Those Muppet’s should have consulted with everyone with a stake in that Dam instead of just trying to just ram the process trough and blowing all that money . This is how National has behaved for 9 years. In my view Hawkes Bay needs some irrigation to creat employment and economic growth as this is the economic model we run on for now. Irrigation can be run in a environmentally friendly way
Did Newshub break the rules on Election broadcasts tonight with their piece about National’s promise of Broadband rollout for rural communities? They repeatedly referred to Simon Bridges as Communications Minister rather than his correct position as National’s Spokesperson on Communications now the writ for the election has been dropped.
Parliament and the government are not the same things. Parliament has been dissolved and a general election is to held; however, the government remains in place and operates as normal.
After polling day, a defeated government is bound by the caretaker convention, but remains the government until the return of the writs (since writ day was 23rd August, and writs must be returned within 50 days, that will be the 11th October) and the declaration of a final result, and the formation of a new government – or, if it can still command the confidence of the house, the continuation of the old government.
The rules were made clearer after some of the long MMP coalition negotiations.
So the government – and ministers – remain so until the 11th October 2017, although after being defeated on the 23rd September the National government will just operate as caretakers.
The sound is better than that Nation minor party leaders debate, but the way the camera swerves about it pretty nauseating. Also, the disruptions (from Joyce in particular) are just not moderated at all that I’ve seen. But then, it isn’t the most gripping viewing and I haven’t watched it all.
Ed doesn’t seem to be the only one wondering why Seymour was there. The bit where Gower just ran out of patience with him and threw a question over to Shaw only to have it tossed back in the interest of fairness was entertaining (and a good dig at Gowers ineptitude at controlling the debate).
It is very much a filmed series of performances to a room rather than a camera focused debate to the country. It would be good if someone who was there were to give their impression of how it went.
Actually I found it a fascinating debate and for the most part Gower did a good job. Most of the questions from the audience in the latter stages were directed at Grant Robertson. He fielded them well but he was on a hiding to nothing because there was quite a strong anti-Labour bias in that audience. That was my perception anyway.
Wagner was a no-show at a Town Hall type meeting in Christchurch. Gerry fronted for her. Maybe she was out on the water?
” “Busy day with disability meetings in Auckland – rather be out on the harbour!” ….. looking dreamily out the window at the sparkly water ”
I have some connections to Disability work and workers in that area. They find her ill informed at meetings and frequently uses the wrong terms to describe this sector. They find it astounding that she attends important meetings, especiaslly in relation to the rebuild in christchurch with no knowledge of the project to be discussed. However they find she has many misguided (and dated) “suggestions”.
I’m not entirely sure why Wagner didn’t front at that Town Hall. But it’s tempting to think that National knew it wasn’t going to go well. Which begs the question; is Christchurch Central going to head back to Labour this election? And maybe Waimakariri? And if so, what about the Party Vote in Christchurch?
think it would be a good bet to back Duncan Webb in ChCh central…he has a high profile after 6 years of advocacy for EQ victims….Nicky Wagner is not rated, but the party vote doesn’t necessarily mirror
In conjunction with Basic Income New Zealand and Auckland Debating Society, Guy Standing, leading international speaker on Basic Income, author of “The Precariat’, with as a panel to respond to his presentation, Sue Bradford and Keith Rankin.
Guy Standing is a Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London, and a founder and co-President of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN), an NGO promoting basic income as a right. He has held chairs at the Universities of Bath and Monash (Australia) and was previously Director of the Socio-Economic Security Programme of the International Labour Organisation. He is currently working on pilot basic income schemes in India and on issues relating to his two recent books, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class (2011) and A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens (2014).
Professor Standing’s book recently featured in University World News: Higher education and the precariat class
See his Guardian article from January, 2017 and his interview on Basic Income.
When
August 31st, 2017 6:30 PM through 8:00 PM
Location
76 Epsom Ave
Epsom Campus
Lecture Room J1 – J Block
Auckland, AUK 1023
New Zealand
Thanks,
It’s not just ToP, Greens also want UBI calculated by the next Govt. Trusting a UBI Commission Report could get cross party support from Labour at coalition negotiation time.
Ruataniwha. There must be more to it, apart from the need and greed of farmers wanting more water, but how do you spend $14 million of ratepayers money when the land in question was not owned by the group seeking the dam, and the law as pronounced upon by the judge was pretty unequivocal to this layman as to the circumstances where conservation land can be alienated.
If I were a ratepayer in Hawkes Bay I’d be asking questions about how private individuals can spend so much public money for possible private gain. I’d also look at how $14 million can be spent essentially on paper shuffling.
Is it to do with that old/new adage “Privatise the profits , and socialise the costs”?
Thanks, Draco T. Bit of a corruption too of what ‘looking after your mates” should really mean.
I saw the Helen Clark film tonight, A Year with Helen, where she talked about clear instructions as to zero tolerance for corruption in her UN department, so that it became the most transparent aid agency in the world.
Ruataniwha and $14 mill. Does it match up to the Kaipara Harbour council spending – on something real and needed? They had to have a special Bill passed exonerating them didn’t they? And I haven’t followed the back story about that so don’t feel I have a good understanding.
But how can a Council spend $14m. on nothing without censure? The whole story about why less government was A Good Thing was because it would bring more efficiency and effectiveness, etc etc. It seems to have brought the problem of bad judgment of necessary workers, meaning huge expenditure on temporary contractors. And a slush fund apparently to pay them – resulting in a sort of double bookkeeping.
The whole story about why less government was A Good Thing was because it would bring more efficiency and effectiveness, etc etc.
And from what we’ve learned over the last thirty years that would be a lie. All the evidence we have now shows that less government and more privatisation results in higher costs and inefficiencies.
Suggests almost 60% of 2014 Green voters are now thinking of casting their Party Vote for other Parties. The vast majority of them swinging to Labour (about two-thirds of them because of the Jacinda-mania drawcard / one-third due to unhappiness over Turei’s benefit disclosures and subsequent resignation).
That level of voter disloyalty isn’t actually all that unusual for the Greens. NZES flow-of-the-Vote data suggests less than half of 2011 Green voters remained loyal at the 2014 General Election. About 1/4 swung to Lab, with a little less than one fifth going to the Nats and NZF (each)
But the difference now is … there appears to be no significant reciprocal swing from 2014 Lab voters to Greens (whereas at the 2014 General Election = an inflow of 2011 Labour supporters & previous Non-voters to Greens – largely (though not entirely) compensated for the Greens’ lost 2011 voters to Labour).
So usually there’s a lot of movement back and forth between voters for the two Left-leaning parties over consecutive Elections. But it all seems to be in 1 direction now.
Reinforces the fact that the Greens’ base vote is much lower than many pundits assume – more like 5%. Many of the other 6% who voted Green in 2014 would have been Labour-identifiers & former Labour voters. So the Green vote was always going to be vulnerable to the Metiria admission + New charismatic Lab leader.
Better asking that of Horizon, my Bearded Chum. I’m just summarising their latest (and the 2014 NZES) findings.
My Vote ?
If the Greens are averaging over 7% in the final round of Polls then I’ll Party Vote Labour as originally intended.
If, on t’other hand, the Greens are averaging between 4-7% in the final Polls then I’ll certainly switch Green to contribute – in my own ever so humble way – to getting them over the line.
But if they’re down below 4% in the week before the Election then I’ll have to seriously re-consider because it might just be a wasted vote.
Sorry if I was hassling you but last night I was just a bit pissed off having read so many MSM media comments trying to write the Greens off because they had polled 4.3% once, then I remembered you talking about how the Greens were only polling 3.6% in Whangarei (I do think there are special factors at play there this time round and was only a poll of 500) and then all your stuff on how flimsy the Greens vote may be (per your earlier analysis and the comment above).
For the record I will be voting Green (always do) unless they are polling below 4%, like you, but I have a strong affinity for Labour-in fact I’m organising a meeting for Labour at the moment.
I think there is more volatility in how people choose to vote than we (and the media) realise and that National’s vote is softer than the media are portraying it.
It makes sense that Labour’s loss of votes had to go somewhere. I remain hopeful that The Green Party may have made some headway engaging the non voting.
While we are distracted by mythical battles in the Game of Thrones, we are being robbed in the real world “Game of Mates” where the well-connected clip the wages and profits of the hard working. Murray and Frijters provide an entertaining and well researched expose of how privilege and rent-seeking dominates the Australian economy, enriching the Mates in the Game while robbing the rest. And they propose how to end the Game. And they name real names too. This is an explosive and essential book for all Australians. Except the Mates. Professor Steve Keen, Kingston University
I suspect that similar research in NZ would show the same thing. Our nation has become corrupt.
Corrupt or best people for the Job? Hey, I’ve been thinking about joining the Free Masons. They seem like a nice enough bunch. Anyone here have person experiences they would share?
RBNZ’s Spencer uses the word vanilla more than once:
Q. How close should New Zealand stick to international norms?
A. “In shaping our regulatory approach – with its emphasis on self- and market discipline and being at the more permissive end of the spectrum – we must consider the potential costs of deviating too far from international norms. This is especially important to consider as we seek to tailor the sometimes complex international regulatory environment to New Zealand’s relatively vanilla banking system.”
When banker’s use the word permissive, is it normal to think of Mel Gibson’s butt?
Thanx CoroDale
Relatively vanilla. Lovely. That in-group in-speech matey we’re-all-in-this-together jargon. There must be a humorous clip somewhere of an in-group talking in acronyms. I have heard the one about commercial travellers quoting their preferred joke by number. I think the one for tonight could be 42.
DRM the new spam. Some idiot genius writes up free info, then drms their content, which has ads of course, this starts a herd of people doing the same. Search engines pickup just drm content and the free unencumbered content disappears. now all well and good, original content should be paid for.But what if I want content from a community of Open sources who write up without down grading the work to some drm folly. Which obviously then pays people to churn open source methods to make a buck on writing it all up wrongly, drm leads to babel. Answer would be a search engine that you can switch to search non-drm or drm. Does anyone know of such a thing?
Tune in dude, I’m working so switching on and off when they are talking shite.
Relationships between politicians and family and who works where
Winston story being a distraction to mother of scandals
And some dickheads ringing up talking shite
After the news they be talking about Barclay, whichis massive interest to me, especially with what I personally know about that situation and the people involved. Wonder if Oil will spin his own agenda or be truthful.
When your boss tapes you on the phone and asks you to lie for him and gets up to dodgy dealings with a female who was a cabinet member at the time, then whats a girl to do? Talk about it with your old boss? Gosh that would make it go pear shaped wouldn’t it?
Fact of the matter is it has nothing to do with how well barclay was liked, and she wasn’t after his job at all. It’s not nice being asked to lie for another
Cause it was never about the tapes, it was why was he taping her, what was he worried she was going to say?
“as the dairy and agriculture industries grow, they are placing an ever-greater strain on the country’s water supply and raising concerns about the quality of New Zealand’s water.
In August 2016, more than 5,000 people fell sick with gastrointestinal illness in Havelock North, a suburb of New Zealand’s North Island’s Hawke’s Bay district. The suburb’s drinking water had become contaminated, resulting in the poisoning of a third of its population and contributing to the deaths of three residents.
The incident shook the public’s confidence in the safety of New Zealand’s drinking water, and led to an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs.
But what exactly is tainting the quality of New Zealand’s fresh water supplies and could a potential solution have a knock-on effect on all of New Zealand’s main economic contributors?”
Fuck tourism 🙂 It’s a big polluter and has a hugely negative impact on the environment as well. It’s also not even remotely sustainable. The sooner we get off that sauce the better.
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate changeDaily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenanceBeehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Winston Peters reckons media outlets were bribed by the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. He is not the first to make such an accusation. Last year, the Platform outlined conditions media signed up to in return for funds from the PJIF: . . . ...
Wow, it’s December already, and it’s a Friday. So here are few things that caught our attention recently. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered the new government’s coalition agreements and what they mean for transport. On Tuesday Matt looked at AT’s plans for fare increases ...
Late 1996, The Dogs Bollix, Tamaki Makaurau.I’m at the front of the bar yelling my order to the bartender, jostling with other thirsty punters on a Friday night, keen to piss their wages up against a wall letting loose. The black stuff, long luscious pints of creamy goodness. Back down ...
Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and other National, ACT and NZ First MPs applaud the signing of the coalition agreements, which included the reversal of anti-smoking measures while accelerating tax cuts for landlords. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote ...
Completed reads for November: A Modern Utopia, by H.G. Wells The Vampire (poem), by Heinrich August Ossenfelder The Corpus Hermeticum The Corpus Hermeticum is Mead’s translation. Now, this is indeed a very quiet month for reading. But there is a reason for that… You see, ...
The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. They also describe the processes of the ...
First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
Henry Kissinger is finally dead. Good fucking riddance. While Americans loved him, he was a war criminal, responsible for most of the atrocities of the final quarter of the twentieth century. Cambodia. Bangladesh. Chile. East Timor. All Kissinger. Because of these crimes, Americans revere him as a "statesman" (which says ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yes, ministers in the new government are delivering speeches and releasing press statements. But the message on the government’s official website was the same as it has been for the past several days, when Point of Order went looking for news from the Beehive that had ...
David Farrar writes – 1 News reports: Christopher Luxon says he was told by some Kiwis on the campaign trail they “didn’t know” the difference between Waka Kotahi, Te Pūkenga and Te Whatu Ora. Speaking to Breakfast, the incoming prime minister said having English first on government agencies will “make sure” ...
There are fears that mooted changes to building consent liability could end up driving the building industry into an uninsured hole. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Thursday, November 30, including:The new Government’s ...
Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, M Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else, and complaining that he has inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” – which is how most of us are ...
The first I knew of the news about Tory Whanau was when a tweet came up in my feed.The sort of tweet that makes you question humanity, or at least why you bother with Twitter. Which is increasingly a cesspit of vile inhabitants who lurk spreading negativity, hate, and every ...
Cable Cars, Gondolas, Ropeways and Aerial Trams are all names for essentially the same technology and the world’s biggest maker of them are here to sell them as an public transport solution. Stuff reports: Austrian cable car company Doppelmayr has launched its case for adding aerial cable cars to New ...
Hi,It’s been awhile since I’ve done an Ask-Me-Anything on here, so today’s the day. Ask anything you like in the comments section, and I’ll be checking in today and tomorrow to answer.Leave a commentNext week I’ll be giving away a bunch of these Mister Organ blu-rays for readers in New ...
The cost of living grind continues, and the economic and inflation honeymoon is over before it began. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR:PM Christopher Luxon unveiled his 100 day plan yesterday with an avowed focus of reducing cost-of-living pressures, but his Government’s initial moves and promises are actually elevating ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has confirmed that it will be back to the future on planning legislation. This will be just one of a number of moves which will see the new government go backwards as it repeals and cost-cuts its way into power. They will completely repeal one ...
As the new government settles into the Beehive, expectations are high that it can sort out some of the economic issues confronting New Zealand. It may take time for some new ministers to get to grips with the range of their portfolio work and responsibilities before they can launch the changes that ...
TV3 political editor Jenna Lynch was among the corps of political reporters who bridled, when Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told them what he thinks of them (which is not much). She was unabashed about letting her audience know she had bridled. More usefully, she drew attention to something which ...
I have a clear memory of every election since 1969 in this plucky little nation of ours. I swear I cannot recall a single one where the question being asked repeatedly in the first week of the new government was: how long do you reckon they’ll last? And that includes all ...
Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In 2023, ...
The fear and loathing among legacy journalists is astonishingGraham Adams writes – No one is going to die wondering how some of the nation’s most influential journalists personally view the new National-led government. It has become abundantly clear within a few days of the coalition agreements ...
TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere for Wednesday November 29, including:The early return of interest deductibility for landlords could see rebates paid on previous taxes and the cost increase to $3 billion from National’s initial estimate of $2.1 billion, CTU Economist Craig Renney estimated here last ...
The day after being sworn in the new cabinet met yesterday, to enjoy their honeymoon phase. You remember, that period after a new government takes power where the country, and the media, are optimistic about them, because they haven’t had a chance to stuff anything about yet.Sadly the nuptials complete ...
Wellington Council hoardings proclaim its preparations for population growth, but around the country councils are putting things on hold in the absence of clear funding pathways for infrastructure, and despite exploding migrant numbers. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Cabinet meets in earnest today to consider the new Government’s 100-day ...
Though New Zealand First may have had ambitions to run the infrastructure portfolios, National would seem to have ended up firmly in control of them. POLITIK has obtained a private memo to members of Infrastructure NZ yesterday, which shows that the peak organisation for infrastructure sees National MPs Chris ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who’s At The Wheel? The electorate’s message, as aggregated in the polling booths on 14 October, turned out to be a conservative political agenda stronger than anything New Zealand has seen in five decades. In 1975, Bill Rowling was run over by just one bus, with Rob Muldoon at the wheel. In ...
Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
Cheers to reader Deane for this quote from Breakfast TV today:Chloe Swarbrick to Brook van Velden re the coalition agreement: “... an unhinged grab-bag of hot takes from your drunk uncle at Christmas”Cheers also to actual Prime Minister of a country Christopher Luxon for dorking up his swearing-in vows.But that's enough ...
One of the big underlying problems in our political system is the prevalence of short-term thinking, most usually seen in the periodic massive infrastructure failures at a local government level caused by them skimping on maintenance to Keep Rates Low. But the new government has given us a new example, ...
New Zealand has a chance to rise again. Under the previous government, the number of New Zealanders below the poverty line was increasing year by year. The Luxon-led government must reverse that trend – and set about stabilising the pillars of the economy. After the mismanagement of the outgoing government created huge ...
Two articles by Karl du Fresne bring media coverage of the new government into considerations. He writes – Tuesday, November 28, 2023The left-wing media needed a line of attack, and they found one The left-wing media pack wasted no time identifying the new government’s weakest point. Seething over ...
The work beginsPhilip Crump wrote this article ahead of the new government being sworn in yesterday – Later today the new National-led coalition government will be sworn in, and the hard work begins. At the core of government will be three men – each a leader ...
As everyone who watches television or is on the mailing list for any of our major stores will confirm, “Black Friday” has become the longest running commercial extravaganza and celebration in our history. Although its origins are obscure (presumably dreamt up by American salesmen a few years ago), it has ...
Yesterday the Ministers in the next government were sworn in by our Governor General. A day of tradition and ceremony, of decorum and respect. Usually.But yesterday Winston Peters, the incoming Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister, of our nation used it, as he did with the signing of the coalition ...
Nicola Willis’ first move was ‘spilling the tea’ on what she called the ‘sobering’ state of the nation’s books, but she had better be able to back that up in the HYEFU. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am ...
Yesterday Auckland Transport were celebrating, as the most recent Sunday was the busiest Sunday they’ve ever had. That’s a great outcome and I’m sure the ...
Nicola Willis (in blue) at the signing of the coalition agreement, before being sworn in as both Finance Minister and Social Investment Minister. National’s plan to unwind anti-smoking measures will benefit her in the first role, but how does it stack up from a social investment viewpoint? Photo: Lynn Grieveson ...
For the first time "in history" we decided to jump on the "Giving Tuesday" bandwagon in order to make you aware of the options you have to contribute to our work! Projects supported by Skeptical Science Inc. Skeptical ScienceSkeptical Science is an all-volunteer organization but ...
Let’s say it’s 1984,and there's a dreary little nation at the bottom of the Pacific whose name rhymes with New Zealand,and they've just had an election.Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, will you look at the state of these books we’ve opened,cries the incoming government, will you look at all this mountain ...
Wellington is braced for a “massive impact’ from the new government’s cutting public service jobs, The Post somewhat grimly reported today. Expectations of an economic and social jolt are based on the National-Act coalition agreement to cut public service numbers in each government agency in a cost-trimming exercise “informed by” head ...
One of the threats in the National - ACT - NZ First coalition agreements was to extend the term of Parliament to four years, reducing our opportunities to throw a bad government out. The justification? Apparently, the government thinks "elections are expensive". This is the stupidest of stupid reasons for ...
Buzz from the Beehive The new government was being sworn in, at time of writing , and when Point of Order checked the Beehive website for the latest ministerial statements and re-visit some of the old ones we drew a blank. We found …. Nowt. Nothing. Zilch. Not a ...
Michael Bassett writes – Like most people, I was getting heartily sick of all the time being wasted over the coalition negotiations. During the first three weeks Winston grinned like a Cheshire cat, certain he’d be needed; Chris Luxon wasted time in lifting the phone to Winston ...
The Prime Minister elect had his silver fern badge on. He wore it to remind viewers he was supporting New Zealand, that was his team. Despite the fact it made him look like a concierge, or a welcomer in a Koru lounge. Anna Burns-Francis, the Breakfast presenter, asked if he ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – A hugely significant gain for ACT is somewhat camouflaged by legislative jargon. Under the heading ‘Oranga Tamariki’ ACT’s coalition agreement contains the following item: Remove Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 According to Oranga Tamariki: “Section ...
A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record.Brian Easton writes – 1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is ...
Is COP28 largely smoke and mirrors and a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel? Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: COP28 kicks off on November 30 and up for negotiation are issues like the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition, contributions to ...
PM Elect Christopher Luxon was challenged this morning on whether he would sack Adrian Orr and Andrew Coster.TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am on Monday November 27, including:Signs councils are putting planning and capital spending on hold, given a lack of clear guidance ...
This column expands on a Werewolf column published by Scoop on FridayRoutinely, Winston Peters is described as the kingmaker who gets to decide when the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded but equally important role as the ...
Last Friday, almost six weeks after election day, National finally came to an agreement with ACT and NZ First to form a government. They also released the agreements between each party and looking through them, here are the things I thought were the most interesting (and often concerning) from the. ...
Maori and Pasifika smoking rates are already over twice the ‘all adult’ rate. Now the revenue that generates will be used to fund National’s tax cuts. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The devil is always in the detail and it emerged over the weekend from the guts of the policy agreements National ...
Perhaps the biggest change that will come to the Beehive as the new government settles in will be a fundamental culture change. The era of endless consultation will be over. This looks like a government that knows what it wants to do, and that means it knows what outcomes ...
So what do you think of the coalition’s decision to cancel Smokefree measures intended to stop young people, including an over representation of Māori, from taking up smoking? Enabling them to use the tax revenue to give other people a tax cut?David Cormack summed it up well:It seems not only ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 19, 2023 thru Sat, Nov 25, 2023. Story of the Week World stands on frontline of disaster at Cop28, says UN climate chiefExclusive: Simon Stiell says leaders must ‘stop ...
On announcement morning my mate texted:Typical of this cut-price, fake-deal government to announce itself on Black Friday.What a deal. We lose Kim Hill, we gain an empty, jargonising prime minister, a belligerent conspiracist, and a heartless Ayn Rand fanboy. One door closes, another gets slammed repeatedly in your face.It seems pretty ...
Buzz from the Beehive Having found no fresh announcements on the government’s official website,Point of Order turned today to Scoop’sLatest Parliament Headlines for its buzz. This provided us with evidence that the Māori Party has been soured by the the coalition agreement announced yesterday by the new PM. “Soured” ...
Yesterday the trio that will lead our country unveiled their vision for New Zealand.Seymour looking surprisingly statesmanlike, refusing to rise to barbs about his previous comments on Winston Peters. Almost as if they had just been slapstick for the crowd.Winston was mostly focussed on settling scores with the media, making ...
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Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job. ...
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Hot damn! Ruataniwha!
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2017/08/dead-and-buried.html
Indeedy.
Yep. That battle is over.
They were still hoping for more private money. Rust never sleeps.
$14m of ratepayers money. Gone.
They would have spent more if they could. Thank God for Royal Forest and Bird. And Kevin Hague.
True. And the non monetary cost.
No more dairy conversions in drought suceptible areas… eg North Canterbury
+ 100 tracey I think that farmers should not be farming in environments that are unsustainable environmentally or financially
That’s just it – they are financial. They can make money if the nation shoulders the costs which is what’s been happening for decades.
F and B are one of the premier activist groups in NZ now. We are incredibly fortunate to have them.
Those Muppet’s should have consulted with everyone with a stake in that Dam instead of just trying to just ram the process trough and blowing all that money . This is how National has behaved for 9 years. In my view Hawkes Bay needs some irrigation to creat employment and economic growth as this is the economic model we run on for now. Irrigation can be run in a environmentally friendly way
In my opinion we can’t trust the RW and dairy farmers to limit their use and abuse of the waterways. Better that individuals trap their own water.
If farmers go round trapping all the water what’s going to happen to all the rivers that depend upon that water?
Did Newshub break the rules on Election broadcasts tonight with their piece about National’s promise of Broadband rollout for rural communities? They repeatedly referred to Simon Bridges as Communications Minister rather than his correct position as National’s Spokesperson on Communications now the writ for the election has been dropped.
Parliament and the government are not the same things. Parliament has been dissolved and a general election is to held; however, the government remains in place and operates as normal.
After polling day, a defeated government is bound by the caretaker convention, but remains the government until the return of the writs (since writ day was 23rd August, and writs must be returned within 50 days, that will be the 11th October) and the declaration of a final result, and the formation of a new government – or, if it can still command the confidence of the house, the continuation of the old government.
The rules were made clearer after some of the long MMP coalition negotiations.
So the government – and ministers – remain so until the 11th October 2017, although after being defeated on the 23rd September the National government will just operate as caretakers.
Is someone doing an inventory on the silver now?
Grrrr … yes …. we need to make a stock take of the inventory …
Just to be sure,… to be sure…
Live Stream link for Financial Debate
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/08/decision-17-livestream-the-asb-great-finance-debate.html
Edit they are just starting to introduce the candidates now
How does a party with 0.4% of the party vote invited?
More evidence of the neoliberal bias in the media.
I believe the Maori Party get more votes.
So the Conservative Party must be there too then?
Of course 25% of the selected audience in Queenstown vote ACT.
The 0.4 % party are well represented in that town.
Not really
Act is below average in C/S, they got 122 votes in 2014, 0.36%, in Wakatipu they got the grand total of 14 votes.
Were you at the debate tonight? Impressions from the locals?
The sound is better than that Nation minor party leaders debate, but the way the camera swerves about it pretty nauseating. Also, the disruptions (from Joyce in particular) are just not moderated at all that I’ve seen. But then, it isn’t the most gripping viewing and I haven’t watched it all.
Ed doesn’t seem to be the only one wondering why Seymour was there. The bit where Gower just ran out of patience with him and threw a question over to Shaw only to have it tossed back in the interest of fairness was entertaining (and a good dig at Gowers ineptitude at controlling the debate).
It is very much a filmed series of performances to a room rather than a camera focused debate to the country. It would be good if someone who was there were to give their impression of how it went.
So the role of the moderator is important.
And that’s why Hosking should never have that role.
Actually I found it a fascinating debate and for the most part Gower did a good job. Most of the questions from the audience in the latter stages were directed at Grant Robertson. He fielded them well but he was on a hiding to nothing because there was quite a strong anti-Labour bias in that audience. That was my perception anyway.
I thought Gower did well too, refreshing to see him not in rabid mode.
Instructive to see Stephen Joyce laughing while Winston Peters claims that privacy matters.
That’s why we need live audiences armed with dildo’s at the ready.
Wagner was a no-show at a Town Hall type meeting in Christchurch. Gerry fronted for her. Maybe she was out on the water?
” “Busy day with disability meetings in Auckland – rather be out on the harbour!” ….. looking dreamily out the window at the sparkly water ”
I have some connections to Disability work and workers in that area. They find her ill informed at meetings and frequently uses the wrong terms to describe this sector. They find it astounding that she attends important meetings, especiaslly in relation to the rebuild in christchurch with no knowledge of the project to be discussed. However they find she has many misguided (and dated) “suggestions”.
I’m not entirely sure why Wagner didn’t front at that Town Hall. But it’s tempting to think that National knew it wasn’t going to go well. Which begs the question; is Christchurch Central going to head back to Labour this election? And maybe Waimakariri? And if so, what about the Party Vote in Christchurch?
think it would be a good bet to back Duncan Webb in ChCh central…he has a high profile after 6 years of advocacy for EQ victims….Nicky Wagner is not rated, but the party vote doesn’t necessarily mirror
A meeting tomorrow night in Auckland, with Guy Standing on UBI/Basic Income:
Thanks,
It’s not just ToP, Greens also want UBI calculated by the next Govt. Trusting a UBI Commission Report could get cross party support from Labour at coalition negotiation time.
Ruataniwha. There must be more to it, apart from the need and greed of farmers wanting more water, but how do you spend $14 million of ratepayers money when the land in question was not owned by the group seeking the dam, and the law as pronounced upon by the judge was pretty unequivocal to this layman as to the circumstances where conservation land can be alienated.
If I were a ratepayer in Hawkes Bay I’d be asking questions about how private individuals can spend so much public money for possible private gain. I’d also look at how $14 million can be spent essentially on paper shuffling.
Is it to do with that old/new adage “Privatise the profits , and socialise the costs”?
But I don’t come from there, so I don’t know.
I had some family members involved in this.
It never added up except as a direct subsidy to the farmers concerned.
Some of which could have paid for smaller irrigation dams on their own land. But that would have cost them money.
Privatise the gains and socialise the loses was exactly the aim.
See the link I provide here.
Thanks, Draco T. Bit of a corruption too of what ‘looking after your mates” should really mean.
I saw the Helen Clark film tonight, A Year with Helen, where she talked about clear instructions as to zero tolerance for corruption in her UN department, so that it became the most transparent aid agency in the world.
Ruataniwha and $14 mill. Does it match up to the Kaipara Harbour council spending – on something real and needed? They had to have a special Bill passed exonerating them didn’t they? And I haven’t followed the back story about that so don’t feel I have a good understanding.
But how can a Council spend $14m. on nothing without censure? The whole story about why less government was A Good Thing was because it would bring more efficiency and effectiveness, etc etc. It seems to have brought the problem of bad judgment of necessary workers, meaning huge expenditure on temporary contractors. And a slush fund apparently to pay them – resulting in a sort of double bookkeeping.
And from what we’ve learned over the last thirty years that would be a lie. All the evidence we have now shows that less government and more privatisation results in higher costs and inefficiencies.
Horizon poll
https://t.co/syTeQNQq7J?amp=1
I can’t even remember what was happening 3 weeks ago (when poll was done).
A 100% internet based poll…
And?
Suggests almost 60% of 2014 Green voters are now thinking of casting their Party Vote for other Parties. The vast majority of them swinging to Labour (about two-thirds of them because of the Jacinda-mania drawcard / one-third due to unhappiness over Turei’s benefit disclosures and subsequent resignation).
That level of voter disloyalty isn’t actually all that unusual for the Greens. NZES flow-of-the-Vote data suggests less than half of 2011 Green voters remained loyal at the 2014 General Election. About 1/4 swung to Lab, with a little less than one fifth going to the Nats and NZF (each)
But the difference now is … there appears to be no significant reciprocal swing from 2014 Lab voters to Greens (whereas at the 2014 General Election = an inflow of 2011 Labour supporters & previous Non-voters to Greens – largely (though not entirely) compensated for the Greens’ lost 2011 voters to Labour).
So usually there’s a lot of movement back and forth between voters for the two Left-leaning parties over consecutive Elections. But it all seems to be in 1 direction now.
Reinforces the fact that the Greens’ base vote is much lower than many pundits assume – more like 5%. Many of the other 6% who voted Green in 2014 would have been Labour-identifiers & former Labour voters. So the Green vote was always going to be vulnerable to the Metiria admission + New charismatic Lab leader.
Or have you simply got it in for the Greens Swordfish? Who do you vote for?
Better asking that of Horizon, my Bearded Chum. I’m just summarising their latest (and the 2014 NZES) findings.
My Vote ?
If the Greens are averaging over 7% in the final round of Polls then I’ll Party Vote Labour as originally intended.
If, on t’other hand, the Greens are averaging between 4-7% in the final Polls then I’ll certainly switch Green to contribute – in my own ever so humble way – to getting them over the line.
But if they’re down below 4% in the week before the Election then I’ll have to seriously re-consider because it might just be a wasted vote.
Thanks Swordfish.
Sorry if I was hassling you but last night I was just a bit pissed off having read so many MSM media comments trying to write the Greens off because they had polled 4.3% once, then I remembered you talking about how the Greens were only polling 3.6% in Whangarei (I do think there are special factors at play there this time round and was only a poll of 500) and then all your stuff on how flimsy the Greens vote may be (per your earlier analysis and the comment above).
For the record I will be voting Green (always do) unless they are polling below 4%, like you, but I have a strong affinity for Labour-in fact I’m organising a meeting for Labour at the moment.
I think there is more volatility in how people choose to vote than we (and the media) realise and that National’s vote is softer than the media are portraying it.
It makes sense that Labour’s loss of votes had to go somewhere. I remain hopeful that The Green Party may have made some headway engaging the non voting.
James Shaw just dropped a big hint at the end of the Economics debate tonight about their intention to reform politics.
https://www.facebook.com/NewshubNZ/videos/vb.97548423605/10155831917943606/ (around 2hrs exact).
Game Of Mate: How favours bleed the nation
I suspect that similar research in NZ would show the same thing. Our nation has become corrupt.
Keen is excellent.
Corrupt or best people for the Job? Hey, I’ve been thinking about joining the Free Masons. They seem like a nice enough bunch. Anyone here have person experiences they would share?
+100 Draco
Outgoing Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler:
“…every prospect the strong growth would continue.”
“The greatest risk we face at this stage relates to the inflated global asset prices and the continuing build up in global debt.”
“There is a risk of a housing market resurgence… if loan to value ratios (LVRs) were removed…”
“We believe that it (inflation targets only) is still the best monetary policy framework for New Zealand.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/338345/reserve-bank-head-defends-record-in-last-public-speech
Sleep well boys and girls, for the Bank for International Settlements quotes our next RBNZ Chairman Grant Spencer as saying;
“The NZ banking system is relatively vanilla.”
https://www.bis.org/review/r170809b.htm
RBNZ’s Spencer uses the word vanilla more than once:
Q. How close should New Zealand stick to international norms?
A. “In shaping our regulatory approach – with its emphasis on self- and market discipline and being at the more permissive end of the spectrum – we must consider the potential costs of deviating too far from international norms. This is especially important to consider as we seek to tailor the sometimes complex international regulatory environment to New Zealand’s relatively vanilla banking system.”
When banker’s use the word permissive, is it normal to think of Mel Gibson’s butt?
Thanx CoroDale
Relatively vanilla. Lovely. That in-group in-speech matey we’re-all-in-this-together jargon. There must be a humorous clip somewhere of an in-group talking in acronyms. I have heard the one about commercial travellers quoting their preferred joke by number. I think the one for tonight could be 42.
DRM the new spam. Some idiot genius writes up free info, then drms their content, which has ads of course, this starts a herd of people doing the same. Search engines pickup just drm content and the free unencumbered content disappears. now all well and good, original content should be paid for.But what if I want content from a community of Open sources who write up without down grading the work to some drm folly. Which obviously then pays people to churn open source methods to make a buck on writing it all up wrongly, drm leads to babel. Answer would be a search engine that you can switch to search non-drm or drm. Does anyone know of such a thing?
Listening to the wireless, radio live, Slater is on, crikey he has plenty to say, worth tuning into.
Please enlighten us
Tune in dude, I’m working so switching on and off when they are talking shite.
Relationships between politicians and family and who works where
Winston story being a distraction to mother of scandals
And some dickheads ringing up talking shite
After the news they be talking about Barclay, whichis massive interest to me, especially with what I personally know about that situation and the people involved. Wonder if Oil will spin his own agenda or be truthful.
When your boss tapes you on the phone and asks you to lie for him and gets up to dodgy dealings with a female who was a cabinet member at the time, then whats a girl to do? Talk about it with your old boss? Gosh that would make it go pear shaped wouldn’t it?
Fact of the matter is it has nothing to do with how well barclay was liked, and she wasn’t after his job at all. It’s not nice being asked to lie for another
Cause it was never about the tapes, it was why was he taping her, what was he worried she was going to say?
Lolz anyways back to work here’s the link he’s on for another hour
http://www.radiolive.co.nz/home.player.html
One last thing loolz I prefer not to visit his blog could get a virus, radio works well
HOLY SHITE.. Al Jazeera just posted a 23min doco about NZ’s water pollution problem
This won’t be good for our tourism, but fantastic for awareness.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/08/problem-zealand-water-sources-170831090704101.html
“as the dairy and agriculture industries grow, they are placing an ever-greater strain on the country’s water supply and raising concerns about the quality of New Zealand’s water.
In August 2016, more than 5,000 people fell sick with gastrointestinal illness in Havelock North, a suburb of New Zealand’s North Island’s Hawke’s Bay district. The suburb’s drinking water had become contaminated, resulting in the poisoning of a third of its population and contributing to the deaths of three residents.
The incident shook the public’s confidence in the safety of New Zealand’s drinking water, and led to an investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs.
But what exactly is tainting the quality of New Zealand’s fresh water supplies and could a potential solution have a knock-on effect on all of New Zealand’s main economic contributors?”
Fuck tourism 🙂 It’s a big polluter and has a hugely negative impact on the environment as well. It’s also not even remotely sustainable. The sooner we get off that sauce the better.