact with various Iranian people, they are widely misrepresented and misunderstood in the West. I'm assuming the Western media has fucked up this latest episode as usual.
Peeps will no doubt make of this what they will…in spite of what's actually being said.
Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Setareh Sadeqi, a PhD candidate at the University of Tehran who lost family friends in the tragic Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crash. Anya and Setareh discuss recent protests in Iran sparked by the crash, which western media have framed as an popular anti-government uprising. They also talk about the recent crackdown on Iranian news and social media accounts online, including the censorship of Press TV UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=EBGw5GMXb4c&feature=emb_logo
All I know for certain is the theocratic Iranian regime are not people whom the liberal left in the west should entertain as 'allies' in any sense of the word. No matter how anti-American they may be.
Gaslighting? Really? That all you got in lieu of engagement with or response to shared third person info/perspective?
I dunno … maybe it was when I was standing next to the Iranian on the phone to his family back home, when they were explaining to him how much the government was charging them for the bullets used to execute his father. But that was a few decades ago now; maybe the leaders of this regime have transformed themselves into really nice people since.
But I tell you what, you engage with the cite I gave, and I'll give your one a go.
Was this before or after you single-handedly brought fire to the Inuit of Canada?
No it was in 1981 in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, when members of the Baha'i Faith were executed. One of them was my flatmate at the time.
The bringing of fire to the Canadian Inuit was later …
That should read of course "The son of one of them …"
I did engage with the cite 🙄 you gave. It's junk. The very first sentence is a bit of give away – referring to the assassination of Soleimani simply as "the death of", before going to on and attempting to turn corporate media reporting upside down (I haven't seen evidence of corporate media lionizing Soleimani as claimed in that link)…and he didn't foster instability in "Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen" as claimed. Neither did he lead "a group of armed thugs"…and that's just the first fucking paragraph!
But hey. I guess when the author of the piece is a former case officer who conducted operations against nuclear proliferation and terrorism for the CIA's National Clandestine Service , then a leetle bias might be par for the course, aye? 😉
You read any of his other stuff? The guy's a bit of a hoot.
Anyway. I gave you a link to an Iranian student living in Iran giving her perspective on recent events. Now I know she ain’t no ‘Bana of Aleppo’ and therefor unlikely to be courted by western media or western opinion, but hey…
Well using the same logic I feel zero obligation to trust your source either. I mean at least you can know who mine is, this student you reference, who knows?
Back to square one for both of us.
So you just read stuff and other stuff and it's all stuff and you haven't equipped yourself of any critical faculty that might help you discern if agendas may, are, or are not in play? And so can't navigate information…
So what do you do?
Are you akin to those liberals who smear anyone not adhering to "the script" that comes down from on governmental/corporate high?
Given the gaslighting in response to my initial comment, I guess that might be the case, aye?
Correct me if I'm wrong please, but I've read you as being consistently anti-American for a very long time. Your immediate response to dismiss any source who has previously worked in American intelligence is indicative of this. And you are certainly not alone in this bias, there are plenty of other lefties here who routinely fulminate on the putative evils of American empire.
Like all empires it has certainly had it's inglorious moments. But the notion that it's record is nothing but evil incarnate is a nonsense. What none of ever do is ask the simple question "compared to what?". What other post-WW2 counterfactual empire would have been any better by comparison? The idea that absent the Americans the world might have been a peaceful nirvana is entirely unsupported by any reasoned interpretation of history at all.
And yes all sources have their bias. It's knowing what it is that's useful.
You're wrong. Are you now standing corrected?
As for good analysis coming from ex-intelligence community types and such like, well…there's Snowden and Gen Lawrence Wilkerson, and Scott Ritter just off the top of my head. And of course, there are others (ex military etc) whose names aren't coming to mind right now.
And I've no idea why you reckon I think the world would be shangri-la if the US empire was no more.
So your happy with the hard right militant Salafist Islamist crowd then Redlogix? Because that is what the US has been supporting, and that is a problem. But my real issue with you logic, is to kill the guy who helped knock off ISIS, is a real kick in the teeth to anyone who supports the rights and freedoms of people.
The left should align with people not governments on that we can agree?
Because the reality on the ground is the US is an empire, and Iran is not, no matter how shit their government is. If we support empire and empire games we are no better than the imperialist of the past – who were always the enemy of the economic freedom and rights of people at large.
So your happy with the hard right militant Salafist Islamist crowd then Redlogix?
What on earth would make you think that? I'm on record here for years as being highly critical of zealots and fundamentalists of all kinds.
But my real issue with you logic, is to kill the guy who helped knock off ISIS, is a real kick in the teeth to anyone who supports the rights and freedoms of people.
Does this mean that the enemy of enemy is always my friend? For example was the West supposed to then cuddle up to the mass murderer Stalin in the aftermath of WW2?
If we support empire and empire games we are no better than the imperialist of the past
Again I’m consistently on record as being opposed to empire and the only regular here who has constructively proposed an alternative future without it.
For example was the West supposed to then cuddle up to the mass murderer Stalin in the aftermath of WW2?
No, but the west acted in a similar manner, and Iran is a good example of that. The west established a far right government which eventually gave rise to the islamic revolution. Let's talk central america, how much mass murder with the support of the west?
The west is not pure here, and the elephant in the room is the US has acted more and more like Imperalist arseholes since WW2.
Again I’m consistently on record as being opposed to empire and the only regular here who has constructively proposed an alternative future without it.
I think you think to much of your opinion. I hardly found your solutions reasonable nor constructive, some yes – but many of you suggestions are just the same old, same old, with a big dose of sleight of hand.
Like everyone else your own ideological prejudice get in the way. Hey I'm no different in that regard. We all do it.
Back to the point, all sides are lying – but the side with the ability to wipe the other side off the face of the planet is the one I want to hold the preverbal gas light to. The one in the more powerful position has more of a responsibility to act in good faith, and it's not.
For example if I had 100kg of TNT around your house and started a fight with you – is it my responsibility to not light the TNT because I'm angry or is it yours?
I hardly found your solutions reasonable nor constructive, some yes – but many of you suggestions are just the same old, same old, with a big dose of sleight of hand.
I didn't ask you to agree with them, just to acknowledge my consistent track record in proposing a detailed vision beyond 'the age of the nation state empire'.
There really is only one path forward from here, a universal vision of a united humanity, a global moral horizon and a political framework to implement this at the same scale.
This explains a lot.
https://twitter.com/paleofuture/status/1218904084612182016
That the same Dershowtitz "respectable" liberal intelligentsia have been happy enough to give a pass to as long as he was smearing Jewish critics of Israel as antisemites? That Dershowitz?
Go on! Who'd have thunk it!!
All piss and vinegar. Been a tough day, sport?
lol
also at least one opinion piece about how lowering the age of consent to 15 and maybe even fifteen and no claims of anything irrespective of how old the partner is. Oh gosh golly me. And he was friends with someone who liked his girls very young. Good grief. But hey Harvard or something.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/dershowitz-responds-after-1997-statutory-rape-is-an-outdated-concept-op-ed-resurfaces/
But hey Harvard or something.
Boom. (I'll throw in a smiley, because, you know, charges of "piss and vinegar") 🙂
have some beer. Some call it piss, but i like beer. Prost.
slàinte mhath
and even to fourteen.
edit ran out.
It varies a lot. Age of consent laws can be quite complex, but 14 is not uncommon, Germany and China being two examples. 16 is probably the most common age, while at the other extreme is South Korea at 20.
totally seasonal weather for OZ, totally.
https://twitter.com/tamsinroses/status/1219075347662004224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1219075347662004224&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstory%2F2020%2F1%2F19%2F1912647%2F-Overnight-News-Digest-January-19-2020
this is just normal.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/19/australia/australia-hail-dust-storm-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
yeah, right Tui, is just not cutting it anymore.
A different link. Holy heck those Aussies are copping it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3RRTwIEFQg
yep.
the insurance companies must be quaking in their boots. I would like to see some numbers on total write offs, etc. It is just one thing after the other.
Lev Parnas starte his work for the Trumps with Fred "The elder" Trump. But the orange menace has never met him,
yeah, right Tui.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalHumor/comments/er1930/i_dont_know_who_lev_parnas_is/
fwiw, this last three years have been an excellent soap opera. Who needs TV when you can have politics.
How amusing. The moment David Seymour uses the name Aotearoa his fans revolt in the way only far right wing nut jobs can.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12301946
It must be tough being a one-man band trying to please all the racist alt-right fuckwits. Seymour's trying really hard though.
Seymour and ACT are playing us and their supporters like a banjo: https://www.act.org.nz/cn_news
The media play the chorus, of course.
I note the ACT website was created by 'nationbuilder'. Acknowledging Aotearoa is a maga step towards that.