Daily Review 30/08/2017

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 pm, August 30th, 2017 - 62 comments
Categories: Daily review - Tags:

Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

62 comments on “Daily Review 30/08/2017”

  • Comments are now closed

    • weka 1.1
      30 August 2017 at 7:28 pm

      Indeedy.

    • ScottGN 1.2
      30 August 2017 at 7:38 pm

      Yep. That battle is over.

    • tracey 1.3
      30 August 2017 at 7:40 pm

      $14m of ratepayers money. Gone.

      • ScottGN 1.3.1
        30 August 2017 at 8:18 pm

        They would have spent more if they could. Thank God for Royal Forest and Bird. And Kevin Hague.

        • tracey 1.3.1.1
          30 August 2017 at 8:22 pm

          True. And the non monetary cost.

          No more dairy conversions in drought suceptible areas… eg North Canterbury

          • eco Maori/kiwi 1.3.1.1.1
            30 August 2017 at 8:53 pm

            + 100 tracey I think that farmers should not be farming in environments that are unsustainable environmentally or financially

        • weka 1.3.1.2
          30 August 2017 at 9:45 pm

          F and B are one of the premier activist groups in NZ now. We are incredibly fortunate to have them.

    • eco Maori/kiwi 1.4
      30 August 2017 at 9:10 pm

      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

      • greywarshark 1.4.1
        30 August 2017 at 9:13 pm

        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.

  2. ScottGN 2
    30 August 2017 at 6:53 pm

    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.

    • Sanctuary 2.1
      30 August 2017 at 8:21 pm

      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.

  3. Cinny 3
    30 August 2017 at 7:20 pm

    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

    • Ed 3.1
      30 August 2017 at 8:18 pm

      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.

      • tracey 3.1.1
        30 August 2017 at 8:24 pm

        So the Conservative Party must be there too then?

        • Ed 3.1.1.1
          30 August 2017 at 8:45 pm

          Of course 25% of the selected audience in Queenstown vote ACT.
          The 0.4 % party are well represented in that town.

          • Graeme 3.1.1.1.1
            30 August 2017 at 10:13 pm

            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.

    • DSpare 3.2
      30 August 2017 at 9:05 pm

      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.

      • Ed 3.2.1
        30 August 2017 at 9:17 pm

        So the role of the moderator is important.
        And that’s why Hosking should never have that role.

      • Anne 3.2.2
        30 August 2017 at 9:29 pm

        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.

    • Psycho Milt 3.3
      30 August 2017 at 9:41 pm

      Instructive to see Stephen Joyce laughing while Winston Peters claims that privacy matters.

  4. tracey 4
    30 August 2017 at 7:39 pm

    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”.

    • ScottGN 4.1
      30 August 2017 at 8:24 pm

      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?

      • Pat 4.1.1
        30 August 2017 at 10:31 pm

        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

  5. Carolyn_nth 5
    30 August 2017 at 7:48 pm

    A meeting tomorrow night in Auckland, with Guy Standing on UBI/Basic Income:

    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

    • CoroDale 5.1
      31 August 2017 at 7:00 am

      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.

  6. mac1 6
    30 August 2017 at 8:39 pm

    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.

    • KJT 6.1
      30 August 2017 at 9:01 pm

      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.

    • Draco T Bastard 6.2
      30 August 2017 at 10:18 pm

      See the link I provide here.

      • mac1 6.2.1
        30 August 2017 at 10:29 pm

        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.

        • greywarshark 6.2.1.1
          31 August 2017 at 11:54 am

          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.

          • Draco T Bastard 6.2.1.1.1
            31 August 2017 at 1:38 pm

            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.

    • weka 7.1
      30 August 2017 at 9:47 pm

      I can’t even remember what was happening 3 weeks ago (when poll was done).

    • Bill 7.2
      30 August 2017 at 10:44 pm

      A 100% internet based poll…

    • swordfish 7.3
      30 August 2017 at 11:23 pm

      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.

      • Bearded Git 7.3.1
        30 August 2017 at 11:35 pm

        Or have you simply got it in for the Greens Swordfish? Who do you vote for?

        • swordfish 7.3.1.1
          30 August 2017 at 11:58 pm

          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.

          • Bearded Git 7.3.1.1.1
            31 August 2017 at 10:05 am

            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.

      • tracey 7.3.2
        31 August 2017 at 1:45 pm

        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.

  8. weka 8
    30 August 2017 at 9:40 pm

    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).

  9. Draco T Bastard 9
    30 August 2017 at 9:57 pm

    Game Of Mate: How favours bleed the nation

    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.

    • CoroDale 9.1
      31 August 2017 at 7:43 am

      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?

  10. eco Maori/kiwi 10
    30 August 2017 at 10:22 pm

    +100 Draco

  11. CoroDale 11
    31 August 2017 at 7:35 am

    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

    • CoroDale 11.1
      31 August 2017 at 8:01 am

      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?

    • greywarshark 11.2
      31 August 2017 at 8:53 pm

      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.

  12. popexplosion 12
    31 August 2017 at 12:49 pm

    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?

  13. Cinny 13
    31 August 2017 at 9:43 pm

    Listening to the wireless, radio live, Slater is on, crikey he has plenty to say, worth tuning into.

    • Ed 13.1
      31 August 2017 at 9:48 pm

      Please enlighten us

      • Cinny 13.1.1
        31 August 2017 at 10:07 pm

        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

  14. Cinny 14
    1 September 2017 at 12:06 am

    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?”

    • weka 14.1
      1 September 2017 at 12:15 am

      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.

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    5 days ago

  • NZ ‘left’ politically embracing extreme postmodernism
    by Philip Ferguson Much of the left, even people who formally identify as marxists, have collapsed politically in the face of postmodern gender theory of the sort pioneered by American philosopher Judith Butler. For Butler even biological sex is socially constructed. “If the immutable character of sex is contested, perhaps ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    6 days ago

  • The obvious question
    The media is reporting that the (alleged) Labour party sexual assaulter has resigned from their job at Parliament, which means hopefully he won't be turning up there making people feel unsafe in future. Good. But as with everything about this scandal, it just raises other questions. Most significantly: why the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • The moment I found out that you found out, I acted swiftly
    By Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern I am every bit as angry as you are. I am every bit as disappointed as you must be. The people with power, oversight and the ability to do something about these processes within the Labour Party should be ashamed. Whoever those people are, I ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    6 days ago

  • This is why people hate property developers
    Property developers think there is an "oversupply" of houses in Auckland:High turnover rates and falling prices may be a sign that there are too many new houses going in to some parts of Auckland, commentators say. [...] Property developer David Whitburn said there was a "bit of an oversupply" in ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Australia to Pacific: “Fuck you, you can all drown”
    World leaders are meeting in New York in two weeks for the 2019 Climate Action Summit, where they are expected to announce new and more ambitious targets to stop the world from burning. But the Australian Prime Minister won't be there, despite being in the USA at the time:Scott Morrison ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Implausible ignorance
    Labour Party president Nigel Haworth resigned yesterday over the party's sexual assault scandal. But while that's good news, its unlikely to take away the stench of a coverup. Because according to Paula Bennett in Parliament yesterday, pretty much everyone in the Prime Minister's office was involved as well:I have been ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago

  • Labour’s Fatal Flaw.
     Two-Faced? Labour insiders' commitment to the neoliberal status quo puts them at odds with their party’s membership; its trade union affiliates; and a majority of Labour voters, but this only serves to strengthen the perception they have of themselves as a special elite. Among the lesser breeds, they’ll talk up a ...
    Bowalley Road
    6 days ago

  • Ten reasons the Tories do NOT want an election
    There has been a lot of talk about Boris Johnson wanting an election, and he has blustered with great gusto about 'chicken' Jeremy Corbyn refusing one, but I think there are many reasons why he is secretly glad he has been refused the opportunity:The Tories are an utter rabble,tearing themselves ...
    Left hand palmBy lurgee
    7 days ago

  • Prorogation Illegal, rule Scottish judges
    Scottish appeal court judges have declared that Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend parliament in the run-up to the October Brexit deadline is unlawful. The three judges, chaired by Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge, overturned an earlier ruling that the courts did not have the powers to interfere in the prime ...
    Left hand palmBy lurgee
    7 days ago

  • Let me explain what I meant by Everyday New Zealanders
    By Simon Bridges. The following is a press release from the office of Simon Bridges, leader of The National Party. Key ora, New Zealand. Happy Maori Language Week. Look, I’m writing to you today because I want to clear something up. There’s been a lot of kerfuffle around some things ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    7 days ago

  • Yes, the SIS is subject to the Public Records Act
    I understand there's some stuff going round about how the SIS "was removed from the list of public offices covered by the Public Records Act in 2017". The context of course being their records derived from US torture, which will be disposed of or sealed. The good news is that ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • An evidence-based discussion of the Canadian fluoride/IQ study
    Dr. Christopher Labos and Jonathan Jarry discuss the recent Canadian fluoride/IQ research. They provide an expert analysis of the paper and its problems. Click on image to go to podcast. The critical debate about the recent ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    7 days ago

  • Climate Change: Australia in denial
    Australia is burning down again, and meanwhile its natural disaster minister is denying climate change:Australia’s minister responsible for drought and natural disasters, David Littleproud, has said that he doesn’t “know if climate change is manmade”. Clarifying earlier comments that the question is “irrelevant” when considering the Coalition government’s response to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    7 days ago

  • Philippines activist speaking on the Duterte tyranny
    Auckland Philippines Solidarity is excited to host Professor Judy Taguiwalo for a speaking tour of NZ in September. She is a well-known activist in the Philippines and was a political prisoner under the Marcos dictatorship. Professor Taguiwalo briefly served as a Cabinet member under President Duterte but was forced from ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Disgust
    I have no special insights to offer on the Labour sexual assault coverup. All I have is disgust. Disgust that an organisation could fail its people so badly. Disgust that they punished the victims rather than the perpetrator. Disgust that its party hacks are apparently blaming the victims for demanding ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Speak Up for Women calls out Greens’ censorship
    This open letter to the Green Party was penned after an opinion piece by Jill Abigail, a feminist and founding member of the party, was censored by the Greens’ leadership. (Redline has reprinted her article here).The intolerance of the Green Party leaders and their acceptance of the misogyny of gender ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Member’s Day: End of Life Choice, part 3
    Today is a Member's day, and David Seymour's End of Life Choice Bill continues its slow crawl through its committee stage. They're spending the whole day on it today, though the first hour is likely to be spent on voting left over from last time. After that they'll move on ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Flight to Los Angeles turned back after passengers decide they don’t want to go anymore
    An ambitious plan to fly to Los Angeles petered out into a brief sight-seeing trip and a desire to return home and get some sleep before work tomorrow. Air New Zealand has confirmed a flight to Los Angeles last night was turned back about a quarter of the way into ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    1 week ago

  • Indigenous Futures: defuturing and futuring – an analytical framework for policy development?
    There appears to be consensus – by omission – that the concept of indigenous futures should be accepted at face value. So I scavenged the internet to see if I could locate an academic descriptor or a framework around how we think about it as a concept, and whether it ...
    EllipsisterBy Ellipsister
    1 week ago

  • Cadbury rumoured to be releasing the Pineapple Trump
    Here’s another novelty chocolate to shove in your gob, New Zealand Cadbury could be seeking to make itself great again with a rumoured new release: Pineapple Trumps, a spin on its classic chocolate-encased pineapple treat and do-it-yourself tooth remover. The global confectionery manufacturer and bumbling “before” character in an infomercial, ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    1 week ago

  • The coming resource war.
    During my time in the Pentagon I had the privilege of sitting down with military leaders and defence and security officials from a variety of Latin American nations. Sometimes I was present as a subordinate assistant to a senior US defence department official, sometimes as part of a delegation that ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    1 week ago

  • Māori Language Week with The Civilian
    Kia ora, Aotearoa. It’s that magical time of year. Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. In English, the week that frightens talk radio. As you probably know by now, all your favourite media outlets are participating, some more successfully than others. Stuff has changed its name to Puna for the ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    1 week ago

  • Will Horizons act on climate change?
    Local body elections are coming up next month. And it looks like all Palmerston North candidates for Horizons (the Manawatu-Whanganui Regional Council) want to take action on climate change:Climate change is set to be a key issue in Palmerston North for the next three years if those wanting to get ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • BORA reform is stalled
    Eighteen months ago, the government promised to strengthen the Bill of Rights Act, by explicitly affirming the power of the courts to issue declarations of inconsistency and requiring Parliament to formally respond to them. So how's that going? I was curious, so I asked for all advice about the proposal. ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Corbyn and Brexit
    As the Brexit saga staggers on, the focus is naturally enough on the Prime Minister and his attempts to achieve Brexit “do or die”. But the role played by the Leader of the Opposition is of almost equal interest and complexity. The first problem for Jeremy Corbyn is that he ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    1 week ago

  • A ditch for him to die in
    Last week, English Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly declared that he would rather die be dead in a ditch than delay Brexit. Unfortunately for him, the UK parliament accepted the challenge, and promptly dug one for him. The "rebellion bill" requires him to ask for and secure yet another temporary ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Warning! Warning! Danger Jacinda Ardern! Danger Marama Davidson! Warning!
    Lost In Political Space: The most important takeaway from this latest Labour sexual assault scandal, which (if I may paraphrase Nixon’s White House counsel’s, John Dean’s, infamous description of Watergate) is “growing like a cancer” on the premiership, is the Labour Party organisation’s extraordinary professional paralysis in the face of ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • Union solidarity with Ihumatao land occupation
    by Daphna Whitmore Every Sunday for the past two months unionists from First Union, with supporters from other unions, have set out to the Ihumatao land protest, put up gazebos and gas barbeques, and cooked food for a few hundred locals and supporters who have come from across the country. ...
    RedlineBy Daphna
    1 week ago

  • Climate Change: The wrong kind of trees?
    Newsroom today has an excellent, in-depth article on pine trees as carbon sinks. The TL;DR is that pine is really good at soaking up carbon, but people prefer far-less efficient native forests instead. Which is understandable, but there's two problems: firstly, we've pissed about so long on this problem that ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • No freedom of speech in Turkey
    Canan Kaftancioglu is a Turkish politician and member of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). Like most modern politicians, she tweets, and uses the platform to criticise the Turkish government. She has criticised them over the death of a 14-year-old boy who was hit by a tear gas grenade during ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Speaker: Tadhg Stopford: Why I’m standing for the ADHB
    Hi there, just call me Tim.We face tough problems, and I’d like to help, because there are solutions.An Auckand District Health Board member has nominated me for as a candidate for the ADHB, because her MS-related pain and fatigue is reduced with hemp products from Rotorua.  Nothing else helped her. If I ...
    Public Address
    1 week ago

  • Good little vassals
    The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has published their report on whether the SIS and GCSB had any complicity in American torture. And its damning. The pull quote is this:The Inquiry found both agencies, but to a much greater degree, the NZSIS, received many intelligence reports obtained from detainees who, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Who Shall We Turn To When God, And Uncle Sam, Cease To Defend New Zealand?
    Bewhiskered Cassandra? Professor Hugh White’s chilling suggestion, advanced to select collections of academic, military and diplomatic Kiwi experts over the course of the past week, is that the assumptions upon which Australia and New Zealand have built their foreign affairs and defence policies for practically their entire histories – are ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • The Politics of Opposition
    For most of the time I was a British MP, my party was out of government – these were the Thatcher years, when it was hard for anyone else to get a look-in. As a front-bencher and shadow minister, I became familiar with the strategies required in a parliamentary democracy ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    1 week ago

  • More expert comments on the Canadian fluoride-IQ paper
    The Green et al (2019) fluoride/IQ is certainly controversial – as would be expected from its subject (see If at first you don’t succeed . . . statistical manipulation might help and Politics of science – making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear). Anti-fluoride campaigners have been actively promoting it ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    1 week ago

  • The return to guerrilla war in Colombia
    by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On August 29th a video in which veteran FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) commander Iván Márquez announced that they had taken up arms again was released. There was no delay in the reaction to it, from longtime Liberal Party figure and former president Uribe, for ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    1 week ago

  • Air New Zealand identifies this enormous plot of unused land as possible second airport site
    Air New Zealand couldn’t believe its luck that this seemingly ideal piece of real estate had so far gone entirely unnoticed. Air New Zealand’s search for a site to build a second Auckland Airport may have made a breakthrough this afternoon, after employees scanning Google satellite imagery spotted a huge, ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    2 weeks ago

  • Redline on the Labour Party
    No-one on the anti-capitalist left in this country today puts forward a case that Labour is on the side of the working class.  There are certainly people who call themselves ‘socialist’ who do, but they are essentially liberals with vested interests in Labourism – often for career reasons. Nevertheless, there ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    2 weeks ago

  • New Fisk
    Lebanon’s crisis is almost unstoppable. Drone warfare is on the horizon ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Labour’s failure
    When National was in government and fucking over the poor for the benefit of the rich, foodbanks were a growth industry. And now Labour is in charge, nothing has changed: A huge demand for emergency food parcels means the Auckland City Mission is struggling to prepare for the impending arrival ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Ardern attempts to vaccinate Clarke Gayford live on television to prove that it’s safe
    Gayford, pictured here on The Project, before things got wildly out of control. A bold public relations move by the Government to encourage parents to vaccinate their children has gone horribly wrong. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern appeared on tonight’s episode of Three’s The Project, where the plan was for her ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    2 weeks ago

  • Has Mr. Whippy gone too far by parking on our front lawns?
    Mr. Whippy’s business model has driven it down a dark road of intimidation. Residents in major centres around the country are becoming disgruntled by the increasingly aggressive actions of purported ice cream company Mr. Whippy, who have taken to parking on people’s front lawns and doorsteps in a desperate attempt ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    2 weeks ago

  • Cleaning up the water
    Today the government released its Action Plan for Healthy Waterways, aimed at cleaning up our lakes and rivers. Its actually quite good. There will be protection for wetlands, better standards for swimming spots, a requirement for continuous improvement, and better standards for wastewater and stormwater. But most importantly, there's a ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Fronting up
    Today I appeared before the Environment Committee to give an oral submission on the Zero Carbon Bill. Over 1,500 people have asked to appear in person, so they've divided into subcommittees and are off touring the country, giving people a five minute slot each. The other submitters were a mixed ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

  • Politics of science – making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
    Anti-fluoride activists have some wealthy backers – they are erecting billboards misrepresenting the Canadian study on many New Zealand cities – and local authorities are ordering their removal because of their scaremongering. Many New Zealanders ...
    Open ParachuteBy Ken
    2 weeks ago

  • Democracy – I Don’t Think So
    So, those who “know best” have again done their worst. While constantly claiming to be the guardians of democracy and the constitution, and respecters of the 2016 referendum result, diehard Remainers (who have never brought themselves to believe that their advice could have been rejected) have striven might and main ...
    Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
    2 weeks ago

  • Government says it will now build just one really nice home
    Following publication of this article, the Ministry has requested it to be noted that this supplied image is not necessarily representative of what the final house will look like, and it “probably won’t be that nice.” As part of today’s long-anticipated reset of the Government’s flagship KiwiBuild policy, Housing Minister ...
    The CivilianBy admin
    2 weeks ago

  • Imperialism and your cup of coffee
    Over the next week or two we will be running three synopses of parts of the opening chapter of John Smith’s Imperialism in the 21st Century (New York, Monthly Review Press, 2016).  The synopsis and commentary below is written by Phil Duncan. Marx began Capital not with a sweeping historical ...
    RedlineBy Admin
    2 weeks ago

  • Still juking the stats
    The State Services Commission and Ombudsman have released another batch of OIA statistics, covering the last six months. Request volumes are up, and the core public service is generally handling them within the legal timeframe, though this may be because they've learned to extend rather than just ignore things. And ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 weeks ago

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