Exactly!
A well rehearsed exit stage left! Couldn’t wait to get out of there!
And thereby avoiding any retraction or apology.. appalling behaviour.
And this is the man who “leads” the country. Scumbag!
Yep this (insert appropriate adjective)PM makes a mockery of Parliament -basically he gives the middle finger to the whole parliamentary process. Which, if you think about it, is the same as giving the middle finger to us -the voters.
I know what I will do when in the polling booth I have a chance to respond.
“The Prime Minister will leave the chamber.”
PM (thinks) ..’Oh saved..’Thank god for that. but wot took you so long Dave?
I was losing my mojo there, Little by Little.
You got it. Notice too that Key was standing with his back to the speaker so he could claim not to be aware of him standing up.
Also, what’s to say this wasn’t planned distraction between Carter and Key.
The smiling faces of the National MPs filing out of the chamber said it all. “That’s one way to avoid embarrassing questions. By next week everyone will have forgotten. Well excuted maneuver Key and Carter.”
Did Carter kick Little out a couple of minutes later?
I can remember one occasion when then Speaker Margaret Wilson had to order Helen Clark to leave. Wilson had made a threat that the next MP who interjected when the Speaker was on her feet would be ejected.
The next one to do so was Helen Clark with a very loud, long interjection. Wilson had to go through with her threat, try as she might to get out of it. If looks could have killed the glare she got from Helen would have turned poor Margaret into a little pile of ashes.
Obviously scared stiff of the telling off she was going to get later Wilson ordered a totally innocent, at least at that moment, National leader, Don Brash, out of the House a couple of minutes later. Perhaps she thought this might save her from the worst of H1 and H2’s tongues. A Speaker has never looked so worried about her actions.
It was quite funny at the time.
Good on Carter though. What happened to the later question from Ron Mark to the PM? I doubt that Bill English was properly prepared.
If you missed it you missed the context of how Key carter and English, all serious and heads down entered the chamber.
I knew something was up.. then he went on his usual build up to a childish tirade, and being as John is , so arrogant and probably either has carter in his back pocket or plainly just ignores him and keeps on finishing his attack too the childish amusement of his gay fan club cheering and laughing it’s disgusting.
Upston plain lying on figures, and the next question to Smith should have got her done for perjury if it was a court room.
Quite frankly it looks like governments run by a gang of bloody crooks, thumbing there nose and with an inside man at the top. Carter.
They deserve an IRD probe up each and every one of their greed lined bottom opening.
Actually, my memory was slightly astray. Helen interjected while a question was being asked, not while the Speaker was on her feet. At least according to TVNZ.
“The last time a prime minister was ejected from parliament was in 2005 when Helen Clark interjected as National’s Nick Smith was asking a question.
All questions must be heard by the House in silence, so Speaker Margaret Wilson was forced to ask Miss Clark to leave”.
As it isn’t something to be ashamed of and I sense no malice in alwyn’s statement I see it as nothing more than a related anecdote. The key message being that Margaret Wilson had to remove Brash after she removed Clark. In this case Key was probably aiming to be kicked out and Carter knew it.
Everything Alwyn Troll says is malice motivated. He unconditionally proselytises for the Fake Man. He’s doing it today with the device “Labour did it too !” Not really pointing up anything in particular, distracting mostly, looks benign, but just trolling. A nasty insides. Doing his 30 hours a week.
People nominate a recipient lets say red cross, that way they can also use the more powerful and less regulations of the “CHARATIBLE TRUST” type trust.
pure smoke and mirrors and a tax evasion scam.
The issue is Keys deny and obfuscating it, as that, when the issue damn well lays elsewhere and he refuses to do anything about it. Or mention the fact MF is the fourth largest of said tax evasion specialist companies, the issue he minimizes whilst it is in fact is far bigger then he desperately, doesn’t want us to know.
I don’t know why the media and key are playing this game, at election time he will win or lose on how he deals with it.
digging his heals in to keep the status quo until Sherwins report comes out. Good pressure by the opposition.
I think Double Dipper will be extremely annoyed to say the least that he was left to carry the can, the PM is becoming even more than ever a liability for the present gov. Yes, Carter seems to be a bit more on the ball today, this certainly would be a weasel’s way to get out of answering difficult questions – what a tosser.
I think that the concept of it being theatre and all on a script is far closer to the truth. WK above is still judging it by historic ideas of how politics works. But the age of the celebrity is in, where people enjoy the drama, with most feeling confident that they are secure in their satisfactory economic position which they expect to continue while others are still struggling. Change that, and it means adjustments, which the rich don’t welcome, they will get less for sure and stuff the plebs. Now for todays fun.
Key being thrown out of Parliament, well lawks a’ mussy!!!! – I wonder, could this be a jack-up with our ever so professional and neutral Speaker, so as to avoid having to answer later even more curly questions? It would be well worth it to Key to help him avoid more of those tough questions – after all there’s only so much shouting and sucking in of the breath that one can do, right? It seems from some of the preceding comments that many of us are using our “snofflers” to pick up a nasty rodent-like odour!
For a moment John Key made me think Greenpeace, Amnesty and Red Cross were hiding ill gotten money in shady tax haven trust accounts. But it was all a lie, as fabricated as the use of their names by the scum who used their names. Turns out in reality they weren’t doing anything of the sort, their names were used falsely by the very people Key wants to accomodate in our tax haven.
What must reputable decent organisations think of having their name trampled in the cesspool that someone as awful as Key inhabits?
Just another everyday lie from our thoroughly untrustworthy Prime Minister.
Surely this could affect them adversely, what Key has done, I saw Red Cross collecting today & I couldn’t help but think of Keys bullshit, but I know it’s bullshit, others are more gullible.
Fint trouble yourself outside the beltway people don’t care, they are to busy watching the Batchelor and the going ons at the Warriors and the Hurricanes
“were hiding ill gotten money in shady tax haven trust accounts”.
That is because you have been listening to Little and Shaw. They are deliberately trying to encourage you to think that everyone mentioned on that database is a crook. Why do you think they word their questions in the way they do?
Unfortunately John Key has pointed out the fact that these organisations are also on the database and the effect of the Green Party and the Labour Party allegations is to smear them too.
You really ought, as Key has pointed out, not believe everything that those parties are trying to tell you. You should also not follow along with Little’s knee-jerk reaction to claim that all Foreign Trusts are for tax evasion. That way Mathers gets caught up in Little’s smear campaign.
It isn’t Key who should be apologising to Greenpeace, Amnesty International, The Red Cross and Mathers. It is little and Shaw who should be doing so. They are the ones who have been smearing everyone whose name appears on the database.
” They are the ones who have been smearing everyone whose name appears on the database.” Can you give me an example please, I would like to see what they say.
Thats not what Little says you deceitful liar, he said this “If there is no convincing reason, then they will go.” I won’t engage with you again, you proved your words worth.
Key is conflating these august organisations with “Typical clients are an Ecuadorian banker, two Colombian car dealers (one New Zealand trust each), a Mexican film director, and wealthy Mexican society figures” (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/panama-papers/303356/nz-at-heart-of-panama-money-go-round“. This info has been out there for days, Alwyn. We are in bed with the devil.
“Colombian CAR DEALERS???” ffs.
Get it right Alwyn. They may be on the database but as beneficiaries… not clients/owners, therefore fraudulently.
JFK is spinning so wildly over this potentially fatal scandal it’s a wonder he doesn’t have whiplash.
You are getting a bit confused.
That piece you linked to isn’t anything John Key said.
It is some journalists, seemingly rather high who are basically saying that anyone who has had anything to do with that law firm is a crook.
Then they label the database as being the evidence.
As Key pointed out there are all sorts of people mentioned on that database who are in fact innocent but who Little and Shaw are smearing by innuendo.
It isn’t Key who is doing it. It is these hyperbolic raves from these “journalists” and Little and Shaw cheering them on.
Oh quit the false equivalence bullshit and show some mature, moral and adult behaviour.
Amnesty International, Red Cross, Greenpeace, and Ms Mathers are innocent victims in this corruption. They have been dragged into this without their knowledge and for totally dishonest purpose. They are victims in this filthy debacle.
Perhaps you’d like to apply the same line of thought to victims of rape or domestic violence.
No, that’s Key’s framing. The opposition have been saying that the trust regulations need to be altered so that, on the one hand. it is as easy as possible to prevent people from avoiding tax in ways that were not foreseen by the NZ electorate and would not be condoned by it. On the other, it is suggesting the legislation concerning trusts and look-through companies should be made transparent enough that we can have the highest confidence that no money is being laundered.
The opposition, along with some journalists, have also zeroed in on Mr. Whitney on account of the sequence: Whitney conversation with PM → email from Whitney to revenue minister claiming reassurances from PM → meeting of revenue minister with trust lobbyists in Whitney’s offices → Minister advocating lobbyists’ interests to IRD → confirmation from IRD that they would take these interests into account → IRD foregoing mooted review of trust regulations. That is evidence of ministerial (and possibly Prime Ministerial) interference, not a smear.
Mr. Key’s statements in the house about Greenpeace etc., on the other hand, were simply a smear, since they simply rely on a simple name-check that wouldn’t even undermine the opposition’s arguments if Mr. Key had some substance to lend weight to it.
He’s behaving like we don’t understand that is pathetic, he knows of the 2013 case, greens were asking reasonable questions , so are NZ first, key has spun that into what’s he’s pointing out, any name can be on there.
Does he think we really think amnesty international are scamming, or greenpeace? Well that would be spectacular show me the ird proof.
He uses weak excuses for his actions. the excuses of a child.
Parliament works better without Key – and absenting him got him off the hook of the questions – temporarily. He’s a crook, such a person has no business being in parliament.
I wonder when Crosby Textor came up with this stunt.
Everyone – esp. Opposition MPs – needs to focus on the fact he is *avoiding questions over the Panama Papers*. That is the real story here. No one really cares if he was ‘unruly’ in the house or disobeyed the Speaker. Does anyone really think he didn’t do this as a PR stunt…?
It is becoming increasingly obvious that parliament is not an appropriate forum for questioning the Prime Minister on these issues. The speaker would serve question time better if he repeatedly ruled that the Prime Minister had not addressed the question, rather than kicking him out. Seeing as we can more or less guarantee that he won’t do that, it must be up to journalists to ask him these questions, and deny his statements any oxygen until he fronts up and answers the questions adequately, filling the vacuum with their own investigation and the opinions of other politicians and experts who are prepared to engage in debate.
Unfortunately, we can more or less guarantee that journalists by and large won’t do that either.
Wouldn’t be surprised if that were true…but as mentioned the other day, C/T maybe losing their touch as evidenced by their Zac Goldsmith campaign for mayor of London, a disaster, even the Tories were complaining
They tried to pull out before and distance themselves, but yes it adds to the signs they have lost their midas touch, be good if NZ could wake up to their tactics too.
In his fantasy world he’ll be giggling in anticipation of hoots of delight from big mouthed self-employed cargo-cult tradies who loudly bray words like ‘munter’.
Yeah, I saw it on TV, got to my feet cheering the Speaker.
My take is that this was a predictable outcome looking back. 🙂 Key was on the attack from answer #1 to question #1. He pushed the boundaries.
He has a habit of ignoring the Speaker, instead talking to his own side down the Chamber. He was so busy into yelling at the Greens that he forgot the Speaker.
Who could not conscience such a disregard for his mana.
Carter was peeved, as he showed later when Brownlee, another abuser of House procedure, tried to shut down Ron Mark asking his question.
Carter was very clear. Government’s got into this mess. Someone on that side will have to stand in. Or the public will judge………..
I don’t think that Carter was in on the game. I don’t think there was a game. This is John Key under pressure, exceeding the boundaries- a narcissist under attack and unable to do as he wants.
I agree Mac1, I thought Carter looked furious at having to interject and shut him up. He won’t like being used in his position of Speaker. The PM will use anybody who stands in his way and the fact Carter has been lenient for so long I think he is starting to feel like a patsy and he isn’t impressed. Fun days ahead.
Agreed mac1. Have looked at the video. Carter came across as quite angry at Key’s blatant disregard of him. It’s possible Key did it in order to be thrown out (so as to avoid further questioning) but Carter wasn’t in on it.
Who cares who was “in on the game”? The end result is that Key didn’t have to answer further questions. Being ejected from parliament will always be more of a beltway issue than any answers the PM might have given. Does anybody even register when Peters or Mallard are ejected? They won’t care much more if it’s the PM.
It matters if Key was playing games with the Speaker. It matters whether he is a devious schemer or an out of control bully. It matters that people should know about who our PM is.
Whilst this issue lives, Key is vulnerable, so it does also matter that he has failed to answer fully in the House. The issue is still alive.
The chip chip chip at Key’s nice guy teflon coating continues. I would not be surprised that elements in the National Party use this opportunity and issue to undermine Key in the preparation for 2017 and their hopes for a fourth term.
As for the smiling Key photo after being shown the door below at 19.2? How to smile without smiling. I’ve seen that dead-eye bravado in countless boys who got tossed out of class and sent to student management. “Whatever..”
No, it doesn’t matter if Key was playing games with the Speaker. That’s a trivial issue and we have seen countless examples where we strongly suspect that to be the case, but can wind ourselves up until we’re blue in the face pointing the finger at them without proving a thing.
All that matters is that Key is avoiding answering questions. Once he gets a reputation as someone who runs away from questions, doesn’t give straight answers and whose answers either don’t make sense or don’t stack up when he does occasionally give them, then all of the suspicions that he has managed to keep at bay over the past few years will suddenly seem validated in the eyes of the electorate. At that point, he is doomed.
It doesn’t help to distract from that by highlighting parliamentary antics.
. Feb 14, 2016 – “Prime Minister John Key has been booed off stage at today’s Big Gay Out festival” Herald
. Feb 5, 2016 Key Booed at Football Nines
. May 11, 2016 Key bundled out of Parliament ranting and raving like a 13 yr old.
Having smeared falsely, Greens, Red Cross, Amnesty International, et al, he was hysterically weaving fabrications in total denial. Like a crazy screechy girl out of control.
Crazy screechy girl here.
Fully in control, and resentful about being compared to a crazy screechy right wing conspiracy theorist. Even if he is Prime Minister.
I reckon Johnny is gone in 2017, his continual bad behavior has become unacceptable for a PM, he’s become a liability and an international embarrassment.
I agree with all above, it certainly looks like a duck, it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, a premeditated plan maybe, there must have been dozens of occasions where Key should have been ousted but wasn’t, so maybe there is more to this than meets the eye.
So do you think it will be Crusher Collins 2017?
Her wig of the party might make its move and Cameron Slater now owes her a big solid for having got him off with diversion for trying to pay for a hack on this website.
So he will very likely help in the SlezeOil blog with any campaign for her to take over from Key!
I think Carter was genuiinely angry – the real giveaway would be Key’s reaction.
In my experience, entitled jerks who suddenly find that the rules apply to them get a sort of stunned look on their gobs, then get angry. And key never seems able to suppress smug when he’s feeling it even at the best of times.
Did commenter here see key’s reaction when Carter kicked him out?
No, after the firing the camera went to Carter and stayed there. The Speaker did not even look Key’s way.
Yesterday Parker got the heave and after a very short outraged response from Carter, audio-visual contact was broken.
Same with Key. His microphone got turned off during the long shot down the chamber as the Speaker was on his feet, raising his voice assertively. After that, no sign of Key. The camera, dare I say it, was off-Key.
Watch the deaf interpreter giving the sign language as the Speraker gives the marching orders.. Even I could read the sign for get out and the sign for start walking!
In addition I must compliment The Green questioner for his calm demeanour and aplomb.
I also noticed the other day when the panama papers data base was released, that Key was getting through several glasses of water, which is a sign that he was lying, one of the signs of lying is getting dry mouth & having to drink lots.
Heh, I think when Key left the House today Gerry quietly mumbled “I got a bad feeling about this” & English looked at him & said “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”. What a day!
“…Amnesty International condemns all forms of tax evasion and avoidance; and we would not accept any donation which we considered designed to evade or avoid tax.”
key is more than okay to smear these organizations (and he knows why they’re in the Panama papers), because it obfuscates, distracts, deflects, etc. Getting the boot is just another childish game…. He’s so cynical about the country he pretends to represent…… Bizarre that he hates NZ so much
If John Key is this evasive about protecting and defending rich privilege that is one step removed from himself (probably) – wait until someone finally puts him on the spot to reveal his own wealth and tax arrangements!!
. John Key has deliberately smeared a number of this Planets’ most respected and wonderful organisations. The Nationals are not known for doing humane voluntary deeds. There is no money in it.
But to smear and rubbish these great organisations FALSELY for two days in a row, makes you realise just how low the nationals and their supporters are. Rotten to the core.
The billboards should come out with slurred speech of Key rubbishing The worlds best Organisations.
Having done far too little for New Zealand, the NZ Nationals are going to demolish all that is noble in the World. For the love of Key the Crook.
he didn’t smear anyone. when you go around throwing mud, don’t expect it not to come back at you.
He was simply pointing out how stupid it is little saying foreign trusts are all dirty.
none of you seem to be able to actually grasp this.
[BLiP: Your next comment here will provide a link to a reputable source confirming your statement that Andrew Little has said “foreign trusts are all dirty” or your next comment here will not be until after 18/05/16]
Then in the next breathe he says he’s not going to do anything to increase the data the government gets about them.
So there is a problem, just not everyone in Brazils trust is crooked and set up to dodge tax, and I don’t want to know who they are, because if we don’t know when their IRD asks us we can say um dunno amigo. Hey presto tax evasion ho.
A couple who are dear friends of ours have always been of the opinion that smiling John can do no wrong. They are 100% pure National worshipers.
We rang them today and asked what they thought. The wife said, “Key is looking very silly.”
The Opposition may be finally making headway against Teflon John.
Or maybe Key is creating a situation where he can get dumped and exit parliament “for personal reasons.” Would anyone care if the former PM, who’s now living overseas, was discovered to be a likely tax evader? That would be my exit strategy.
Actually, the fact that Key can get away with bawling his illiterate shit in Parliament testifies to the absence of a Lange, a Norm Kirk, a Norman Douglas (guess whose daddy), a Mabel Howard, a Bob Semple. Dare I say a Bob Tizard ?
So sad that New Zealand is now so cheap, so E! Channel, so low class. The Parnell Ponce Fake Man and idolators mostly responsible for that.
Oooh…….IQ round 180 ? That’s Einstein-ish. No disrespect for Bob…….he did however have a capacity to identify and blitz shit. This ponce we have as PM wouldna’ stood a chance. He’s basically illiterate.
Yeah, way above the norm intellectually. Add to that a rambunctious heart. And a wonderful, retributive, lashing tongue deployed against entitled, selfish, crooked rightists. Petty self-employed, shopkeepers, real estate agents, petite bourgeoisie aspirants and cargo-cultists.
Mr. Key has, in fact, clearly misled the House. He claimed on 11 May that, if one looked at the Hasard (for May 10), one would see that he said that he referred to Greenpeace etc. as being “in the database”. So far, so good. We know (and he knows) that he was implying that they are implicated in the Panama Papers, but he is relying on his fastidiously having avoided that explicit statement in favour of “the database”, However, he later says, “I suggest the member leave the House and ring Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and Red Cross because they are implicated in the papers.“. Greenpeace is mentioned as being a beneficiary of the Exodus Trust, based on information from “offshore leaks”, current through 2010. That is the trouble when you know what you are trying to say but have to avoid saying it. Sometimes you slip up and say what you’re actually thinking. Mr. Key did on May 10, and now he should be forced to apologise or clarify.
Just get used to it folks. John Phillip Key is collateral scum more or less, pathologically expressing the no-daddy-no-role-model-thing. That’s why in middle age he’s into Richie McKey so embarrassingly.
. Men who scream and screech are not taken seriously by other men or by women. The exception being the members of the current National rabble.
Not one single member of National caucus, nor one single national voter has risen to show respect for Red Cross, Anmesty International, or Greenpeace.
The reason is that John Key has sucked out whatever decency existed within National, and replaced it with incompetence, non stop abuse, and too much corruption (Sky City eg). John Key is attempting to cover his failures with screaming and screeching.
He may well be on the way to becoming physically dangerous, so tortured is his ranting and raving and his disgusting abuse, along with his equally disgusting behaviours.. Hopefully his bodyguard will keep an eye on his mental state.
John Key was booed at the Eden Park football Nines ( Feb 5, 2016 TV 3)
John Key “Prime Minister John Key has been booed off stage at today’s Big Gay Out ” Herald Feb 14, 2016
John key was denied his strange, non historic, and appallingly shallow flag ..Mar 24, 2016 Herald and Audrey.
John Key was bundled ranting and raving out of Parliament, May 11, 2016
Be ready for more abuse from this very weird Prime Minister and his weird friends and devotees. He will increasingly clock up more and more failures.
And as for Bill English’s defense, . . . well utter bollocks. Two points:
1. Questions are supposed to be answered through the Chair (i.e. through the speaker). The fact that Key was facing the wrong way and didn’t see the Speaker rise to his feet is irrelevant as a defense.
2. The Speaker thundered out “The Prime Minister will resume his seat . . . ” before ordering Key to leave. Unless the PM wants to argue that he is hard of hearing, then Bill English’s defense simply doesn’t wash.
it didn’t show up in the live broadcast, but in the One News clip, the PM clearly made body contact with Brownlie before leaving the Chamber. It looked to me a lot like the “Nudge” part of a “Nudge-Nudge, wink-wink”).
For what its worth, the staged walkout was not done in cahouts with the Speaker, IMO. But it may well have been done in cahouts with Jerry Brownlie. Especially given the follow-up comments from Brownlie, soon after the ejection – comments which were subsequently rejected by the Speaker.
Incidentally, there was an odd mismatch between the video and the audio in yesterday’s live broadcast – a lag of about 4 or 5 seconds between the two, which made it very difficult to watch. (Something do do with a precaution in case there arose a need to censor out expletives or other non-broadcasting-standard problems that the broadcaster suspected might arise perhaps?)
For what its worth, the staged walkout was not done in cahouts with the Speaker, IMO. But it may well have been done in cahouts with Jerry Brownlie. Especially given the follow-up comments from Brownlie, soon after the ejection – comments which were subsequently rejected by the Speaker.
I agree. Carter was being used and I’m picking he’ll have been furious but he won’t say anything or take any action over it.
For goodness sake…….PM’s seat is no more than 7 metres away from the Speaker. It’s a child’s fib that he didn’t know the Speaker was on his feet. Or that he didn’t hear the Speaker yelling at him to sit down. The misconduct was deliberate. The Fake Man was always going to engage whatever it took to avoid answering parliamentary questions.
Alwyn Troll and others……..you love having an entitledly ill-behaved, bully/coward child for PM do you ?
For years I’ve posed this question – whom amongst the great bulk of decent caring parents when discussing values with youngsters cites this PM as a role model for decent, honourable behaviour ?
That’s an equally live question in regard to most of his cabinet and caucus colleagues. ‘The Character Question’
Let us not forget the very quick removal of the video of the throat slitting gesture of the PM just before 2 election s ago. This revealing clip has completely disappeared and if John Oliver could find it…
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
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 ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
This is what happens when you remove the prospect of a cushy London sinecure.
My immediate thoughts, too.
heh
My immediate thought was that it was one way of getting out of answering questions…
@ McFlock (1.2) yes, I thought the same thing, particularly with Ron Mark’s tricky questions coming up later on in the session.
Yep my thoughts too!
Also my immediate reaction.
Yea, me 2
Exactly!
A well rehearsed exit stage left! Couldn’t wait to get out of there!
And thereby avoiding any retraction or apology.. appalling behaviour.
And this is the man who “leads” the country. Scumbag!
Yep this (insert appropriate adjective)PM makes a mockery of Parliament -basically he gives the middle finger to the whole parliamentary process. Which, if you think about it, is the same as giving the middle finger to us -the voters.
I know what I will do when in the polling booth I have a chance to respond.
“The Prime Minister will leave the chamber.”
PM (thinks) ..’Oh saved..’Thank god for that. but wot took you so long Dave?
I was losing my mojo there, Little by Little.
You got it. Notice too that Key was standing with his back to the speaker so he could claim not to be aware of him standing up.
Also, what’s to say this wasn’t planned distraction between Carter and Key.
The back turning thing was so obvious, hard to believe Key wasn’t completely aware of what he was doing.
Jack up!!
The smiling faces of the National MPs filing out of the chamber said it all. “That’s one way to avoid embarrassing questions. By next week everyone will have forgotten. Well excuted maneuver Key and Carter.”
Yup
Sounds and feels like a jack up
Key and Carter and Nat MP’S treat parliment like a joke and the smiles give it away.
Their arrogance is reprehensible.
LMAO! Gold :o)
Maybe he did it all on purpose- make everything about him rather than the actual issue
Just a thought.
double down on the bullshit, drop the mic and walk away?
He’s been learning from Trump.
Trump been learning from him you mean? I wonder which business is running Trumps campaign. There must be big money in it.
All part of his psychopathic personality.
http://m.wikihow.com/Identify-a-Psychopath
And still no apology to Mojo Mathers and no retraction of his statements from yesterday re Greenpeace and Amnesty International.
Again the speaker saves the PM
Did Carter kick Little out a couple of minutes later?
I can remember one occasion when then Speaker Margaret Wilson had to order Helen Clark to leave. Wilson had made a threat that the next MP who interjected when the Speaker was on her feet would be ejected.
The next one to do so was Helen Clark with a very loud, long interjection. Wilson had to go through with her threat, try as she might to get out of it. If looks could have killed the glare she got from Helen would have turned poor Margaret into a little pile of ashes.
Obviously scared stiff of the telling off she was going to get later Wilson ordered a totally innocent, at least at that moment, National leader, Don Brash, out of the House a couple of minutes later. Perhaps she thought this might save her from the worst of H1 and H2’s tongues. A Speaker has never looked so worried about her actions.
It was quite funny at the time.
Good on Carter though. What happened to the later question from Ron Mark to the PM? I doubt that Bill English was properly prepared.
no.
If you missed it you missed the context of how Key carter and English, all serious and heads down entered the chamber.
I knew something was up.. then he went on his usual build up to a childish tirade, and being as John is , so arrogant and probably either has carter in his back pocket or plainly just ignores him and keeps on finishing his attack too the childish amusement of his gay fan club cheering and laughing it’s disgusting.
Upston plain lying on figures, and the next question to Smith should have got her done for perjury if it was a court room.
Quite frankly it looks like governments run by a gang of bloody crooks, thumbing there nose and with an inside man at the top. Carter.
They deserve an IRD probe up each and every one of their greed lined bottom opening.
Actually, my memory was slightly astray. Helen interjected while a question was being asked, not while the Speaker was on her feet. At least according to TVNZ.
“The last time a prime minister was ejected from parliament was in 2005 when Helen Clark interjected as National’s Nick Smith was asking a question.
All questions must be heard by the House in silence, so Speaker Margaret Wilson was forced to ask Miss Clark to leave”.
The rest of what I said is accurate though.
You’d think Ponyboy would’ve known better.
You still on the – “Labour did it too!” – jag are you Alwyn ?
As it isn’t something to be ashamed of and I sense no malice in alwyn’s statement I see it as nothing more than a related anecdote. The key message being that Margaret Wilson had to remove Brash after she removed Clark. In this case Key was probably aiming to be kicked out and Carter knew it.
Thank you. It was quite funny at the time. As that TVNZ quote shows it is a very rare occurrence.
Everything Alwyn Troll says is malice motivated. He unconditionally proselytises for the Fake Man. He’s doing it today with the device “Labour did it too !” Not really pointing up anything in particular, distracting mostly, looks benign, but just trolling. A nasty insides. Doing his 30 hours a week.
He’s a dicktraitor
Prime Minister, I can’t keep up. Does being on the “database” make you a baddie or not? Arrgh! Confusing.
No and it’s misleading issue,
People nominate a recipient lets say red cross, that way they can also use the more powerful and less regulations of the “CHARATIBLE TRUST” type trust.
pure smoke and mirrors and a tax evasion scam.
The issue is Keys deny and obfuscating it, as that, when the issue damn well lays elsewhere and he refuses to do anything about it. Or mention the fact MF is the fourth largest of said tax evasion specialist companies, the issue he minimizes whilst it is in fact is far bigger then he desperately, doesn’t want us to know.
I don’t know why the media and key are playing this game, at election time he will win or lose on how he deals with it.
digging his heals in to keep the status quo until Sherwins report comes out. Good pressure by the opposition.
I know, his blatant obsfucation is rather amusing. This guy really can’t give a straight answer hey?
I think Double Dipper will be extremely annoyed to say the least that he was left to carry the can, the PM is becoming even more than ever a liability for the present gov. Yes, Carter seems to be a bit more on the ball today, this certainly would be a weasel’s way to get out of answering difficult questions – what a tosser.
Thats blinglush’s job, covering for shonky and fronting bad news. Cry me a river
I think that the concept of it being theatre and all on a script is far closer to the truth. WK above is still judging it by historic ideas of how politics works. But the age of the celebrity is in, where people enjoy the drama, with most feeling confident that they are secure in their satisfactory economic position which they expect to continue while others are still struggling. Change that, and it means adjustments, which the rich don’t welcome, they will get less for sure and stuff the plebs. Now for todays fun.
And his diction is going from bad to worse.
Key being thrown out of Parliament, well lawks a’ mussy!!!! – I wonder, could this be a jack-up with our ever so professional and neutral Speaker, so as to avoid having to answer later even more curly questions? It would be well worth it to Key to help him avoid more of those tough questions – after all there’s only so much shouting and sucking in of the breath that one can do, right? It seems from some of the preceding comments that many of us are using our “snofflers” to pick up a nasty rodent-like odour!
For a moment John Key made me think Greenpeace, Amnesty and Red Cross were hiding ill gotten money in shady tax haven trust accounts. But it was all a lie, as fabricated as the use of their names by the scum who used their names. Turns out in reality they weren’t doing anything of the sort, their names were used falsely by the very people Key wants to accomodate in our tax haven.
What must reputable decent organisations think of having their name trampled in the cesspool that someone as awful as Key inhabits?
Just another everyday lie from our thoroughly untrustworthy Prime Minister.
Surely this could affect them adversely, what Key has done, I saw Red Cross collecting today & I couldn’t help but think of Keys bullshit, but I know it’s bullshit, others are more gullible.
Fint trouble yourself outside the beltway people don’t care, they are to busy watching the Batchelor and the going ons at the Warriors and the Hurricanes
That is exactly what I was thinking Keith! And being kicked out today would have suited him perfectly if he didn’t actually plan it with Carter
“were hiding ill gotten money in shady tax haven trust accounts”.
That is because you have been listening to Little and Shaw. They are deliberately trying to encourage you to think that everyone mentioned on that database is a crook. Why do you think they word their questions in the way they do?
Unfortunately John Key has pointed out the fact that these organisations are also on the database and the effect of the Green Party and the Labour Party allegations is to smear them too.
You really ought, as Key has pointed out, not believe everything that those parties are trying to tell you. You should also not follow along with Little’s knee-jerk reaction to claim that all Foreign Trusts are for tax evasion. That way Mathers gets caught up in Little’s smear campaign.
It isn’t Key who should be apologising to Greenpeace, Amnesty International, The Red Cross and Mathers. It is little and Shaw who should be doing so. They are the ones who have been smearing everyone whose name appears on the database.
” They are the ones who have been smearing everyone whose name appears on the database.” Can you give me an example please, I would like to see what they say.
Then
(1) read their Parliamentary questions.
(2) Listen to what they say on Morning Report
(3) Read their press releases.
Try this one as an example. Then look at all the others they have come out with.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1604/S00176/foreign-trusts-review-a-charade.htm
He does push the idea that a foreign trust is for tax evasion, doesn’t he?
Then have a look at this from TVNZ
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1605/S00091/andrew-little-i-would-get-rid-of-foreign-trusts.htm
Foreign trusts evil. Anyone who has anything to do with them is a crook.
Try this one
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1605/S00156/government-helped-mossack-fonseccas-tax-avoidance-business.htm
That law firm is for tax avoidance. Nothing else. Anyone who is mentioned in the same breath is involved in Tax Evasion sums up that little gem from Shaw wouldn’t you say?
Thats not what Little says you deceitful liar, he said this “If there is no convincing reason, then they will go.” I won’t engage with you again, you proved your words worth.
To be specific, can you show me where they smear everyone whose name appears on the database (I assume you mean the Panama Papers database?).
Key is conflating these august organisations with “Typical clients are an Ecuadorian banker, two Colombian car dealers (one New Zealand trust each), a Mexican film director, and wealthy Mexican society figures” (http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/panama-papers/303356/nz-at-heart-of-panama-money-go-round“. This info has been out there for days, Alwyn. We are in bed with the devil.
“Colombian CAR DEALERS???” ffs.
Get it right Alwyn. They may be on the database but as beneficiaries… not clients/owners, therefore fraudulently.
JFK is spinning so wildly over this potentially fatal scandal it’s a wonder he doesn’t have whiplash.
Time to DO SOMETHING JFK.
You are getting a bit confused.
That piece you linked to isn’t anything John Key said.
It is some journalists, seemingly rather high who are basically saying that anyone who has had anything to do with that law firm is a crook.
Then they label the database as being the evidence.
As Key pointed out there are all sorts of people mentioned on that database who are in fact innocent but who Little and Shaw are smearing by innuendo.
It isn’t Key who is doing it. It is these hyperbolic raves from these “journalists” and Little and Shaw cheering them on.
Oh quit the false equivalence bullshit and show some mature, moral and adult behaviour.
Amnesty International, Red Cross, Greenpeace, and Ms Mathers are innocent victims in this corruption. They have been dragged into this without their knowledge and for totally dishonest purpose. They are victims in this filthy debacle.
Perhaps you’d like to apply the same line of thought to victims of rape or domestic violence.
No, that’s Key’s framing. The opposition have been saying that the trust regulations need to be altered so that, on the one hand. it is as easy as possible to prevent people from avoiding tax in ways that were not foreseen by the NZ electorate and would not be condoned by it. On the other, it is suggesting the legislation concerning trusts and look-through companies should be made transparent enough that we can have the highest confidence that no money is being laundered.
The opposition, along with some journalists, have also zeroed in on Mr. Whitney on account of the sequence: Whitney conversation with PM → email from Whitney to revenue minister claiming reassurances from PM → meeting of revenue minister with trust lobbyists in Whitney’s offices → Minister advocating lobbyists’ interests to IRD → confirmation from IRD that they would take these interests into account → IRD foregoing mooted review of trust regulations. That is evidence of ministerial (and possibly Prime Ministerial) interference, not a smear.
Mr. Key’s statements in the house about Greenpeace etc., on the other hand, were simply a smear, since they simply rely on a simple name-check that wouldn’t even undermine the opposition’s arguments if Mr. Key had some substance to lend weight to it.
He’s behaving like we don’t understand that is pathetic, he knows of the 2013 case, greens were asking reasonable questions , so are NZ first, key has spun that into what’s he’s pointing out, any name can be on there.
Does he think we really think amnesty international are scamming, or greenpeace? Well that would be spectacular show me the ird proof.
He uses weak excuses for his actions. the excuses of a child.
I am beginning to lose count, is it lie #125;-)))???
Parliament works better without Key – and absenting him got him off the hook of the questions – temporarily. He’s a crook, such a person has no business being in parliament.
John Key’s name will almost certainly be revealed. He knows that. That is why he is trying to confuse the issue.
When his name does come out he will be like – “so what dude? So is Green Peace”.
He is laying the ground work for his defence once his moment of truth comes.
It is becoming clearer by the day that his involvement is neck deep and probably on a criminal level.
Reckon you could be onto something there, just heard Key framing it as such on RNZ, basically equating himself with Mojo Mathers.
Saw a funny comment on Twitter earlier, “Keys concern about tax havens are hackers”.
I wonder when Crosby Textor came up with this stunt.
Everyone – esp. Opposition MPs – needs to focus on the fact he is *avoiding questions over the Panama Papers*. That is the real story here. No one really cares if he was ‘unruly’ in the house or disobeyed the Speaker. Does anyone really think he didn’t do this as a PR stunt…?
It is becoming increasingly obvious that parliament is not an appropriate forum for questioning the Prime Minister on these issues. The speaker would serve question time better if he repeatedly ruled that the Prime Minister had not addressed the question, rather than kicking him out. Seeing as we can more or less guarantee that he won’t do that, it must be up to journalists to ask him these questions, and deny his statements any oxygen until he fronts up and answers the questions adequately, filling the vacuum with their own investigation and the opinions of other politicians and experts who are prepared to engage in debate.
Unfortunately, we can more or less guarantee that journalists by and large won’t do that either.
Wouldn’t be surprised if that were true…but as mentioned the other day, C/T maybe losing their touch as evidenced by their Zac Goldsmith campaign for mayor of London, a disaster, even the Tories were complaining
C/T lost it for Harper in Canada as well.
They tried to pull out before and distance themselves, but yes it adds to the signs they have lost their midas touch, be good if NZ could wake up to their tactics too.
Maybe some Clockwork Orange-like aversion in the people…? Seen and heard enough hate- and fear-based crap from CT, grown sick of it…
Perhaps more people are consciously realising “reality”, as espoused by CT politicians, bears little resemblance to their own day-to-day experiences.
Yes, becoming immune from the spin I hope
Mouth Almighty finally gets the boot, but it was a well planned stunt imho.
In his fantasy world he’ll be giggling in anticipation of hoots of delight from big mouthed self-employed cargo-cult tradies who loudly bray words like ‘munter’.
Yeah, I saw it on TV, got to my feet cheering the Speaker.
My take is that this was a predictable outcome looking back. 🙂 Key was on the attack from answer #1 to question #1. He pushed the boundaries.
He has a habit of ignoring the Speaker, instead talking to his own side down the Chamber. He was so busy into yelling at the Greens that he forgot the Speaker.
Who could not conscience such a disregard for his mana.
Carter was peeved, as he showed later when Brownlee, another abuser of House procedure, tried to shut down Ron Mark asking his question.
Carter was very clear. Government’s got into this mess. Someone on that side will have to stand in. Or the public will judge………..
I don’t think that Carter was in on the game. I don’t think there was a game. This is John Key under pressure, exceeding the boundaries- a narcissist under attack and unable to do as he wants.
We were cheering as well. My mate gave me a high 5 as Carter was sending him out.
It was awesome
I agree Mac1, I thought Carter looked furious at having to interject and shut him up. He won’t like being used in his position of Speaker. The PM will use anybody who stands in his way and the fact Carter has been lenient for so long I think he is starting to feel like a patsy and he isn’t impressed. Fun days ahead.
I don’t think that Carter was in on the game.
Agreed mac1. Have looked at the video. Carter came across as quite angry at Key’s blatant disregard of him. It’s possible Key did it in order to be thrown out (so as to avoid further questioning) but Carter wasn’t in on it.
Carter may have been kept in the dark to make his response more authentic.
Quiet possible. Key is basically a bully and when it comes to the crunch all bullies are cowards.
Carter will NOT like being played like this.
Who cares who was “in on the game”? The end result is that Key didn’t have to answer further questions. Being ejected from parliament will always be more of a beltway issue than any answers the PM might have given. Does anybody even register when Peters or Mallard are ejected? They won’t care much more if it’s the PM.
It matters if Key was playing games with the Speaker. It matters whether he is a devious schemer or an out of control bully. It matters that people should know about who our PM is.
Whilst this issue lives, Key is vulnerable, so it does also matter that he has failed to answer fully in the House. The issue is still alive.
The chip chip chip at Key’s nice guy teflon coating continues. I would not be surprised that elements in the National Party use this opportunity and issue to undermine Key in the preparation for 2017 and their hopes for a fourth term.
As for the smiling Key photo after being shown the door below at 19.2? How to smile without smiling. I’ve seen that dead-eye bravado in countless boys who got tossed out of class and sent to student management. “Whatever..”
No, it doesn’t matter if Key was playing games with the Speaker. That’s a trivial issue and we have seen countless examples where we strongly suspect that to be the case, but can wind ourselves up until we’re blue in the face pointing the finger at them without proving a thing.
All that matters is that Key is avoiding answering questions. Once he gets a reputation as someone who runs away from questions, doesn’t give straight answers and whose answers either don’t make sense or don’t stack up when he does occasionally give them, then all of the suspicions that he has managed to keep at bay over the past few years will suddenly seem validated in the eyes of the electorate. At that point, he is doomed.
It doesn’t help to distract from that by highlighting parliamentary antics.
Looked orchestrated to me. No usual hullabooloo from the Despicables.
Hello New Zealand
. Feb 14, 2016 – “Prime Minister John Key has been booed off stage at today’s Big Gay Out festival” Herald
. Feb 5, 2016 Key Booed at Football Nines
. May 11, 2016 Key bundled out of Parliament ranting and raving like a 13 yr old.
Having smeared falsely, Greens, Red Cross, Amnesty International, et al, he was hysterically weaving fabrications in total denial. Like a crazy screechy girl out of control.
The Nationals are a rabble. Hopeless
Crazy screechy girl here.
Fully in control, and resentful about being compared to a crazy screechy right wing conspiracy theorist. Even if he is Prime Minister.
😆
Plus – Key fails to front up for usual RNZ interview with Espinar. (not sure of the date).
I reckon Johnny is gone in 2017, his continual bad behavior has become unacceptable for a PM, he’s become a liability and an international embarrassment.
I agree with all above, it certainly looks like a duck, it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, a premeditated plan maybe, there must have been dozens of occasions where Key should have been ousted but wasn’t, so maybe there is more to this than meets the eye.
So do you think it will be Crusher Collins 2017?
Her wig of the party might make its move and Cameron Slater now owes her a big solid for having got him off with diversion for trying to pay for a hack on this website.
So he will very likely help in the SlezeOil blog with any campaign for her to take over from Key!
I think Carter was genuiinely angry – the real giveaway would be Key’s reaction.
In my experience, entitled jerks who suddenly find that the rules apply to them get a sort of stunned look on their gobs, then get angry. And key never seems able to suppress smug when he’s feeling it even at the best of times.
Did commenter here see key’s reaction when Carter kicked him out?
No, after the firing the camera went to Carter and stayed there. The Speaker did not even look Key’s way.
Yesterday Parker got the heave and after a very short outraged response from Carter, audio-visual contact was broken.
Same with Key. His microphone got turned off during the long shot down the chamber as the Speaker was on his feet, raising his voice assertively. After that, no sign of Key. The camera, dare I say it, was off-Key.
Watch the deaf interpreter giving the sign language as the Speraker gives the marching orders.. Even I could read the sign for get out and the sign for start walking!
In addition I must compliment The Green questioner for his calm demeanour and aplomb.
Given the shit-eating grin he’s wearing here, he seems to have got the result he wanted.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/79880503/why-john-key-went-on-the-attack-over-the-panama-papers
PM looked like a sheepish joker to me. One news did a good job on the trust situation tonight. Corin was nowhere to be seen, that probably helps.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/video-grinning-john-key-exits-parliament-after-getting-boot
On the TV1 News tonight the camera did follow Key, (very unusual when being sent out) and he seemed to be smirking ear to ear but his caucus seemed to just watch and not return his smirk much. He exited from the door near the Speaker.
Found it:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/video-grinning-john-key-exits-parliament-after-getting-boot?autoPlay=4887965906001
Oops. Should have read further.
Don’t know if anyone else noticed but at the beginning of Key’s rant, the piece of paper he was holding clearly showed he was shaking uncontrollably
Good point Neil. Any behaviour specialists lurking here who could give a read on him? Manic come to mind…
I also noticed the other day when the panama papers data base was released, that Key was getting through several glasses of water, which is a sign that he was lying, one of the signs of lying is getting dry mouth & having to drink lots.
Twice in as many days FJK has avoided tough questioning, through absenting himself … Monday with RNZ and now today in the House!
Demonstrating he’s not fit to lead in a spitting contest, let alone a country! The man is as spineless as a reptile, that he so closely represents!
Get him out!
He’s lost control, not good for a leader.
Silence of the trolls….
I think they have gone to the mattresses, they will be back, & in force.
You mean they startle easily, but will soon return and in greater number?
Tell me more about this “force” 🙂
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=going%20to%20the%20mattresses This is what I was thinking.
I watched the Sopranos when it was on.
But I also saw Star Wars recently and read the last half dozen words of that sentence in Alec Guinness’ voice 🙂
Heh, I think when Key left the House today Gerry quietly mumbled “I got a bad feeling about this” & English looked at him & said “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”. What a day!
Statement from Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org.nz/prime-minister-john-key-must-be-transparent-and-correct-record-his-misleading-statement
“…Amnesty International condemns all forms of tax evasion and avoidance; and we would not accept any donation which we considered designed to evade or avoid tax.”
key is more than okay to smear these organizations (and he knows why they’re in the Panama papers), because it obfuscates, distracts, deflects, etc. Getting the boot is just another childish game…. He’s so cynical about the country he pretends to represent…… Bizarre that he hates NZ so much
Nick
I just don’t think Key is particularly good at operating in a democracy, he’s very use to authoritarianism.
Wonderful! He’ll enjoy prison.
Yeah, only if he’s the Governor though, in NZ, wealthy people don’t tend to be convicted, justice is dependent on how much your willing to pay.
LOL!! Thread winna….
If John Key is this evasive about protecting and defending rich privilege that is one step removed from himself (probably) – wait until someone finally puts him on the spot to reveal his own wealth and tax arrangements!!
Yes Nick – and Fellow Commentators
. John Key has deliberately smeared a number of this Planets’ most respected and wonderful organisations. The Nationals are not known for doing humane voluntary deeds. There is no money in it.
But to smear and rubbish these great organisations FALSELY for two days in a row, makes you realise just how low the nationals and their supporters are. Rotten to the core.
The billboards should come out with slurred speech of Key rubbishing The worlds best Organisations.
Having done far too little for New Zealand, the NZ Nationals are going to demolish all that is noble in the World. For the love of Key the Crook.
A psychopathic prime minister in charge of a psychopathic government!
he didn’t smear anyone. when you go around throwing mud, don’t expect it not to come back at you.
He was simply pointing out how stupid it is little saying foreign trusts are all dirty.
none of you seem to be able to actually grasp this.
[BLiP: Your next comment here will provide a link to a reputable source confirming your statement that Andrew Little has said “foreign trusts are all dirty” or your next comment here will not be until after 18/05/16]
Then in the next breathe he says he’s not going to do anything to increase the data the government gets about them.
So there is a problem, just not everyone in Brazils trust is crooked and set up to dodge tax, and I don’t want to know who they are, because if we don’t know when their IRD asks us we can say um dunno amigo. Hey presto tax evasion ho.
http://www.labour.org.nz/key_shrugs_shoulders_at_tax_haven_status
Is that supposed to support Infused’s witless smear? It doesn’t.
A couple who are dear friends of ours have always been of the opinion that smiling John can do no wrong. They are 100% pure National worshipers.
We rang them today and asked what they thought. The wife said, “Key is looking very silly.”
The Opposition may be finally making headway against Teflon John.
Or maybe Key is creating a situation where he can get dumped and exit parliament “for personal reasons.” Would anyone care if the former PM, who’s now living overseas, was discovered to be a likely tax evader? That would be my exit strategy.
You’re onto it possibly and if so you can expect this to accelerate as he’ll want to be gone burgers ASAP.
Even my national voting neighbours text me to say what happened…….waking people up to Key’s arrogance I hope
Actually, the fact that Key can get away with bawling his illiterate shit in Parliament testifies to the absence of a Lange, a Norm Kirk, a Norman Douglas (guess whose daddy), a Mabel Howard, a Bob Semple. Dare I say a Bob Tizard ?
So sad that New Zealand is now so cheap, so E! Channel, so low class. The Parnell Ponce Fake Man and idolators mostly responsible for that.
Bob Tizard would have had his guts for garters. IQ level somewhere around 180.
Oooh…….IQ round 180 ? That’s Einstein-ish. No disrespect for Bob…….he did however have a capacity to identify and blitz shit. This ponce we have as PM wouldna’ stood a chance. He’s basically illiterate.
180 may have been a bit high, but his IQ was known to be near the top of scale.
Yeah, way above the norm intellectually. Add to that a rambunctious heart. And a wonderful, retributive, lashing tongue deployed against entitled, selfish, crooked rightists. Petty self-employed, shopkeepers, real estate agents, petite bourgeoisie aspirants and cargo-cultists.
Not to mention incomprehensible North.
Mr. Key has, in fact, clearly misled the House. He claimed on 11 May that, if one looked at the Hasard (for May 10), one would see that he said that he referred to Greenpeace etc. as being “in the database”. So far, so good. We know (and he knows) that he was implying that they are implicated in the Panama Papers, but he is relying on his fastidiously having avoided that explicit statement in favour of “the database”, However, he later says, “I suggest the member leave the House and ring Greenpeace, Amnesty International, and Red Cross because they are implicated in the papers.“. Greenpeace is mentioned as being a beneficiary of the Exodus Trust, based on information from “offshore leaks”, current through 2010. That is the trouble when you know what you are trying to say but have to avoid saying it. Sometimes you slip up and say what you’re actually thinking. Mr. Key did on May 10, and now he should be forced to apologise or clarify.
Precisely.. and that info was made public (ie leaked) a couple of years ago.
Misleading? YES!
Alwyn and other trolls please note.
Just get used to it folks. John Phillip Key is collateral scum more or less, pathologically expressing the no-daddy-no-role-model-thing. That’s why in middle age he’s into Richie McKey so embarrassingly.
“Back from the wilderness” 🙂
Good to see I haven’t missed much, usual faux outrage from the usual suspects here and life goes on for middle NZ
You wish…
You obviously don’t read or see much at all Tory. Try this thread for starters.
Time to get out more!
“Tax havens ‘serve no useful economic purpose’ and benefit rich at expense of poor, leading economists warn”
I guess that is why Key wants NZ to be one!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/tax-havens-serve-no-useful-economic-purpose-and-benefit-rich-at-expense-of-poor-leading-economists-a7019816.html
Key very rarely gives direct answers to questions.
Since the release of the so called Panama Papers his evasiveness is being accentuated.
He is behaving like someone who has something to hide.
The parliamentary ejection was an orchestrated stunt, yet another “look over there..”
The Green Peace etc diversion was clearly a failure. Something else had to be done otherwise links back to the USA may become apparent.
the usual dog whistle about “left wing conspiracies” did not seem to gain much traction either.
I wonder if this ex state house boy will ever become “an honest John?”
Staged
Oh looks like the PM has made it off the NZ sub and onto the front page of hot reddit topics tonight…
https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/4it0om/new_zealand_prime_minister_john_key_thrown_out_of/
. Men who scream and screech are not taken seriously by other men or by women. The exception being the members of the current National rabble.
Not one single member of National caucus, nor one single national voter has risen to show respect for Red Cross, Anmesty International, or Greenpeace.
The reason is that John Key has sucked out whatever decency existed within National, and replaced it with incompetence, non stop abuse, and too much corruption (Sky City eg). John Key is attempting to cover his failures with screaming and screeching.
He may well be on the way to becoming physically dangerous, so tortured is his ranting and raving and his disgusting abuse, along with his equally disgusting behaviours.. Hopefully his bodyguard will keep an eye on his mental state.
John Key was booed at the Eden Park football Nines ( Feb 5, 2016 TV 3)
John Key “Prime Minister John Key has been booed off stage at today’s Big Gay Out ” Herald Feb 14, 2016
John key was denied his strange, non historic, and appallingly shallow flag ..Mar 24, 2016 Herald and Audrey.
John Key was bundled ranting and raving out of Parliament, May 11, 2016
Be ready for more abuse from this very weird Prime Minister and his weird friends and devotees. He will increasingly clock up more and more failures.
Poor Aotearoa
Looks like JK is losing it ?
And as for Bill English’s defense, . . . well utter bollocks. Two points:
1. Questions are supposed to be answered through the Chair (i.e. through the speaker). The fact that Key was facing the wrong way and didn’t see the Speaker rise to his feet is irrelevant as a defense.
2. The Speaker thundered out “The Prime Minister will resume his seat . . . ” before ordering Key to leave. Unless the PM wants to argue that he is hard of hearing, then Bill English’s defense simply doesn’t wash.
it didn’t show up in the live broadcast, but in the One News clip, the PM clearly made body contact with Brownlie before leaving the Chamber. It looked to me a lot like the “Nudge” part of a “Nudge-Nudge, wink-wink”).
For what its worth, the staged walkout was not done in cahouts with the Speaker, IMO. But it may well have been done in cahouts with Jerry Brownlie. Especially given the follow-up comments from Brownlie, soon after the ejection – comments which were subsequently rejected by the Speaker.
Incidentally, there was an odd mismatch between the video and the audio in yesterday’s live broadcast – a lag of about 4 or 5 seconds between the two, which made it very difficult to watch. (Something do do with a precaution in case there arose a need to censor out expletives or other non-broadcasting-standard problems that the broadcaster suspected might arise perhaps?)
For goodness sake…….PM’s seat is no more than 7 metres away from the Speaker. It’s a child’s fib that he didn’t know the Speaker was on his feet. Or that he didn’t hear the Speaker yelling at him to sit down. The misconduct was deliberate. The Fake Man was always going to engage whatever it took to avoid answering parliamentary questions.
Alwyn Troll and others……..you love having an entitledly ill-behaved, bully/coward child for PM do you ?
For years I’ve posed this question – whom amongst the great bulk of decent caring parents when discussing values with youngsters cites this PM as a role model for decent, honourable behaviour ?
That’s an equally live question in regard to most of his cabinet and caucus colleagues. ‘The Character Question’
Let us not forget the very quick removal of the video of the throat slitting gesture of the PM just before 2 election s ago. This revealing clip has completely disappeared and if John Oliver could find it…