I read somewhere recently that the blue whale resides in just one or two places on the planet, and that there were a few more than feared which is a relief.
Blue whales can be up to 30m long and can appear up to 33% bigger underwater, because of refraction. They also swim past the Maui gas fields and areas where Simon Bridges has decided sonic exploration can happen. Despite their colour, they are rumoured to not vote NAct.
Great image, presumably a blue whale, and a big one at that.
Have a read of Mathew Hooton in the NBR (24 April) on his speculation of Winston Peters ambition to be PM. It is pretty much my view and I was setting forth about it to closely connected political figures just before the article was published ( Ihad no knowledge of the article). From my investigations over the last few weeks it is a broader NZF goal.
Look Wayne, if you mean ‘David DP Farrar reckons we should spread fear of Winston among the left to destabilise the Green/Labour relationship’, then just say ‘David DP Farrar reckons we should spread fear of Winston among the left to destabilise the Green/Labour relationship.’
Dyslexic Wayne – do all your DP’ing before you get on the wines because your sentences quickly become incomprehensible as the evening draws on. Lucky for you that felix is sharp.
Nothing about spreading fear. More an observation of future coalition dynamics.
Winston will want the deal from either side. If he does well in the provinces he could get more than a third of the votes of the two larger parties (ie 12% v 36%). That would give him real negotiating power.
I would agree about Winston getting leverage out of the provinces northland has shown them another option.
In the last week I’ve had one farmer admit that they do better under labour than the nats and I’ve heard another grumping about key letting nz get sold to offshore interests.
There’s lots of votes ripe for the picking for any party that can see past the city limits. Mine included.
In the last week I’ve had one farmer admit that they do better under labour than the nats and I’ve heard another grumping about key letting nz get sold to offshore interests.
Yep. That’d be right up Winston’s and NZ1sts alley.
If I explain why your observations are so irrelevant to coalition dynamics will you promise to go back to drinking and leave this thread alone?
A National govt reliant on Winston’s good favour would be a vast improvement on the current mish-mash of one-man-bands and principle-free pretenders.
A Labour/Green govt reliant on Winston would, likewise, be a vast improvement on the current mess.
Of course a Labour/Green govt without Winston would be better still, but that’s for all intents impossible for the foreseeable future so not worth worrying about.
There is really nothing much for the left to lose from Winston’s re-emergence that they weren’t going to lose anyway.
I’ve also heard that David Seymour wants to be prime minister in 2017, utilising the legions of support he’ll have when finally he’s able to win an electorate all by himself, just like a big-boy politician.
This is a tremendous danger to National, and I am sitting under my bridge feeling concerned, very concerned, that you guys just aren’t taking the ACT threat seriously enough…
I’m concerned that the National Party is so concerned about ACT’s concern about being PM that they ACT Party might, concerningly, extract some policy promises from the very concerned PM (I’m cynically laughing on the inside re Charter Schools etc).
Just anticipating where this speculation goes. Tail wagging the dog and all that. Hmm – actually that sounds weird right now.
Wayne, have you made any comments yet about Key’s hair touching/pulling/assaulting creepy behaviour? If not, why not? If yes, sorry I must have missed it.
Do you approve his conduct or condemn it?
It’s bothered me that the emphasis is pretty much all on Keys treatment on Amanda Bailey and overlooking the very sinister fondling and ” grooming” of young girls hair.
Baileys treatment was appalling but she did have a little more age and experience to fall back on, not so the younger girls.
Ironicly it was arch excusist Hooten in a throwaway line on 9 to 12 that reminded me of that strange habit of Keys of turning up at certain girls schools to be mobbed by the ( non-voting ) students.
Don’t recall him at many boys schools.
Were these visits at Keys instigation? If so the implications are really,really sinister.
Gotta be very careful about making those sorts of allegations, unless you have strong evidence. False accusations surrounding anything that approaches paedophilia / hebephilia are not only unethical in themselves but also, of course, risk a severe backlash from voters.
There are various innocent explanations for Key’s behaviour in regard to the younger girls’ ponytails. Danyl at The Dim Post, for example, argues:
“…but that doesn’t make it a sexual fetish. Key is also a dad and I really feel like he’s interacting with these girls and women on that level, not as the bizarre fledgling pedophile serial killer he’s now regarded as…it seems like the kind of physical contact fathers have with their daughters. Dad stuff…It’s not trivial, but it is less serious than all the ugly rhetoric about sexual assault that people are throwing around.”
Below the post, at comment 40, Danyl then quotes from a 2011 Claire Trevett article: “Key’s other technique is touch. He has patted his way around the country – tickling toddlers’ stomachs, chucking chins, ruffling hair, rubbing women on the upper arm and patting shoulders, clasping men’s arms…It appears casual, but is too frequent and too obvious to be anything but deliberate. This prime ministerial laying on of hands is something he did not do in 2008. It is aimed at reinforcing a personal connection.”
Danyl then concludes: So it’ calculated. It’s something he’s told to do. And, on the campaign trail he makes these physical connections with hundreds of people a day. So when you’re looking at footage of him touching lots of young girls’ hair, you’re looking at footage selected from thousands of hours of campaign footage of Key touching countless people.”
Doesn’t mean Danyl’s right (I’d say certainly not in regard to Amanda Bailey) but we shouldn’t automatically ignore innocent explanations (in regards to the girls) for mere political expediency. When I look at that footage, sometimes, yeah, I think it’s genuinely creepy, sometimes I – a bit like Danyl – I think it’s Key trying to impress mother and father voters by playing ‘Father of the Nation’.
I thought about this too swordfish. Aside from the fact that going overboard on the ‘creepy/sicko/perv/fetish’ angle could backfire, Key’s touchy casual guy often seems quite calculated and deliberate. It’s just that it doesn’t come naturally to him, so it looks awkward. It’s an act.
It could be that that the waitress incident is partly a function, as Hooton was saying on the radio, of Key, having played the part publicly for so long, losing touching with the fact that the touchy photo-op time Key is not how normal people behave in everyday social interactions. But of course that alone isn’t sufficient to explain it. The bullying display of power over others aspect is impossible to ignore.
He knows what he did was legally wrong, but I don’t think he understands why it’s morally wrong. Understanding that would require the ability to empathize. He refused to acknowledge the power imbalance to Gower, and repeated his ‘good relationship banter’ lines. I.e. she misunderstood, she took offense, and he apologized (sort of) for causing offense.
I think he really doesn’t get it. He’s clueless. And that’s the creepy part.
Not convinced, swordy. A pat on the upper back is just tactile, or even a pat on the upper arm. Fondling hair is not what you do to with other people’s children. Even if Crosby Textor have instructed him to touch people at every opportunity, there are innocent ways of doing it. What he does is bad touching.
my abuser… white male over 60… used to cut my hair as a favour to my mum. to help save money. he would always cut my brothers hair first leaving me in the garage alone wiyh him. am not saying Key is an abuser.just telling my story.
Agree. The sustained act of pulling the hair of Amanda Bailey puts this firmly in the unacceptable and illegal field.
Bringing that knowledge into context with the touching of young girls hair on the campaign trail, does not fit the criteria of just “coached personal touching” – if that is what he has been doing.
In addition, as a NZer it is culturally inappropriate for many in our Māori and Pasifika cultures to touch someone’s head. It would surprise me if a PR specialist in NZ politics did not know that, and if they had proposed physical contact, they surely would have specified this prohibition.
thanks for this. and to be clear to those about to use this article as a way to wave it all away. it is wrong. to touch anyone in such a personal way without permission. his PR gurus are probably male and/or over 55…
Ive been realising lately that the terminology of “right wing” and “left wing” has really only entered public consciousness since 2006 onwards. I can’t find any earlier examples where it was used en masse to categorise political leanings. Prior to 2006 it was typically “socialist” or “capitalist”. Therefore, my mind wanders down the path of wondering whether the terms RIGHT and LEFT have formulated as a tool to give over to people gravitating towards those political parties labelled as “right” because they can’t be wrong if they’re right, right? Afterall, being left is wrong when you could be right.
With Republicans controlling the Senate, the House, and the White House and enjoying a large margin of victory for California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, it’s clear that the Democratic Party is in crisis. George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive science, thinks he knows why. Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them, says Lakoff.
The work has paid off: by dictating the terms of national debate, conservatives have put progressives firmly on the defensive.
It may not be as simple as James put it but the right-wing have been manipulating the language for decades and it’s paying off for them. It doesn’t help when people say that they aren’t doing that when it’s actually fairly obvious that they are.
I think the far more interesting shift in the political lexicon is from socialist vs. Tory/capitalist to liberal vs conservative.
The latter is the American version of ‘left’ and ‘right’ rather than the former British/European version.
The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ go back a very long way (French Parliament). The Wikipedia entry on it is useful enough.
I remember seeing Bill Rowling describe himself as a socialist (specifically a ‘Christian socialist’) in an interview before the 1975 election – the last time a New Zealand Labour Party leader has called themselves a socialist as far as I’m aware.
The shift to liberal versus conservative is a telling one. Anything actually resembling socialism would now require a major paradigm shift – our current system simply cannot accommodate it and is designed to make sure it cannot get a foothold. What’s more, the liberal side of the new political axis tends to be legalistic more than liberating, while the conservative side is rather rapacious and averse to conserving anything.
Not at all. MSM in NZ have only really hammered home those two political differentiations since 2006. Right about the time Crosby Textor started advising National and FJK became national party leader. Given how few kiwis seriously think about politics, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the “right” terminology has slowly and insidiously been ingrained into daily consciousness. How else to explain the ongoing popularity of the “right wing” when it’s plainly abundant NZ has no capacity to absorb such wanton capitalist desires, and socialism works far better for smaller populations.
A political party named “National” is helpful.Kirk was always mindful of the National party brand and how the electorate could be drawn to the patriotic connotations of it.
Treason Part 1: Casino Capitalism
Adam Smith branded those who pocketed the nation’s rents as “The Public Enemy”. But today, governments celebrate the privatisation of the income that we all help to create. The result, reports Fred Harrison in Part 1 of The Treason Trilogy, is a house of cards built on debt. He forecasts the next property boom/bust, and accuses politicians of betraying their duty of care to their people.
[lprent: Freaking odd. First I couldn’t embed a youtube this morning in a post without immense pissing about. This evening you can do them in comments. I can’t win..
So far the wordpress 4.2 release is proving to be a real pain. IfI’d paid for it, I’d be complaining. Since I didn’t, I might have to go and start irritating the clowns removing and inserting features into the core.
Especially when they are bugs. This only works if the URL is on the last line and there is no end of line.
You can use it for the moment. I will donate a months holiday to the first person to misuse it.]
thanks for that video ropata…quite coincidental that Baltimore features so prominently…Bernard Hickey advocates a land tax,and the commentators on this vid endorse it, as the answer to a more equable and fairer taxation system.One that rewards productivity as opposed to speculation.
You’re welcome. Sadly, history shows that these kind of laws will probably only be implemented by a mass uprising, and will be rolled back in another generation as new elites take power
When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the rioters themselves.
The police initiated violent oppression over an extended time and are now surprised by the violent reaction. Thus they call for non-violence just not from their own people but from the people they have been oppressing. This is, of course, a sham – they themselves won’t stop their violence.
The people are now reacting to that violent oppression and the forces who initiated that violence and excused it are going to get pounded. This is the normal path for oppressive regimes.
Stuff is such a damaging website. The reader comment section is nothing but (for all intents and purposes) an anonymous right wing ideology marketing vehicle.
This, from some property speculating bitch pretending to be on the side of the ever increasing lot of tenants, while remorselessly attacking the idea of a rental property WOF.
Kareena Lundy is a real estate agent, private investigator, and founder of http://www.landlordassistnz.co.nz which is a tenant vetting service for landlords.
A bit of research illustrates how firmly Kareena Lundy is in the camp of the runaway property speculator and the lazy slumlord but Stuff.co.nz does not at any point cite the affiliations of their “reader commentators”
These articles are free infomercials for those who use them and Stuff could care less.
Not really surprised. Back when I was a manager there we were encouraged to discourage any attempts to have a union start and then, while claiming to be the best employer in the country, they consistently exploited the employees.
It seems that the NZ press – particularly those accompanying Key on his Middle East trade mission – are seething about being left out of the loop. Key did not bother to let them know that NZ troops bound for Iraq were in Dubai when they were there. They found out by reading the local newspapers!
In the ongoing PR debacle of the Iraq deployment, John Key tells Dubai journo our troops are there – keeps it secret from NZ media.— Patrick Gower (@patrickgowernz) April 28, 2015
Key is getting not just creepy but dumb it seems!
Now await the spin, explanation and cover up that will follow.
It is well known that it is often the cover up that does more damage.
nz journos are so used to being handed a press release, maybe while they are over there they should be doing some … ummm, whats the word i’m looking for? oh yes, JOURNALISM! do some digging, ask some questions, say ‘no’ to the free bottles of wine ya lazy bastards. imo this latest kerfuffle (which isn’t anywhere on the nz web news sites this morning, except the herald tells us that john key is still ever so popular, nzrs love having a hair pulling pm) proves how useless & under served we are by our own media. for shame, go back to pr guys.
I wouldn’t have thought a wise man would deliberately wish to inflame his media pack quite so much at this very specific point .. much too casual for me 🙂
Lost the plot – or given up? I roared with laughter when I found these tweets. Time to go to bed on a high. And have you seen the submissive Bronagh coming off the plane in Saudia Arabia?
Boag is apparently representing the New Zealand Middle East Business Council, one of her many “hats”.
Re Bronagh, I agree. She hasn’t seemed that happy on this trip from the few photos etc I have seen of her at Gallipoli etc. Mustn’t mention the other female Key/Lazar or we might incur the SR (there is only one view allowed – mine) wrath ……
[lprent: My wrath and just about every other moderators as well.
We have had a general policy forever that excludes politicians kids and family from debate unless a clear public interest can be shown. At this point I can’t see one in either of Bronagh and John Key’s kids. Nor can Stephanie or any other author who has looked at it so far.
We’ll let it ride a bit when it is ‘news’ as raised by the gossip rag – The NZ Herald and therefore sort of in the public interest. But if we feel that it exceeds the limits of public interest or if the commenting heads off as if they were politicians (ie as kids and family aren’t part of the Lange vs Atkinson decision), then we quell it. Some in a more kindly fashion than others.
You should be thankful that I don’t have much time to moderate at present. I tend towards the draconian solutions when I feel that comments overstepped the bounds when it comes to families. From what I have seen Stephanie and probably others headed off my darker sword with a set of warnings.
But never fear. I also have some pretty draconian responses to people making snide comments about moderators as well. I’d suggest that if you want to find out what they are, then make them after this warning. ]
On the matter of the Middle East, I posted the following in the Saudi thread, but I was so surprised by what Key was quoted as saying that I’ll repost it here too.
“New Zealand stands ready to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process,” he said.
As New Zealand prepares for its presidency of the UN Security Council in July, it must set an example by focusing particularly on regional turmoil that has hampered peace and security of the Middle East, including the Gulf states….”
Poor Bronagh, so sad. And I think it is valid to mention Bronagh’s daughter in this instance. Bronagh would have been arrested if she chose to carry with her to Saudi Arabia a copy of the flyer for her daughter’s Paris exhibition.
That’s how thin the ice is in Saudi Arabia. Things melt when least expected.
Did this poll appear here for discussion? I missed this email, and just opened it tonight. Interesting results. All around surveillance and how people feel about it.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
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what is that image please ??
Blue whale with a boat dwarfed by its size
I’m wondering if the people in the boat could actually see the whale.
that’s a big blue !! thx micky :happysmile:
That’s not a blue whale under a boat. The scales are all out.
C’mon, vto, It’s a mammal not a fish. It doesn’t have scales.
hee, well something is not right. That is either a ten foot tinnie or a five hundred foot mammal fish beast… which has just done its morning business…
I suspect the perspective and the refractive effect of the water is throwing you off. The Blue Whale is a truly magnificent beast.
And, yes, my first thought was that the boat was a small dinghy and probably less than 10′.
I read somewhere recently that the blue whale resides in just one or two places on the planet, and that there were a few more than feared which is a relief.
Blue whales can be up to 30m long and can appear up to 33% bigger underwater, because of refraction. They also swim past the Maui gas fields and areas where Simon Bridges has decided sonic exploration can happen. Despite their colour, they are rumoured to not vote NAct.
Blue-greens, then?
Plaid Cymru, surely ?
Great image, presumably a blue whale, and a big one at that.
Have a read of Mathew Hooton in the NBR (24 April) on his speculation of Winston Peters ambition to be PM. It is pretty much my view and I was setting forth about it to closely connected political figures just before the article was published ( Ihad no knowledge of the article). From my investigations over the last few weeks it is a broader NZF goal.
Look Wayne, if you mean ‘David DP Farrar reckons we should spread fear of Winston among the left to destabilise the Green/Labour relationship’, then just say ‘David DP Farrar reckons we should spread fear of Winston among the left to destabilise the Green/Labour relationship.’
The “centre-right” has good reason to be concerned about Winston 😈
+101 (bonus point for nixing that one early).
Dyslexic Wayne – do all your DP’ing before you get on the wines because your sentences quickly become incomprehensible as the evening draws on. Lucky for you that felix is sharp.
Nothing about spreading fear. More an observation of future coalition dynamics.
Winston will want the deal from either side. If he does well in the provinces he could get more than a third of the votes of the two larger parties (ie 12% v 36%). That would give him real negotiating power.
As I understand it NBR is paywalled.
I would agree about Winston getting leverage out of the provinces northland has shown them another option.
In the last week I’ve had one farmer admit that they do better under labour than the nats and I’ve heard another grumping about key letting nz get sold to offshore interests.
There’s lots of votes ripe for the picking for any party that can see past the city limits. Mine included.
Yep. That’d be right up Winston’s and NZ1sts alley.
If I explain why your observations are so irrelevant to coalition dynamics will you promise to go back to drinking and leave this thread alone?
A National govt reliant on Winston’s good favour would be a vast improvement on the current mish-mash of one-man-bands and principle-free pretenders.
A Labour/Green govt reliant on Winston would, likewise, be a vast improvement on the current mess.
Of course a Labour/Green govt without Winston would be better still, but that’s for all intents impossible for the foreseeable future so not worth worrying about.
There is really nothing much for the left to lose from Winston’s re-emergence that they weren’t going to lose anyway.
+1
moved from your weeks of investigation to dynamic observations inside 35 minutes Wayne
lol
or post the guts of your investigations
can’t you post a link Wayne? blog manners and all that ….
A political party has a goal of making its leader PM. This fact is so banal I wonder what Dr. Mapp’s agenda is in raising it.
:LOL:
The mapp is a airy tory?
Thanks for posting that, I thought I was on drugs.
I’ve also heard that David Seymour wants to be prime minister in 2017, utilising the legions of support he’ll have when finally he’s able to win an electorate all by himself, just like a big-boy politician.
This is a tremendous danger to National, and I am sitting under my bridge feeling concerned, very concerned, that you guys just aren’t taking the ACT threat seriously enough…
😀
I’m concerned that the National Party is so concerned about ACT’s concern about being PM that they ACT Party might, concerningly, extract some policy promises from the very concerned PM (I’m cynically laughing on the inside re Charter Schools etc).
Just anticipating where this speculation goes. Tail wagging the dog and all that. Hmm – actually that sounds weird right now.
has anyone asked David would-be-pm Seymour what he thinks about Pry Minister Key’s creepy unlawful behaviour ? In his electorate after all ?
Interesting question there yeshe. I went and had a look at ACT’s press releases and there’s nothing there on hair-pulling.
However, this could be a bargaining chip that a concerned Nat could live with (with a bit of arm-twisting /sarc)
It’s headline is “ACT’s plan to boost wages”
No end of laughs with this lot.
You won’t find these three words in ACT’s press releases either: Jamie-Whyte-incest.
the party of the real world has been doing a lit review of research into company tax
he is fighting the injustice of a gate at mt eden…
Wayne, have you made any comments yet about Key’s hair touching/pulling/assaulting creepy behaviour? If not, why not? If yes, sorry I must have missed it.
Do you approve his conduct or condemn it?
It’s bothered me that the emphasis is pretty much all on Keys treatment on Amanda Bailey and overlooking the very sinister fondling and ” grooming” of young girls hair.
Baileys treatment was appalling but she did have a little more age and experience to fall back on, not so the younger girls.
Ironicly it was arch excusist Hooten in a throwaway line on 9 to 12 that reminded me of that strange habit of Keys of turning up at certain girls schools to be mobbed by the ( non-voting ) students.
Don’t recall him at many boys schools.
Were these visits at Keys instigation? If so the implications are really,really sinister.
Gotta be very careful about making those sorts of allegations, unless you have strong evidence. False accusations surrounding anything that approaches paedophilia / hebephilia are not only unethical in themselves but also, of course, risk a severe backlash from voters.
There are various innocent explanations for Key’s behaviour in regard to the younger girls’ ponytails. Danyl at The Dim Post, for example, argues:
“…but that doesn’t make it a sexual fetish. Key is also a dad and I really feel like he’s interacting with these girls and women on that level, not as the bizarre fledgling pedophile serial killer he’s now regarded as…it seems like the kind of physical contact fathers have with their daughters. Dad stuff…It’s not trivial, but it is less serious than all the ugly rhetoric about sexual assault that people are throwing around.”
Below the post, at comment 40, Danyl then quotes from a 2011 Claire Trevett article:
“Key’s other technique is touch. He has patted his way around the country – tickling toddlers’ stomachs, chucking chins, ruffling hair, rubbing women on the upper arm and patting shoulders, clasping men’s arms…It appears casual, but is too frequent and too obvious to be anything but deliberate. This prime ministerial laying on of hands is something he did not do in 2008. It is aimed at reinforcing a personal connection.”
Danyl then concludes:
So it’ calculated. It’s something he’s told to do. And, on the campaign trail he makes these physical connections with hundreds of people a day. So when you’re looking at footage of him touching lots of young girls’ hair, you’re looking at footage selected from thousands of hours of campaign footage of Key touching countless people.”
Doesn’t mean Danyl’s right (I’d say certainly not in regard to Amanda Bailey) but we shouldn’t automatically ignore innocent explanations (in regards to the girls) for mere political expediency. When I look at that footage, sometimes, yeah, I think it’s genuinely creepy, sometimes I – a bit like Danyl – I think it’s Key trying to impress mother and father voters by playing ‘Father of the Nation’.
https://dimpost.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/good-grief-3/
Good points.
I thought about this too swordfish. Aside from the fact that going overboard on the ‘creepy/sicko/perv/fetish’ angle could backfire, Key’s touchy casual guy often seems quite calculated and deliberate. It’s just that it doesn’t come naturally to him, so it looks awkward. It’s an act.
It could be that that the waitress incident is partly a function, as Hooton was saying on the radio, of Key, having played the part publicly for so long, losing touching with the fact that the touchy photo-op time Key is not how normal people behave in everyday social interactions. But of course that alone isn’t sufficient to explain it. The bullying display of power over others aspect is impossible to ignore.
He knows what he did was legally wrong, but I don’t think he understands why it’s morally wrong. Understanding that would require the ability to empathize. He refused to acknowledge the power imbalance to Gower, and repeated his ‘good relationship banter’ lines. I.e. she misunderstood, she took offense, and he apologized (sort of) for causing offense.
I think he really doesn’t get it. He’s clueless. And that’s the creepy part.
+1 @ unable to empathize. he sees everything entirely from his own world view. something many of his supporters share.
Not convinced, swordy. A pat on the upper back is just tactile, or even a pat on the upper arm. Fondling hair is not what you do to with other people’s children. Even if Crosby Textor have instructed him to touch people at every opportunity, there are innocent ways of doing it. What he does is bad touching.
my abuser… white male over 60… used to cut my hair as a favour to my mum. to help save money. he would always cut my brothers hair first leaving me in the garage alone wiyh him. am not saying Key is an abuser.just telling my story.
Agree. The sustained act of pulling the hair of Amanda Bailey puts this firmly in the unacceptable and illegal field.
Bringing that knowledge into context with the touching of young girls hair on the campaign trail, does not fit the criteria of just “coached personal touching” – if that is what he has been doing.
In addition, as a NZer it is culturally inappropriate for many in our Māori and Pasifika cultures to touch someone’s head. It would surprise me if a PR specialist in NZ politics did not know that, and if they had proposed physical contact, they surely would have specified this prohibition.
thanks for this. and to be clear to those about to use this article as a way to wave it all away. it is wrong. to touch anyone in such a personal way without permission. his PR gurus are probably male and/or over 55…
I’m male and over 55 🙂
Plus ça change and all that. Simon Collins in the Herald reports that vouchers for social services are back. Here we go again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11439734
Ive been realising lately that the terminology of “right wing” and “left wing” has really only entered public consciousness since 2006 onwards. I can’t find any earlier examples where it was used en masse to categorise political leanings. Prior to 2006 it was typically “socialist” or “capitalist”. Therefore, my mind wanders down the path of wondering whether the terms RIGHT and LEFT have formulated as a tool to give over to people gravitating towards those political parties labelled as “right” because they can’t be wrong if they’re right, right? Afterall, being left is wrong when you could be right.
Just came home after a long work day, reading this. Oh joy I still can lough. Thanks 🙂
Are you shitting me James?
Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics
It may not be as simple as James put it but the right-wing have been manipulating the language for decades and it’s paying off for them. It doesn’t help when people say that they aren’t doing that when it’s actually fairly obvious that they are.
No doubt they are. I just remember issues being discussed in terms of a left/right divide going back a few decades before James says it was a thing.
Springbok tour for one.
If memory serves, the term goes back to the French Revolution. The Royalists sat to the right of the chair, the liberals to the left.
I think the far more interesting shift in the political lexicon is from socialist vs. Tory/capitalist to liberal vs conservative.
The latter is the American version of ‘left’ and ‘right’ rather than the former British/European version.
The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ go back a very long way (French Parliament). The Wikipedia entry on it is useful enough.
I remember seeing Bill Rowling describe himself as a socialist (specifically a ‘Christian socialist’) in an interview before the 1975 election – the last time a New Zealand Labour Party leader has called themselves a socialist as far as I’m aware.
The shift to liberal versus conservative is a telling one. Anything actually resembling socialism would now require a major paradigm shift – our current system simply cannot accommodate it and is designed to make sure it cannot get a foothold. What’s more, the liberal side of the new political axis tends to be legalistic more than liberating, while the conservative side is rather rapacious and averse to conserving anything.
bloody good picture, too
Not at all. MSM in NZ have only really hammered home those two political differentiations since 2006. Right about the time Crosby Textor started advising National and FJK became national party leader. Given how few kiwis seriously think about politics, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the “right” terminology has slowly and insidiously been ingrained into daily consciousness. How else to explain the ongoing popularity of the “right wing” when it’s plainly abundant NZ has no capacity to absorb such wanton capitalist desires, and socialism works far better for smaller populations.
Wow.
Sorry but I just can’t take this seriously. I have been familiar with those terms since my childhood in the 70s.
I can remember it in the late 1950’s. Maybe it depends on how political your parents were?
Madness, James. Those terms have been in use for a very long time.
A political party named “National” is helpful.Kirk was always mindful of the National party brand and how the electorate could be drawn to the patriotic connotations of it.
Winston didn’t choose NZ First by accident.
Treason Part 1: Casino Capitalism
Adam Smith branded those who pocketed the nation’s rents as “The Public Enemy”. But today, governments celebrate the privatisation of the income that we all help to create. The result, reports Fred Harrison in Part 1 of The Treason Trilogy, is a house of cards built on debt. He forecasts the next property boom/bust, and accuses politicians of betraying their duty of care to their people.
[lprent: Freaking odd. First I couldn’t embed a youtube this morning in a post without immense pissing about. This evening you can do them in comments. I can’t win..
So far the wordpress 4.2 release is proving to be a real pain. IfI’d paid for it, I’d be complaining. Since I didn’t, I might have to go and start irritating the clowns removing and inserting features into the core.
Especially when they are bugs. This only works if the URL is on the last line and there is no end of line.
You can use it for the moment. I will donate a months holiday to the first person to misuse it.]
https://youtu.be/SmsyoWCsxRY
thanks for that video ropata…quite coincidental that Baltimore features so prominently…Bernard Hickey advocates a land tax,and the commentators on this vid endorse it, as the answer to a more equable and fairer taxation system.One that rewards productivity as opposed to speculation.
You’re welcome. Sadly, history shows that these kind of laws will probably only be implemented by a mass uprising, and will be rolled back in another generation as new elites take power
Nonviolence as Compliance
The police initiated violent oppression over an extended time and are now surprised by the violent reaction. Thus they call for non-violence just not from their own people but from the people they have been oppressing. This is, of course, a sham – they themselves won’t stop their violence.
The people are now reacting to that violent oppression and the forces who initiated that violence and excused it are going to get pounded. This is the normal path for oppressive regimes.
Stuff is such a damaging website. The reader comment section is nothing but (for all intents and purposes) an anonymous right wing ideology marketing vehicle.
This, from some property speculating bitch pretending to be on the side of the ever increasing lot of tenants, while remorselessly attacking the idea of a rental property WOF.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/do-we-need-a-rental-warrant-of-fitness/11639021/Tenants-have-the-right-to-choose-where-they-live
Kareena Lundy is a real estate agent, private investigator, and founder of http://www.landlordassistnz.co.nz which is a tenant vetting service for landlords.
A bit of research illustrates how firmly Kareena Lundy is in the camp of the runaway property speculator and the lazy slumlord but Stuff.co.nz does not at any point cite the affiliations of their “reader commentators”
These articles are free infomercials for those who use them and Stuff could care less.
McDonald’s rejects zero hours deal
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11439986
Boycott them
I knew this day would come, so I’ve been boycotting them for twenty years.
I’ll take your 20 and raise it to 30
Not really surprised. Back when I was a manager there we were encouraged to discourage any attempts to have a union start and then, while claiming to be the best employer in the country, they consistently exploited the employees.
Glad I left the place.
How to win friends and influence people ….. NOT
Has John Key given up?
It seems that the NZ press – particularly those accompanying Key on his Middle East trade mission – are seething about being left out of the loop. Key did not bother to let them know that NZ troops bound for Iraq were in Dubai when they were there. They found out by reading the local newspapers!
https://twitter.com/patrickgowernz/status/592953678891388928
https://twitter.com/patrickgowernz/status/592958995775623168
https://twitter.com/barrysoper/status/592953401681448960
https://twitter.com/katieabradford/status/592973275233292288
https://twitter.com/avancenz/status/592953744867729408
https://twitter.com/avancenz/status/592954207679840256
And another earlier one from Gower. LOL!
https://twitter.com/patrickgowernz/status/592953678891388928
Patrick Gower’s tweet:
Key is getting not just creepy but dumb it seems!
Now await the spin, explanation and cover up that will follow.
It is well known that it is often the cover up that does more damage.
nz journos are so used to being handed a press release, maybe while they are over there they should be doing some … ummm, whats the word i’m looking for? oh yes, JOURNALISM! do some digging, ask some questions, say ‘no’ to the free bottles of wine ya lazy bastards. imo this latest kerfuffle (which isn’t anywhere on the nz web news sites this morning, except the herald tells us that john key is still ever so popular, nzrs love having a hair pulling pm) proves how useless & under served we are by our own media. for shame, go back to pr guys.
I wouldn’t have thought a wise man would deliberately wish to inflame his media pack quite so much at this very specific point .. much too casual for me 🙂
Lost the plot – or given up? I roared with laughter when I found these tweets. Time to go to bed on a high. And have you seen the submissive Bronagh coming off the plane in Saudia Arabia?
http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/john-key-lands-in-saudi-arabia-amid-yemen-bombing-2015042818
And Paddy’s latest – https://twitter.com/patrickgowernz/status/592985276990926849
And Michelle Boag landing in Saudia Arabia via Barry Soper – OMG!
https://twitter.com/barrysoper/status/592951458464542720
What a family contrast from Bronagh to her daughter’s ‘art’ exhibition in Paris !!! No wonder she looks so very, very miserable. I feel sad for her.
And pardon, but why is Boag there ????
Boag is apparently representing the New Zealand Middle East Business Council, one of her many “hats”.
Re Bronagh, I agree. She hasn’t seemed that happy on this trip from the few photos etc I have seen of her at Gallipoli etc. Mustn’t mention the other female Key/Lazar or we might incur the SR (there is only one view allowed – mine) wrath ……
[lprent: My wrath and just about every other moderators as well.
We have had a general policy forever that excludes politicians kids and family from debate unless a clear public interest can be shown. At this point I can’t see one in either of Bronagh and John Key’s kids. Nor can Stephanie or any other author who has looked at it so far.
We’ll let it ride a bit when it is ‘news’ as raised by the gossip rag – The NZ Herald and therefore sort of in the public interest. But if we feel that it exceeds the limits of public interest or if the commenting heads off as if they were politicians (ie as kids and family aren’t part of the Lange vs Atkinson decision), then we quell it. Some in a more kindly fashion than others.
You should be thankful that I don’t have much time to moderate at present. I tend towards the draconian solutions when I feel that comments overstepped the bounds when it comes to families. From what I have seen Stephanie and probably others headed off my darker sword with a set of warnings.
But never fear. I also have some pretty draconian responses to people making snide comments about moderators as well. I’d suggest that if you want to find out what they are, then make them after this warning. ]
On the matter of the Middle East, I posted the following in the Saudi thread, but I was so surprised by what Key was quoted as saying that I’ll repost it here too.
Judge for yourselves….
From The Arab News (Saudi Newspaper)
Visit of New Zealand PM to cement ties
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/737521
Key is quoted as saying:
“New Zealand stands ready to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process,” he said.
As New Zealand prepares for its presidency of the UN Security Council in July, it must set an example by focusing particularly on regional turmoil that has hampered peace and security of the Middle East, including the Gulf states….”
Hard to believe……
Poor Bronagh, so sad. And I think it is valid to mention Bronagh’s daughter in this instance. Bronagh would have been arrested if she chose to carry with her to Saudi Arabia a copy of the flyer for her daughter’s Paris exhibition.
That’s how thin the ice is in Saudi Arabia. Things melt when least expected.
Did this poll appear here for discussion? I missed this email, and just opened it tonight. Interesting results. All around surveillance and how people feel about it.
https://horizonpoll.co.nz/page/400/surveillance