NZME is on a mission to change the Government
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- Date published:
11:00 am, February 7th, 2022 - 133 comments
Categories: covid-19, jacinda ardern, Media, the praiseworthy and the pitiful -
Tags: hobbit, the hobbit
It is beginning to feel like the media, or at least New Zealand Media and Entertainment, has it in for the Government.
They have never been supportive. Just listen to or read Mike Hosking on a good day.
But the wall to wall noise recently emanating from NZME outlets is something that Rupert Murdoch would be proud of.
Clearly there is a culture crash, between a Government wanting to do its best for the country and loud aggressive rich people insisting that business interests have to be priortised.
If you think this is far fetched then consider this recent interchange between Chris Hipkins and Mike Hosking:
Hipkins – We have the lowest mortality rate in the OECD.
Hosking – Correct. BUT AT WHAT COST?
Let that sink in. If New Zealand had matched the United States or the United Kingdom’s performance over ten thousand kiwis would now be dead. If we had matched the performance of even advanced nations with good health systems such as Denmark that would have cost three thousand kiwi lives.
And the cost?
Significant disruption to the Tourism industry but these are low paying jobs that do not contribute heavily to the country’s economy.
The fact that unemployment is at 3.1% and tax takes have increased beyond expectations suggests that the economy is doing fine.
Recent publicity concerning Charlotte Bellis has been used to bludgeon the Government but when you think about it this was strange. Within days and with Ministerial intervention the story went from an urgent application could be considered but normally she should be trying to leave the country of origin within 14 days to MIQ slot found. Allegations of cruelty are completely overblown and some gratitude on her part would be welcome.
The change in MIQ policy should come as no surprise. It was announced last December and only put on hold because of the threat of the Omicron wave overwhelming the country’s health system.
But the wall to wall sound this week has been unmistakable. And the problem is that the opinion pieces are not only things that invite disagreement but they are each factually wrong.
Like the Heather Du Plessis Allan piece that said that the Government’s announced unemployment insurance scheme was a breach of their no new tax policy. The problem with this is if she had actually read Labour’s policies she would have seen that they campaigned on introduction of this scheme.
https://twitter.com/nealejones/status/1488995752353304576
Or Kate Hawkesby’s latest hit piece which is beyond embarrassing and is tragic. Imagine thinking that a well choreographed gradual change to the border policy was awkward for the Government.
Or Barry Soper’s claim that Covid will be the Government’s undoing, and especially his claim that Omicron was “little more than a bad cold at worse [sic]”. If Omicron is less severe then why is the world’s Covid death rate increasing?
Or Mike Hosking’s claim that our inflation rate of 5.9% is way worse than most countries. According to the latest OECD comparison it is eighteenth out of 38 OECD countries but what role do facts have in Mike’s interviews?
One aspect of the Herald that particularly irks me is not the use of National Party propagandist and occasional Standard reader Matthew Hooton whose latest efforts, to equate Jacinda Ardern to Rob Muldoon is that comical, that I struggle to understand how they could ever print it.
But the past twelve months it has printed repeated attack opinion pieces by Ian Taylor He has that uber confidence born of the privileged wealthy vibe about him and he clearly thinks that his talent in doing the graphics for Hobbit movies somehow makes him an expert on pandemics. Only rich white males would be that out of touch with reality that they would think this.
His posts have continuously criticised the Government’s Covid response, world beating it may be.
He said in November:
In my next column I will address the question of trust. We gave you [Jacinda Ardern] that trust when this began, have you done enough to keep it?
Fancy thinking that the Prime Minister had to account to him and his mates and not to the country. This article also suffered from that rather major problem in that it was factually inaccurate. He said about the emergence of Omicron:
[A]re you still confident that your single focus on vaccination as being the answer to keeping us safe is going to see you adhering to that April deadline, or will we see another shift in plans because you haven’t addressed our best line of defence – testing?
I wish he would make his mind up. MIQ has been an integral part of protection from an early stage and the traffic light system is firmly in place. And public health recommendations on mask wearing, hand washing and maintaining distance have been accepted by the population at large.
He thinks that RAT tests are the perfect response to a Covid outbreak. That everything will be fine as long as we have lots and lots of tests, even though their accuracy is often not great and even though this requires all humans to do the right thing, something which the history of humanity suggests is an overly optimistic assumption.
The past week things descended into pathos. In an as yet unknown way Taylor may have facilitated the ordering of RAT tests from Kudu Spectrum. The orders are in place and the tests are being delivered. But he clearly thinks that he is the Bilbo Baggins of the story. I presume that he thinks that Jacinda Ardern is Sauron.
Things became comical this week when using all the extraordinary publication resources of the Herald he accused the Government of trying to muzzle him.
On Friday in a conference call to discuss a self-isolation programme that I had sent to MBIE two weeks ago, I was stunned by Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall’s opening line that only the Government or a Government-approved agency could communicate anything to do with the proposal from here on, and that “Sir Ian” was to refrain from writing “bad faith” articles for the Herald.
Given that everyone else in the meeting was either a government official or already part of a government group, it was clear these pre-meeting conditions were aimed solely at me.
Wow who would have thought that the Government would have wanted to keep confidential commercial details involving potentially the expenditure of tens of millions of Crown dollars?
Minister Ayesha Verrall has said in response:
“On Friday I met with Sir Ian Taylor and Air New Zealand to discuss pre-departure testing.
“As is routine with commercially sensitive discussions, and reflecting the fact that future Government decisions may need to be made, it was agreed by all parties, other than Sir Ian that confidentiality would need to be observed.
“I made it clear to Sir Ian that within those bounds he was free to continue to publicly question and criticise the Government.
“Our work with Air New Zealand on this matter is ongoing.”
Taylor’s output has been voluminous and placed prominently by the Herald. It has similar characteristics to Chris Bishop’s output, is completely negative and not once has it celebrated that our death rate is a four thousandth that of England’s. And the underlying assumptions, that business knows best and should have greater say is a recipe for disaster, as the performance of Australia, the United States, England and Brazil amongst others shows.
The overwhelming impression is that NZME is on a mission to change the Government and is engaging in completely overblown hyperbole to create a feeling of despair. How the Government responds to this will be a measure of how well it does in the next election.
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The Government is turning its back on children by not only weakening child poverty reduction targets, but also removing child mental wellbeing as a priority focus in their Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy. ...22 hours ago
- Release: A historic win for Samoan communities
Labour warmly welcomes the Restoring Samoan Citizenship Bill as it passes its third reading, before becoming law. ...23 hours ago
- Government plan to reinstate live animal exports a “national disgrace”
The Government has taken a giant step backwards by reinstating live animal exports. ...2 days ago
- Pasifika justice as Member’s Bill passes final reading
Teanau Tuiono’s Member’s Bill, the Citizenship (Western Samoa Restoration) Amendment Bill, has passed its third reading and will become law. ...2 days ago
- Release: Minister of Education thinks New Zealand ends at the Bombay Hills
The Minister of Education has shown complete disregard for rural communities and their school bus routes in Question Time today. ...2 days ago
- Economists sound alarm on Government’s slash-and-burn approach
A group of prominent economists has released an open letter to the Government, raising grave concerns about the far-reaching consequences of its fiscal policy. ...2 days ago
- Release: Smoking numbers up under Costello’s watch
National’s repeal of Labour’s smokefree legislation has taken New Zealand further away from achieving a Smokefree 2025 and a smokefree generation. ...2 days ago
- Release: Call for Palestine recognition by NZ, Australian and Canadian MPs
Parliamentarians from Australia, Canada and New Zealand have written an open letter to their respective Prime Ministers calling on them to recognise Palestine. ...2 days ago
- Justice Select Committee opens floor for Treaty Principles submissions
Today, the Justice Select Committee has decided to officially open submissions for the controversial Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
- Power of the people on full display as hīkoi approaches Parliament
Today, Hīkoi mō te Tiriti arrived in Wellington, with thousands gathering to march in unity against the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...3 days ago
- Hypocrisy as Te Whatu Ora contractor bill balloons
Te Whatu Ora’s bill for contracting and consulting staff has ballooned by nearly 20 percent under the National Government, breaking a promise they made during the election campaign to cut contractors. ...4 days ago
- Release: Growing pressure to scrap Section 7AA Repeal Bill
The newly released Section 7AA Repeal Bill's select committee report is further evidence that the Government should scrap it. ...5 days ago
- Government’s move to monetise access to nature a slippery slope
The Green Party is voicing serious concerns over the Government’s proposal to charge for access to public conservation land, released today. ...7 days ago
- Green Party condemns the passage of Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party condemns the passing of the Treaty Principles Bill at first reading, and is clear that the fight is not over. ...1 week ago
- Stand Up for Te Tiriti
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...1 week ago
- Release: Over 15,000 sign Labour’s open letter to Luxon
As the hīkoi to Parliament continues, Labour has sent an open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon in a last-ditch attempt to get him to kill the Treaty Principles Bill. ...1 week ago
- Fast Track Bill threatens environment, climate and reputation
The fast-track legislation passing its second reading in Parliament is another step towards environmental ruin. ...1 week ago
- Greens join King’s Counsel in calling for Treaty Principles Bill to be abandoned
The Prime Minister must answer the call from a group of senior lawyers of the King’s Counsel to abandon the divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...1 week ago
- Chris Hipkins’ apology statement to state and faith-based care survivors
...1 week ago
- Release: Labour formally apologises to state and faith-based care survivors
Labour joins with the Government in unreservedly apologising for the abuse, neglect and trauma including torture in state and faith-based care and for ignoring the voices of survivors for too long. ...1 week ago
- Green Party stands in support of survivors of abuse in care
Today, the Green Party stands alongside the survivors of abuse in state care and faith-based care as the Government issues an historic apology. ...1 week ago
- Green Party calls for conscience vote on Treaty Principles Bill
The Green Party has written to the Speaker of the House requesting he enable a personal vote on the Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Govt move to exclude journalist risks chilling effect
The Green Party is alarmed by the Government’s move to exclude a journalist from covering this week’s apology for the survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care. ...2 weeks ago
- Without action, an apology will be empty air
For tomorrow’s apology to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care to hold any water, the Government must not pursue the same policies that drove the abuse in the first place. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Concerns remain over tobacco interference
Concerns about the tobacco industry’s ability to interfere in government policy making remain, despite the inability of the Office of the Auditor-General to investigate the Government’s decision to halve the excise tax on heated tobacco products. ...2 weeks ago
- Urgent wake-up call on climate
The Climate Change Commission’s latest advice indicates Aotearoa needs to be stepping up on climate action. ...2 weeks ago
- Green MP’s Meme-ber’s Bill set to save the world
Break out the punchlines and dust off your meme folder: Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter’s Copyright (Parody and Satire) Amendment Bill was pulled from the Ballot yesterday. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Poroporoaki: Ta Robert (Bom) Gillies
Kua hinga te manawa kairākau o Te Rua Tekau Ma Waru Tiwhatiwha te po! Kakarauru i te po! Ka rapuhia kei hea koe kua riro! Haere e te Ika a Whiro ki o tini hoa kua ngaro atu ki te Pō ...2 weeks ago
- Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principles Bill
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori call on the Prime Minister to block the Treaty Principle...
The opposition parties stand united for an Aotearoa that honours Te Tiriti, rather than seeking to rewrite it. Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori are working together against the Government’s divisive Treaty Principles Bill. ...2 weeks ago
- NZ must pursue independent foreign policy
The Green Party says the need is greater than ever for Aotearoa New Zealand to pursue an independent foreign policy. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Winston Peters must apologise
The Deputy Prime Minister should apologise to the public servant he named and blamed for something they did not do, and for misusing the rules of Parliament. ...2 weeks ago
- Government action provides Southland farmers more time to meet plan requirements
The Government is taking action to ensure Southland farmers and growers are not affected by unreasonable regional farm plan deadlines, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay, Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard say.“Cabinet has agreed to provide more time for farmers and growers to comply with regional rules ...15 hours ago - Bill reaffirms Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending
The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Bill had its first reading at Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Government’s commitment to crack down on serious youth offending, Minister for Children Karen Chhour says. “In recent years we have seen an unacceptable spike in youth offending. “This Bill makes ...15 hours ago
- Critical milestones for earthquake buildings review
Fairer, more sensible rules about managing earthquake risks are a step closer with the passing of legislation and the appointment of an independent chair to provide expert advice, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The Government is committed to reinvigorating our cities and regions to support economic growth, ...16 hours ago
- State of the art radiology machine for Auckland
People in Northland and Auckland will benefit from a new machine for cancer treatment installed at the Regional Cancer and Blood Service at Auckland City Hospital. The MV5 linear accelerator, or LINAC machine, officially opened today targets cancer tumours with pinpoint accuracy. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says this new, ...16 hours ago
- Foreign Minister to visit Europe
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Europe for high-level talks with France, Germany and the United Kingdom next week. "Since taking office almost a year ago, the Coalition Government has emphasised the importance we place on New Zealand's traditional and likeminded diplomatic and ...17 hours ago
- First arrests made under gang patch ban
Police have made their first arrests under the new gang patch legislation, with two gang members arrested, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “Just before 11 this morning, Police in Wairoa apprehended a gang member for wearing a patch to the supermarket. He has been arrested and will now face enforcement ...18 hours ago
- Better support for victims of sexual violence
The Government is proposing two major changes to name suppression laws that will put the views of victims of sexual violence first, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “We are committed to restoring law and order and these two proposed changes will help ensure the victims of crime are put at ...19 hours ago
- Government moving forward with Regional Deals
Cabinet has agreed to invite all regions to submit proposals for Regional Deals between central and local government that drive economic growth and deliver the infrastructure our country needs, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop say. Inviting all regions to propose a Regional Deal that boosts ...19 hours ago
- MSA pilot participant update
One of the ten young men selected to participate in the Military-Style Academy Pilot has allegedly reoffended. Children’s Minister Karen Chhour is disappointed but says it would be naïve to think that none of these young men would reoffend. “I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity ...20 hours ago
- Attendance rates increase, again
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says that school attendance is continuing to rise. In Term 3 of 2024 51.3 per cent of students attended school regularly, an increase of 5.3 percentage points from 46 per cent in Term 3 of 2023. “This Government has prioritised student attendance and it is ...22 hours ago
- Improving the lives of young New Zealanders
Ensuring New Zealand is the best place in the world for children and young people is the vision at the heart of the Government’s new Child and Youth Strategy, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says. “Childhood represents a huge opportunity to set people on a positive path towards living ...1 day ago
- Government continues work to reinstate livestock exports by sea
The Government is reinstating the trade of livestock exports by sea while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare, says Associate Minister of Agriculture Andrew Hoggard.“The Government will introduce legislation changes to reinstate the trade, enhance oversight, and strengthen requirements for exporters to identify risks and manage the welfare of ...2 days ago
- Speech to the National Quality Forum 2024
Tēnā koutou katoa – it is a pleasure to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the important leadership role you all play in ensuring a quality health system New Zealanders can trust. There is enormous clinical expertise in this room covering a wide range of disciplines. ...2 days ago
- New Zealand’s COP29 National Statement
Tēnā koutou katoa. Mr President, Excellencies, Delegates. New Zealand, and all nations represented here today, are already dealing with the impacts of climate change. Our households, businesses, and economies are bearing the costs of its effects. The choices we make now will shape the severity of these impacts for generations ...2 days ago
- Latest Quarterly Investment Report released
The Government has released its second Quarterly Investment Report (QIR) which shows substantial work still to be done by agencies to improve investment reporting and meet the Government’s expectations, Infrastructure and Acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “New Zealand has significant infrastructure and investment needs. The Government is determined to get ...2 days ago
- New Zealand supporting loss and damage fund
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced New Zealand will contribute NZ$10 million to the new Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage while at the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. “New Zealand is joining the global effort to address the significant challenge of responding to ...2 days ago
- Gang crackdown begins at stroke of midnight
The free ride for gangs is over when the clock strikes midnight tonight, with tough new laws officially coming into effect, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell say. “Gang patches will no longer be able to be worn in public. To earn the right to wear a ...2 days ago
- LGFA increases borrowing capacity to support high growth councils
The Government is welcoming the decision by the Local Government Funding Agency to increase access to financing tools for fast growing councils to support greater investment in critical infrastructure, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown says.“Communities across the country are facing an infrastructure deficit and significant population growth is projected in ...2 days ago
- Temporary Traffic Management costs revealed
The Government has revealed that over the past three years, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) has spent an eyewatering $786 million of taxpayers’ money on road cones and temporary traffic management (TTM), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“When I became Minister, I was surprised to learn that that NZTA did ...2 days ago
- Jurisdiction of Disputes Tribunal to double
Legislation that will double the financial jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal from $30,000 to $60,000 has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith. “We need to improve court timeliness and access to justice so that Kiwis and get on with their lives. Court delays affect everyone, the ...3 days ago
- Protecting New Zealand from foreign interference
Legislation that will specifically criminalise foreign interference and strengthen espionage offences has passed first reading in Parliament today, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “It is normal and appropriate for states to interact and work to influence one another. This encourages cooperation and can have mutually beneficial outcomes. “However, the reality ...3 days ago
- Significant milestone for Canterbury Road of National Significance
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed news that the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) Board has approved funding towards pre-implementation and early works on the State Highway 1 (SH1) Belfast to Pegasus Motorway and Woodend Bypass Road of National Significance (RoNS). “Reaching this significant milestone is a reflection of our Government’s ...3 days ago
- Health survey results to help drive change
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says findings from the annual Health Survey highlight the need to continue driving better health outcomes for New Zealanders. The New Zealand Health Survey is an annual snapshot of key metrics measured from July 2023 – July 2024. Findings released this morning include: In 2023/24, ...3 days ago
- Final push needed to get to Smokefree 2025
A renewed effort to get people to quit smoking will build on what has worked to date and target the groups who most need support, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello said today. “The latest New Zealand Health Survey results show the daily smoking rate at 6.9 per cent and we ...3 days ago
- New diplomatic appointments
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced four new diplomatic appointments. “Our diplomats play an important role in ensuring New Zealand’s interests are maintained and enhanced across the world,” Mr Peters says. “It is a pleasure to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign ...3 days ago
- Next steps for Regulatory Standards Bill
Regulation Minister David Seymour has today announced the next steps in the Government’s plan improve the quality of regulation by opening consultation on a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. “New Zealand's low wages can be blamed on low productivity, and low productivity can be blamed on poor regulation,” says Mr Seymour. ...3 days ago
- Red Tape Tipline goes live
Minister for Regulation David Seymour has today announced that the Ministry for Regulation’s Red Tape Tipline is now live. “We want to hear about your red tape horror stories. From today, New Zealanders will have a say on how they are regulated through an online portal,” says Mr Seymour. The ...3 days ago
- Youth Parliament 2025 announced
The Minister for Youth Matt Doocey has today announced the eleventh Youth Parliament will be taking place in 2025. “Youth Parliament offers a unique youth development opportunity to young people from across New Zealand to experience the political process and learn about how government works,” says Mr Doocey. “The two-day ...4 days ago
- Police stats show promising change
After nearly a year in Government, Kiwis have seen significant change across law and order with promising early results shown across some Police statistics, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. “In August 2023, I told New Zealanders that if they had not started to see a change in public safety within ...4 days ago
- Better coordination of anti-scam efforts
With the launch of Fraud Awareness Week, the Government is committing to new coordination efforts across industry and government to combat online scams, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Online financial scams are a growing problem for New Zealand. New data released today shows that Kiwis lost nearly ...4 days ago
- Minister to consider 7AA select committee report
Minister for Children Karen Chhour will consider the recommendations made by the Social Services and Community Committee in its report back to Parliament on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill. “I want to thank the people who made submissions and those who appeared before the committee in ...4 days ago
- Defence Minister to attend ASEAN meeting
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Vientiane, Laos. “We need to take every opportunity to engage with our international partners, given the increasingly unstable geo-political situation,” Ms Collins says. “New Zealand has a long-standing commitment to this ...4 days ago
- Launching the White Ribbon Ride
The Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Karen Chhour, was on hand to wish riders well at the start of the North Island leg of the White Ribbon Ride in Whakatāne this morning. The ride helps mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ...5 days ago
- Construction to begin on next stage of Papakura to Drury
Construction on the next stage of the SH1 Papakura to Drury project will begin early next month, with the contract for works awarded to Fulton Hogan, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. "SH1 Papakura to Drury is a key project that will drive economic growth and productivity, reduce congestion, and enable people ...6 days ago
- NZ signs trade deal with Costa Rica, Iceland and Switzerland
Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has signed a pioneering trade agreement that prioritises New Zealand’s sustainable exports at a ceremony during APEC in Peru today. “The Agreement on Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS), between Costa Rica, Iceland, and Switzerland was concluded in July of this year and opens up significant ...6 days ago
- Government and iwi work together on aquaculture
Five new Aquaculture Settlement Areas will help ensure Ngāi Tahu shares in the opportunities aquaculture offers for Southland’s economy, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. “The Aquaculture Settlement Areas (ASAs) I’m announcing today set aside space so the Crown and Ngāi Tahu can assess their potential for aquaculture development. ...7 days ago
- Government launches review to ensure electricity market is fit-for-purpose
The terms of reference for a review of the performance of the electricity market have been released. The review, initiated by the Coalition Government during the power crisis in winter will look at whether current regulations and market design support economic growth and access to reliable and affordable electricity, Energy Minister ...7 days ago
- Speech to Social Investment Hui: Jack and his whānau need our help
Kia ora koutou katoa. Nau mai, haere mai, piki mai. Ki te mihi atu ahau, ki te manwhenua nei, Te Atiawa, Ngāti toa rangatira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you, Andy, for your introduction. Let me acknowledge you as the new Chief Executive of the Social Investment ...7 days ago
- Minister of State for Trade heads to Brisbane for PACER Plus meeting
Minister of State for Trade Nicola Grigg has travelled to Australia to attend the PACER Plus Ministers Meeting in Brisbane. “Trade plays a critical role in driving employment, economic growth, and improving the standards of living in the Pacific Region. The Government is strongly committed to supporting Pacific Island countries ...7 days ago
- Proposals to modernise conservation released
Toitū te taiao – Our environment endures The Government is consulting on proposals to modernise New Zealand’s conservation management system, aiming to protect relevant natural areas while supporting sustainable growth in tourism and regional economies, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says. “Today, the Department of Conservation – Te Papa Atawhai is ...1 week ago
- Knowing superstitions aren’t real doesn’t stop us behaving superstitiously – why?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephanie Gomes-Ng, Senior Lecturer of Psychology, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Former New Zealand prime minister John Key has three white rabbits painted on his helicopter, a nod to his “massively superstitious” habit of repeating “white rabbits” three times at ...1 hour ago - Government slammed for pushing ahead with boot camps while trial still under way
The coalition has "absolutely no intention of listening to the evidence that comes out of their experiment", Labour MP says. ...2 hours ago - Smoke and mirrors in heated tobacco debate
Labour claims Government is ‘cherry-picking’ smoking trends data to hide decade-first increase in daily smokers The post Smoke and mirrors in heated tobacco debate appeared first on Newsroom. ...2 hours ago - Treasury bangs the drum on ‘unsustainable’ superannuation
The Government’s economic adviser is sending a message it doesn’t want to hear – superannuation is increasingly unaffordable The post Treasury bangs the drum on ‘unsustainable’ superannuation appeared first on Newsroom. ...2 hours ago
- Victims of sex offending welcome shift on name suppression laws
A man abused by a former political figure is "immensely relieved" at a government proposal to end secrecy around sex offenders' identities. ...2 hours ago
- This week three parties stood together – can they withstand the storm to come?
There is plenty yet to play out, but the next election is at this rate shaping up as trio versus trio, writes Toby Manhire. A subplot of this week’s historic hīkoi mō te Tiriti has been the sight of the three opposition parties presenting a unified front. Te Pāti Māori ...3 hours ago - All 33 malls in Auckland ranked from worst to best
From the low lows of abandon empires to the high highs of a mall done just right. This is the second in the Malls of New Zealand series, where we rank the malls in major centres. Next week: Wellington. A note from the editor: This is the hardest ranking we’ve ...3 hours ago
- The cost of being: A clothes-mad 20-something who walks everywhere
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a 27-year-old apartment-dwelling marketing exec explains her approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here. Gender: Female. Age: 27. Ethnicity: Pākehā. Role: Marketing exec at ...3 hours ago
- Raw Politics: Six months in a leaky Bill
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not meet the Treaty Principles Bill hikoi crowd, sees “nothing” of merit in the Act-proposed law but the Parliament his Government dominates will spend six months debating a “divisive” measure.That’s because he has accepted there needs to be “aeration” of people’s views on the Treaty, ...3 hours ago
- Taken to the brink, Govt is now close to selling big Whakapapa ski field
Bidder Whakapapa Holdings walked away from the sales process last year, but says it’s now ‘95% there’ on a purchase agreement – so who blinked first? The post Taken to the brink, Govt is now close to selling big Whakapapa ski field appeared first on Newsroom. ...3 hours ago
- Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 22 November
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 22 November appeared first on Newsroom. ...3 hours ago
- Daily crossword, Friday 22 November
The post Daily crossword, Friday 22 November appeared first on Newsroom. ...3 hours ago
- China likely to strengthen regional relationships in response to another Trump term
Opinion: Recent discussions in Shanghai provide some insight into what’s likely to be on the table The post China likely to strengthen regional relationships in response to another Trump term appeared first on Newsroom. ...3 hours ago
- Nuclear winters know no borders
Opinion: The immediate horror of nuclear weapon explosions – the blinding flash, crushing blast wave, and radioactive inferno – is well documented.But what nuclear-armed nations either don’t grasp or won’t admit, is far more chilling: how their weapons could devastate even countries thousands of kilometres from any mushroom clouds.The collapse ...3 hours ago
- This week’s bestselling books – November 22
FICTION1 Kāwai: Tree of Nourishment by Monty Soutar (David Bateman, $39.99)Sample dialogue, all from one chapter:“That can’t be,” replied Taona doubtfully.“You were right. The pā is unnervingly quiet,” Taona murmured.“The Hākuwai,” Motukia breathed. “Our grandfathers told us they rarely saw the Hākuwai in daylight,” Motukia muttered.“Their fight would have been futile ...3 hours ago
- Burma the flying elephant
After about two and a half years of planning and waiting, New Zealand’s last elephant has moved to her new home at Monarto Safari Park in South Australia.Burma and her “human herd”, that is, her keepers, arrived last week, and she’s settling in well, according to Auckland Zoo’s Andrew Coers.“Something ...3 hours ago
- NZ’s membership of Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance in jeopardy
Senior ministers in the coalition suggested NZ’s membership will be re-evaluated if it restarts offshore oil and gas drilling The post NZ’s membership of Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance in jeopardy appeared first on Newsroom. ...3 hours ago
- Watts nears a landmark deal on global carbon trading
A framework for global carbon trading under the Paris Agreement is finally nearing completion at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan after years of halting talks.Climate Change Minister Simon Watts is one of two ministers tasked by the COP29 hosts with landing a long-sought deal on Article 6 of the climate accord, ...3 hours ago
- Grattan on Friday: Marles plays a defensive bat on nuclear as the government rushes to get though la...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Richard Marles is an ambitious man who hasn’t given up the dream of one day reaching the top job. But, despite being deputy prime minister, his profile is much lower than that of Treasurer Jim ...8 hours ago
- Fears Māori will pay heaviest price if police carry guns
"Overwhelmingly, those people who die will be young Māori men," the spokesperson for People Against Prisons Aotearoa says. ...10 hours ago
- NEW POLL: Kiwis Overwhelmingly Support MPs’ Expenses Transparency Law Change
62% of respondents support the extension of the OIA to cover MPs’ spending, compared to just 13% opposed and 24% were unsure. ...10 hours ago - The House: Meanwhile, a week of passing law
The political week has been packed with worthy distractions, but all week Parliament has focused on passing new laws. Here are the highlights. ...11 hours ago
- The biggest difference between Hīkoi mō te Tiriti and past hīkoi: More support from non-Māori
Analysis - The diversity of voices during the hīkoi was noticeable - from tangata moana to young immigrants to elderly Pākehā from the South Island. ...11 hours ago
- The House: Samoan citizenship restoration – ‘It means we belong to this land’
When the bill to restore NZ citizenship to some Samoans passed this week, Parliament's galleries were full to the brim with members of the community. ...12 hours ago
- More Delays In Action On Use Of Puberty Blockers With Children
Women’s Rights Party Co-leader Jill Ovens says the Ministry has put New Zealand children at risk by continuing to allow “off-label” prescribing of puberty blockers at far higher rates than other similar countries. ...13 hours ago
- Police Minister adamant he wasn’t aware of gang members training at gun clubs
That is despite two papers from police that raised the matter with him. ...13 hours ago
- Shorten declares himself ‘a proud moderate’, saying Australians ‘in the middle’ shouldn’t ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Bill Shorten has declared himself “a proud moderate” in a valedictory speech declaring parliament has the responsibility to ensure the extremes of left and right do not set the terms of political debate. Shorten, ...14 hours ago
- New ‘best practice’ principles for superannuation products are coming. We asked a panel of exper...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matt Garrow, Editorial Web Developer Studio Romantic/Shutterstock We all know how important it is to save enough money for retirement – but what about spending it wisely when we get there? Even for those who have built up a suitable ...14 hours ago
- Government accused of betraying Kiwis’ trust over lack of consultation on live exports
The government has always vowed to reinstate live exports by sea, which was banned by the previous Labour government. ...14 hours ago
- 7 things you can do if you think you sweat too much
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Freeman, Associate Professor of Dermatology, Bond University ERIK Miheyeu/Shutterstock Sweating is our body’s way of cooling down, a bit like an internal air conditioner. When our core temperature rises (because it’s hot outside, or you’re exercising), sweat glands all ...14 hours ago
- Phenergan for under 6s is now banned due to hallucination fears. Here’s what to use instead
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Macquarie University Australia’s drug regulator has issued a safety warning over the medicine Phenergan and related products containing the antihistamine drug promethazine. The Therapeutic Goods Administration said the over-the-counter products should not be given to children ...14 hours ago
- A new stage adaptation of Peter Carey’s Jack Maggs is a delightful homage to theatrical storytelli...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Campbell, Lecturer, Performing Arts, UniSA Creative, University of South Australia Matt Byrne/STCSA Jack Maggs is a delight and a homage to theatrical storytelling in Australia. Based on Peter Carey’s bestselling novel, Jack Maggs follows the ex-convict as he lands ...14 hours ago
- The government has introduced laws for its social media ban. But key details are still missing
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel Angus, Professor of Digital Communication, Director of QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology Ron Lach/Pexels The federal government today introduced into parliament legislation for its social media ban for people under 16 years. Communications Minister Michelle ...15 hours ago
- Archives NZ, National Library to cut 27 roles
The Department of Internal Affairs wants to bring the two organisations under the joint leadership of the Chief Archivist and National Librarian. ...15 hours ago
- Gang patch ban: Members warn of potential for violence to ‘erupt’ as new laws enforced
"I can't see this lasting unless they have a budget to lock fullas up in jail which I think is absolutely stupid, really it's ludicrous," Ngavii Pekapo, who set up a Mongrel Mob chapter 54 years ago, says. ...15 hours ago
- ACT leader David Seymour raises doubts about Waikato medical school
Government documents show ACT leader David Seymour told the government he was "dissatisfied" with a cost-benefit analysis. ...15 hours ago
- National’s Erica Stanford allegedly calls Labour’s Jan Tinetti a ‘stupid bitchR...
The Education Minister has apologised in Parliament for her remark. ...15 hours ago
- Labour backs new Police Commissioner – but warns against routine arming
The alternative to policing by consent would be a police state, which New Zealanders don't want, the party says. ...17 hours ago
- Youth on boot camp pilot re-offended five weeks after release
Children's Minister Karen Chhour said while it was disappointing, it would naïve to think none of the participants would lapse. ...17 hours ago
- In photos: People of the hīkoi, and why they marched
Hikoi mō Te Tiriti has come to an end, going down in history as the largest march to Parliament in Aotearoa. ...18 hours ago
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So an independent media is now also a thing that was nice to have, and Media outlets are just allowed to say and print what is good for the Labour Government?
You mean they did not manage to just buy a good review of their actions and accolates galore? Oh boy.
don't the guys in the Media know their place?
Never mind that most Kiwis do not need the media to help them decide whom or whom not they are going to vote for. Government either does good and it trickles down to their communities or Government does not good and its not trickling down to communities and then people won't vote for Government but rather vote for the opposition. Maybe this government did not too good on housing, poverty, education, gender woo and legal right for men to appropriated womanhood at hte expense of the things formerly known as women, two tier society based on a 'vaccine' that neither prevents getting ill nor prevents the spread of an illness but maybe maybe keeps on alive, and so on and so forth.
Its not the media that wants change, its the public. And hte media knows that in the end any government will come and go. And this Labour government will go at some stage and will be replaced with a different one.
At no point did Mickey say that – he was pointing out factual inaccuracies in NZME news coverage and their one-sided platforming of people with a negative view of the Government's Covid performance. I am sure that Mickey (like all civilised people) believes in an independent media with a diversity and balance of voices, and the sort of widely dispersed ownership that prevents those with money/power from buying the loudest voice.
Your intellectual dishonesty is becoming a stain on this site. And it's one of the reasons I am slowly giving up on it.
Once again, no Sabine. Sir Ian Taylor has written freely and been critical. To say grants are buying the media is ludicrous. Media asked for the support in hard times.
This meeting could not be reported as it was by agreement "In Camera" to protect Air NZ and Commercially sensitive information. When asked to respect that, he chose to walk and accused the group of trying to muzzle him.
The group had agreed with the Chair, Public discussion and articles should be after the decision of the meeting and Board. He balked at that. Now why? Air NZ had every right to expect Commercial discretion, so did the Government. No one else complained or made the claims he did.
My goodness, perhaps I shouldn't say this, but Sabine is coming across as increasingly bitter and twisted, and a little detached from reality.
Column in the Herald coming up.
The media 'bailout' was for non news areas including not having to pay NZ on Air levies and I think it might have included a waiver of the spectrum license fees for that year.
Tony-D'oh.
Ian Taylor comes across as unprofessional to say the least!
The right way to behave in cross organisation business meetings is to always act in good faith. Whether it's public or private sector (and especially if a mixture of both) the same principles apply.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/the-monitor/127010909/sir-ian-taylor-from-rock-bands-and-breweries-to-worldleading-tech
Actally Ian Taylor is not all that privleged as you claim. I am not sure he did any work on the Hobbit. If he did it was not his most significant work.
I know as a relative of mine works for him. The company delivers extremely high tech grapics and have been very innovative (remember the graphics for the first America's Cup Race). They have a lot of contracts with sports in America to provide graphics. Taylor has a can do attitute and really stretches his exceptionally talented team. He gave them credit when he was knighted. Oh and as someone else mentioned, he is Maori.
Taylor is not about the money, he's about the challenge……..he's provided very skilled people with work and probably earnt the country quite a bit of money. He's a innovator, so probably has a lot to offer.
NZME is not part of an independent media.
Spot on Sabine. Some balance coming at last from a MSM media off by government largess ($55 million and counting). Yes Tova, Yes Jessica, no more questions Barry.
A report on abc Australia by McKinsey and Co should be widely published.
It showed that countries with tougher lockdowns and tighter restrictions did much better economically as well.
The Australian conservative states who opened up early suffered economically while Western Australia with tough restrictions and tight borders boomed and iron ore exports kept the Australian economy afloat.
Right after the govt had laid out the new plans for opening the border with self-isolation, the hospitality industry were on stuff moaning that arrivals self-isolating will kill the industry.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127686793/selfisolation-will-cause-tragedy-in-christchurch-hospitality-sector
It's a continual push, push, push in the media of business interests over health interests.
Indeed. I wonder what those hospitality advocates think will happen to local patronage when their demand that infected tourists be allowed to enter NZ freely causes a massive Omicron spike and Covid-risk-averse Kiwis (the majority of our middle class from my experience) go into self-imposed lockdown until things settle down?
Did you not think the smear job by Mike Munro in the Saturday Herald was adequate payback for the millions NZME has been paid by the taxpayer?
Totally impartial, factual and so on of course.
Still when one sees that the author was Chief of Staff to Ardern and Press Secretary to Helen Clark one does get just a trifle suspicious of his neutrality.
What caused him to be dumped as Chief of Staff by the way? He certainly appears to still be adequately brainwashed.
Probably help if you provided a link, and probably specified if it was a premium article and therefore not readable by most people – including me.
In the absence of that, or any quotations from it, your comment is probably meaningless to most on this site.
Your comment about the millions being paid to NZME by the taxpayer is also meaningless unless you explain it. As far as I am aware NZME hasn't had any handouts that haven't also been provided to support employees many other media of companies. I am making an assumption that you are talking about the 2020 media support package https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/414946/covid-19-government-announces-support-package-for-media-sector
Basically your comment just reads to me as simply ignorant spite. It just reads like the current editorial policies of NZME.
Which is why I dropped my subscription to the NZ Herald last year. My daily morning online read of it started to get to being about 70% spiteful self-entitled opinions by fools who hadn’t looked at the problems outside of their own wishes. It wasn’t worth reading if I could pick up a subscription to a publication that concentrated on journalism rather than the opinions of moaning parasites.
It is also why I dropped my subscription to Businessdesk last month. After their purchase by NZME last year, there feels to me to be a shift towards the same editorial direction. It was a pity, because they do have some good journalists still there.
This is the factual claims on 'Mr Lux' Luxon behind the paywall referred to as a 'smear'
And in parliament
Of course it is premium copy. A link on their site is
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/mike-munro-from-bbq-to-pressure-cooker-for-christopher-luxon/6B2GNIDIMDIMHWL6YYSANFY2QM/
You can probably read it if you have a library card. Most NZ libraries provide access via Pressreader where you can read the story for free. I'm surprised you haven't heard about them. They have been regularly commented on on this site. You do have a library card I assume.
Anyway Pressreader is here. It is very easy to use. Once you create a sign-on you should look for the Weekend Herald for Saturday 5 th.
https://www.pressreader.com/catalog
From the quotes by GhostWhoWalksNZ, i can't see a smear. lokks accurate from what I know. I can see how it makes Luxon look incompetent.
I have used Pressreader in the past. It is barely usable on a desktop because it is an image of the newspaper, hard to read on hires laptop and it is unreadable on a cellphone – which is what I use to read news these days. Had subscription with them a couple of decades ago. Gave up because the form factor was archaic.
I don't have a library card, because it is easier and cheaper on my limited time to just buy epubs and add them to my library if I find something I want to read.
fyi.
The default is the image of the paper, which isn't much use. However you can choose the text view which gives you an easily read stream from left to right of the story. That is much easier to read on a computer although I have no idea what it is like on a phone.
It is on the lower left of the screen below the Page View icon. It looks like an A with 3 horizontal slashes next to the A. It still isn't wonderful but it does work and it is free.
Isn't the Auckland Library free? It is hard to beat free if it is there and you don't actually have to take out books.
Anyway. I use Pressreader to read the Herald because I have no wish to spend money on the paper. Stuff isn't available but the website is free.
As far as your comment on the story goes. Hmm. I think we will have to agree to disagree on that. I think that it is a smear but I don’t expect a dyed in the wool lefty to agree
I believe so. But the price for me isn't the issue. Being able to access material when I need it is.
The best way to explain this is probably by way of example of my book reading. I have a voracious reading habit and typically read at least one book a day. I have been known read up to 10 fiction books in a day when I have time to relax.
For obvious reasons, I reread books multiple times over the years and decades. You get more out of a book after you examine it with fresh eyes. But I often start reviewing a book I read years or decades ago in my head and feel the need to pull it out again.
Libraries don't operate that way. The book may be there one decade and gone the next. It might be available on their license to download one week, but not the next. You can pretty well guarantee that it will be a reach to get it. They aren't good at providing material that is synced across multiple machines and devices – because I read across multiple systems during a day.
So for books I operate a open-source calibre server and keep instances of all of the books that I buy and read. That makes them accessible to me where ever I am and on whatever device I use and across decades if required. Everything is stored as epub as being the most flexible storage source.
This makes my library effectively independent of proprietary software.
The features that you're describing on press reader are specific to a single piece of software, one that isn't able to be legally stored locally on one of my servers or backup systems in any persistent format. I read all of the licenses and press reader has a particularly old one. Probably because of their own legal position.
I archive a lot of browser accessible news into evernote, and then archive that into epub (usually via pdf) into calibre. This is all done with scripts. Couldn't do that with Pressreader last time I looked at it, it doesn’t use an accessible format on its panes.
Don't currently can't do that with NZ Herald. It isn’t legal. It wouldn't be hard – their premium security is a bit of a minimalist joke. But there is so seldom anything worth reading from it anyway.
But I also spend about $3-400 per quarter on news subscriptions.So I tend to focus on value.
NZ Herald isn't worth my reading time, let alone my money. It has been getting getting steadily more and more vacuous and has a dearth of news. I would pay if I could pay per article from an account. But they want me to cross-subsidise their trash like Mike Hosking to get the 10-20% that is worth reading.
Stuff isn't great, but it is accessible at least I get regional news from it. It has been worth a regular donation for the value I receive from it.
Helen Clark's husband, Peter Davis, wrote a glowing article about Labour's performance recently. Strangely, the fact he is married to the former PM wasn't mentioned. No possible conflict there. 🙂
Fortunately, a more nuanced article about COVID and the government's overblown response was published recently.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127663898/nz-deserves-more-respect-for-keeping-covid-deaths-so-low
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127656690/it-is-time-to-remove-the-border-restrictions-and-abolish-miq
I am sure the facts that Peter Davis is on the Auckland DHB, and has a long academic career working on on health issues at Auckland University for long before he even married Helen Clark had nothing to do with the context of his article?
Your spiteful obsession with genitalia appears to have made you miss the first paragraph of the article – in bold.
It does kind of put the rest of your comment in perspective for me – just another misogynist dickhead. Presumably a male Ms Grundy obsessed with what others do in their own homes.
However, as you'd expect from an expert on public health. the article makes a clear argument based on statistics for how effective the NZ response to covid-19 has been.
The other article is framed as being opinion and it most certainly was.
I couldn't find any facts of interest in it apart from
The rest of the article to me seemed to be meaningless waffle justifying those two things, and avoiding the issues that covid-19 has on people who aren't as lucky as he is.
Most importantly from my perspective, there wasn't a hint of where to place the practical balance between public health and anything else. That is a very curious void in his argument, and transforms the article into a meaningless and incoherent whinge. He sounded as vague as Chris Bishop because he was essentially doing the same thing – trying not to say whom he would kill for his personal convenience.
I skim read Stuff and Newshub, the old Dominion's' 'one minute silence' of the olden days of print media.
Very early on with the 1.00pm pressers I learned to stop watching once the screamers and gotchas came on. There was only one who was genuinely asking questions, passing on ideas and thoughts from their readership and that was the person from Maori media.
More and more I am picking up articles from overseas sources.
Should have explained this…..I few far thinking articles though NZME except some times in the podcast area or longer items. I look at newshub and they repeat the tripe over and over again. So this morning about 50% was exactly the same as yesterday, no updates. There is more going on in the world, surely.
The columnists at the side are good. Sometimes I set to and read a whole swag of opinions on news items where I have got too tired of wading through the trash.
I do a daily read a daily read of BBC world, NYT, WP, ABC au, Guardian, and The Economist. Plus a semi-random selection grab from a number of other business/politics online sources from a service.
The selection by NZME and even Stuff aren't that good. I'd suggest that if you want a better selection of mainstream world news from a single source – try ABC news from aussie.
As a reader that usually has something complementary to say about your posts, I am happy to give you the news Micky…Labour needs to get up on its hind legs and combat the NZ ruling class and their paid mouths for hire, some of whom you have named.
The low NZ COVID death toll is a totally worthy achievement in comparison to the other OECD countries–own it Labour–and get over the Hobbit cultural cringe and false media strategy of “don’t mention our achievements”.
The Govt. as well as headline Minimum Wage, Carers Pay Equity & PPL increase, has implemented scores of useful incremental reforms and things such as restoring NGO funding and Community Education that sirkey cut, that many people would not have a clue about if they are not on the NZLP mail list.
This majority Labour Govt. will ultimately be in the crap for not delivering enough for working class people, but at least they should be willing to take credit for, and defend against the media swine, something they have done well.
Hi Tm
Precisely why my last sentence is "[h]ow the Government responds to this will be a measure of how well it does in the next election. How the Government responds to this will be a measure of how well it does in the next election."
I was under the impression that Maori-bashing had been deemed inappropriate a while back. Guess you think calling Taylor a rich white man is too subtle a form of it for readers to notice??
Of course you could also diss him for being a law graduate, right? Or did that option lack appeal for some strange reason?
Could there possibly be other dimensions to his mana that you're also keen to avoid? Let's have a look:
Gosh, your racism does seem to have blinded you to a considerable extent, eh?
Seems to me the dude has accumulated a bunch of accomplishments that few other kiwis can match. Someone with such a track record, skills & aptitudes, falls naturally into the category of opinion leader in the community…
The point is 98% of the business leaders dont have regular columns in the Herald. They would consider it an anethema.
NZME relies on a business model of divisive comment as they believe it drives reader/listener engagement.
Yeah & anyone who is merely divisive becomes tiresome real fast. The trick is to use integral framing to signal potential common ground while criticising whoever or whatever. Publishers can build media consumer interest on that constructive basis. They don't actually need to default to the braindead option of negativity.
"Rich white man" was last used on The Standard before Dennis Frank's accusation today in May last year, and before that by me in April 2021.
I am aware of Sir Ian Taylor's parentage as I Googled it today earlier when seeking to discover whether he had Pasifika parentage as he was wondering why a phone call session he was having over the AirNZ issue was not conducted according to his version on 'talanoa' which he alluded to in his latest piece.
Which avoids the issue of racism. Leftist accusations of racism are more often inappropriate but the general consensus for years now has been that people who have part-Maori ancestry are entitled to call themselves Maori & others ought to as well.
However, I'm not a leftist so feel free to spot any error my diffident exposition of the politically-correct stance may contain!
Point being that his mother was/is Maori so calling him white is hopelessly inaccurate even if you don't want to deem it racist.
Sorry. I don't get why you made this comment.
"I was under the impression that Maori-bashing had been deemed inappropriate a while back. Guess you think calling Taylor a rich white man is too subtle a form of it for readers to notice?"
Who is the 'you' to whom you refer? I Are you using 'you' in an impersonal sense rather than as second person .
Your meaning is unclear, Dennis. I'm trying to understand here.
Writing in response directly to me you wrote, "Point being that his mother was/is Maori so calling him white is hopelessly inaccurate even if you don't want to deem it racist."
Do you mean: "Point being that his mother was/is Maori so calling him white is hopelessly inaccurate even if one doesn't want to deem it racist"?
From my end of those two versions there is a huge difference!
Oh I see. To clarify, then, it was in response to this from MS:
I chose to sidestep the apparent belief MS has that he can read Taylor's mind (maybe he can) to focus on on his categorisation of Taylor as "rich white male". Taylor is rich, male, and Maori.
Could be a mistake by MS rather than covert racism, of course! And yes, I did mean you to equate with one as you suggest, and I can see that usage of one would have avoided confusion. Incidentally I prefer single quotes around such terms for clarity but the site has displayed an alarming tendency to convert those (single-quoted terms) into a tiny font & I had to stop doing so…
🙂
I am a little disappointed with Dennis Frank at this point.
It would appear that a Maori may walk like a duck, quack like a duck, but under no circumstances at any time may be accused of possessing any duck-like qualities.
Covert racism and overt classism are two different things.
Giving him the benefit of the doubt on his interpretation of what mickysavage wrote. I think his reading is wrong, but ms would have been clearer to Dennis had he added, as I did mentally, the words "Only rich white males (such as we find as talk back hosts and opinion leaders) would be that out of touch with reality that they would think this."
As you say, it's a statement about class and not so much about race. And so much of criticism of this government around covid is to do with what about our ability to make money.
The latest Reid political polls are hopefully still showing that NZers can see the distinction between saving lives and making more money.
However, mickysavage can enter this debate if he feels misrepresented by any of us.
I think Micky was making some assumptions about Taylor. Aside from the fact that Taylor is Maori and is well known for things other than the Hobbit (if he contributed in any way to that) , and his assumptions are incorrect.
Speaking strictly as someone who has been around tech companies now for about 37 years as a computer programmer usually running teams of other programmers in startup companies.
Ian Taylor has always been regarded as being mostly a blowhard from the media world. I have no idea what in the hell the "New Zealand Technology Hall of Fame" is, and as far as I can see the only reference to it is on Ian Taylor's wikipedia.
Very few of the tech companies in NZ that I am aware of were particularly slowed down by the pandemic. The two that I have been working for almost seamlessly moved into working from home with a pickup of monitors, keyboards, mice, laptops, and whatever hardware we were working on. We talked internationally to partners in teams, sister companies, suppliers, customers with out problems. Because that is what we normally do anyway.
The site visits dropped, but we still sent people offshore to fulfil contractual obligations and put them through MIQ. They worked while in the hotel – same as they did whilst on site.
We talked to servers world wide. I spent most of my time in lockdowns pushing code and builds back and forth to servers in the UK and remote operating servers. We didn’t have to put people locked into a office to keep servers running. That just sounds completely mickeymouse and like something out of the dark ages. The only system I have had to do that style of ops on in decades is my home server. And that is only because I don’t spend any significiant money on it. Ian Taylor as an employer sounds like a incompetent cheapskate.
About the only thing that was a nuisance was moving parts because of the limited air-cargo. Some going from China to the UK, and then to here were taking 2-4 weeks to arrive.
Yet all the while Ian Taylor, some self-appointed tech giant wanker, was bemoaning how hard it was to run anything. To me it just sounded like managerial incompetence by some kind of a piss-poor entrepreneur with a Trumpian ego throwing a tantrum.
The rubbish this dimwitted mouthpiece speaks about basic science and basic management just offends my BSc and MBA, not to mention my engineering skills. Basically he seems to be a person whose ability to lie by omission, to invent rubbish stats about RAT reliability, and whose level of self-entitlement makes him a perfect mouthpiece for NZME.
I get where you're coming from. I'm a diy fix-it problem-solver personally, and have helped others on that basis throughout my life. Could be he's got a case of entitleditis. I'm not attempting to defend his commentary or politics – mainly because I've haven't investigated those. Just pushing back in the interests of fairness for now.
Fair enough.
I just find it distressing that he appears to be trying to cast the mantle of the local tech industry over himself – when he clearly isn't part of, and has never apparently been part of.
Most of the things that he says are just ridiculous for the way that we have been handling covid-19. The export tech economy main problem during the pandemic has bee rapid growth because suddenly most of our disadvantages became assets – we were already running remotely.
taylor may or may not be a blow hard, but he has been enormously successful with his graphics company.
Successful maybe – I have no idea of his companies turnover or profit.
However anyone who had to lock up a couple of his staff with some servers clearly either doesn't has limited technical savvy or is just running a PR stunt.
His well-publicised need to go offshore with rapid trips to deal with customers without MIQ would be somewhat incomprehensible to any tech company I have worked at for the last 15 years. You can work on on the go, you can work in hotel rooms, and you can work in MIQ.
Again the same possibilities, allied to the possibility of him being a self-entitled egotist.
But in any case it doesn't sound like any of the tech companies that I know. They tend towards just getting the damn work done and working around problems what come up without whining about having to change the way that they work – to protect others.
Not all NZ tech companies. Datacom have been real dicks about not letting staff take home any office equipment. And they still expect everyone to WFH under the lower traffic light restrictions.
There will always be some. How in the hell do they expect people to work from home? Or do they have very slack security on their remote access?
I know some people over there – I will have to ask. But Datacom seem to only work with the domestic economy so there may be a cultural difference. I have only worked with exporter techs since I left Clear back in the mid-1990s.
aom (@9) 'dissing' Dennis (@7), for dissing MickySavage, for dissing Sir Ian Taylor, for dissing our Government’s Covid response.
aom's [, PB's] and MickySavage's opinions, and (especially) our Government’s Covid response, resonate more with me than Dennis' or Sir Ian's, although the latter's heart has apparently been in the right place on occasion.
Times change, and attitudes can shift and harden – case in point: for as long as I live I'll be a supporter of our Government's decision to prioritise public health during the first two years of this pandemic. By the most important metric it was a good decision, imho.
Excellent post, Dennis. His fathers name was Bernie, a great teacher who taught me. A real gentleman who smoked a pipe ( in class) and told great stories for half the period. He has a brother Wayne and I'm related to his mum.
''I was under the impression that Maori-bashing had been deemed inappropriate a while back. Guess you think calling Taylor a rich white man is too subtle a form of it for readers to notice??''
I'm glad you brought that up. For me it ruined an otherwise excellent article/rebuke by MS.
This nasty streak seems endemic within the Left side of politics.
Whereas the rich vein of nastiness within the Right side of NZ politics could be likened to a 'permanent pandemic', sickening for all concerned – c'mon, you know it!
With a smidge of luck, lucky Luxon can end the Nats' nasty losing streak – key will be whether he can make a clean break from the past, including 'honest' John's legacy – that may be difficult with the likes of Hosking, Hawkesby, Soper & HDPA in tow.
Yeah, I suppose from your perspective, apart from Hager case, you would think that stuff is nasty. But those examples have little substance compared to the passionate dislike behind tags like '' Rich White Man.'' Stale White Male''. Racist Policy.
Those phrases and others are the rafters that support a whole ideology.
Like Sicilian people, the Left CAN dislike with a vengeance.
The left punches up, calling out wealth and power
The right punches down, oppressing the workers and stifling dissent
Blade, given your response, am I to suppose that “from your perspective” “that stuff” isn’t nasty? If so then we can agree to disagree.
Indeed, this particular Lefty dislikes some ideologies intensely – but I prefer kindness. Can't go past "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs", but it's not a creed that everyone can buy into.
RWNJ, LWNJ. Woke versus redneck. Feral versus Ivory tower academic. Tory bastard versus commie fag. Horst Wessel versus Kumbaya.
Really, can't we all do better than this level of discourse?
Edit. I see you can, Drowsy M. Kram. 🙂
As I said on another post, he is not God, though appears to play political chess and resonates with the 1%. What has he done to fight Climate change? What has he done about our low wage economy? Where was he during the Actors' contract fight? What has he actually done in this Pandemic apart from insist on one type of RAT test and write endless negative coverage using the Herald? He performed about MIQ and was allowed to isolate at his home. Not all residents have his assets to do that.
We are not attacking him, or his many achievements, rather his cavalier attitude to meetings Health Ministers and procedure in a Pandemic. Being angry and rude does not make him correct. It appears strategic.
Thanks DMK, that is good to know… I missed seeing that article in 2012..
Who referred to Taylor as being a rich white man – where and when?
Since when did slagging off the Government count as falling naturally into the category of opinion leader in the community? To some it seems like he is a rabble-rouser.
Yes, Taylor has an impressive list of credentials and has opinions. However, other people have different credentials and equally valid opinions, as does MS. Have you countered the basic premise of his contribution? One would think not.
It seems that dissing someone who is dissing someone else is inappropriate in your opinion.
I enjoyed his films. I do not understand why he thinks he has the right to continuously publicly criticise the Government's handling of a pandemic. It is the continued hosting of his thoughts in the country's major paper that has amazed me.
What films did Taylor make? I am unaware he has made any films, but I could be wrong.
All said and done he is pretty good at…cricket.
Soper claiming that Covid is “little more than a bad cold at worse [sic]” is wilfully negligent and the type of shit they do all the time without consequences.
This is neither good or independant media just barking and dog whistling, undermining and being negative, outright misrepresentation for an angle.
I can't help but quote Orwell.
'In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.'
'If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.'
Who decides what "Truth" is? An angry business man? a media outlet looking for clicks? A reader with bias?….. Truth is subjective.
Twisting what has been said, taking it out of context, having an established point of view, and finally pulling out of discussions because…. serving two masters….
To then diss all the efforts as slow and a failure….. Truth is the first victim of DP imo.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer
And yes, there is such a thing as truth. If you make it subjective you manipulate it and make it a lie.
higherstandard,
You mean "Get vaccinated and or Boostered."?
Yep, but you will be countered on that.
The fallacy is to believe that under a dictatorial government you can be free inside.
I think the perception of media bias is affected by our own biases. A quick read on Kiwiblog shows most their believe the media is brought and owned by the government and is a tool for their propaganda.
But I think several things are at play:
Firstly, things are definitely not as rosy as they once were in the economy. For instance, petrol has just hit $3.00 a litre and could go higher.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/petrol-smashes-3litre-barrier-and-could-go-higher-as-new-zealanders-budgets-stretched/MTDJ6GFFXC3V6TKYUVW3PTOSC4/
And rents are rising and impacting on the poor.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/127544121/rents-still-rising-as-supply-pressures-remain
Along with general inflation.
When the outlook is more negative, it is natural that journalists will start asking questions of the government and giving their opinions on how things could be done better.
Secondly, journalists are getting a bit sick of their perception that the government is obfuscating and trying to avoid the hard questions.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/127682814/when-did-our-public-service-get-so-arrogant
“But it’s an artfully crafted mirage, as my colleague Andrea Vance wrote last year. “At every level, the Government manipulates the flow of information,” she wrote.”
This perception is not helped when Jacinda has cancelled herself from the Tuesday slot with Mike Hosking, and seldom seems to appear with HDPA in the evenings. This avoidance gives the impression that she wants to appear only with tame media who will paint her in a good light.
So, the government has created a rod for their own backs IMO.
Petrol hasnt 'hit' $3 .
It was a super premium grade 98 ( above Super 95 and standard 91 that most people buy)
And it was a super premium location on Ponsonby Rd. Yes the oil companies sock it too the richer areas of town as many are on business fuel cards and dont care about costs – plus the business discount they get is off pump price.
Sure, some grades are priced higher than others. But I think you are quibbling over my point. Even if some of the cheaper grades haven't reached $3.00 yet, they have still risen a lot, and are likely putting a lot of households under pressure.
Auckland has higher prices because of the regional fuel tax – which is there to fast track transport options to reduce road congestion.
BTW: The regional fuel tax simply isn't high enough. Just down the roads from that petrol station there are steadily increasing potholes. Presumably because the council maintenance has reduced to put in the new transport links. I hit them every day that I drive.
The base fuel price rises are imported. Yet somehow you're blaming the government for them. That seems pretty stupid and unbalanced to me.
Decreasing supply is impacting World prices of oil all over.
DOA and her husband Soper, made a mistake and booked their plane to London for the wrong day, when they hoped to cover PM Jacinda Ardern's trip to Buckingham Palace. He has not recovered, and DOA has been so bad I began to call her "Duplicity".
Our PM made herself available to these people until the agenda's were on repeat and the vitriol level was off the charts.
But that isn't the only thing affecting fuel prices in NZ. The fuel price includes a lot in tax, and the government will be creaming it at the moment, especially with the GST take on fuel prices.
Sure tax is part of it. But the price rises are entirely due to international market forces based on supply and demand.
But in case you hadn't noticed, National and Act and NZME outlets have been calling calling for more roads and more road upgrades. Rather expensive ones.
They can’t really have it both ways because those roads have to be funded some way. They can’t always take the most expensive funding option – thinks of the PPP for Transmission Gully.
I suspect that if I looked back I'd find you supporting some roads that currently aren't being built – primarily for lack of funding issues.
The taxes on fuel primarily support maintaining and extending our transport systems. They also fund the climate change costs in the ETS.
I really don't see a problem with them rising. Better and earlier transport options and it takes some of the burden off those dozy farmers and their unreasonable and ridiculous wind-shelter ideas.
"Significant disruption to the Tourism industry but these are low paying jobs that do not contribute heavily to the country’s economy."
This statement grates. I am not personally involved in the tourist industry any more and haven't been for 16 years, but I know lots of people in Wanaka and surrounds who make a good healthy well paid living out of providing excellent activities for tourists. These are usually owner operators that pay their employees fairly and give them good conditions.
Many industries spin off tourism; backpackers, bars, cafes, supermarkets, restaurants, ski-fields etc etc
Most of these people are also good ambassadors for the country which used to contribute many more billions of dollars to the economy.
No one wants to visit a socialist state until it’s history, better to start denigrating tourism now and control the message
The problem is, and the responses to the covid-19 pandemic quite clearly showed, just how irrelevant tourism is to NZ as a whole.
Dropping tourism in both ways actually significantly improved our balance of trade and made barely a ripple in the tax take over the last two years. Part of that was the wage and survival support that was put temporarily in-place. But even that wasn't that costly compared to things like the support of non-tourist orientated retail.
Sure tourism is important to towns set up for tourism. But even our unemployment rates in both the nominal unemployment and the more useful household survey
But it simply has very little effect on our overall economy. It looks like the rest of the NZ economy has in effect been subsidising tourism for decades. It produces revenue – not profit. It uses resources that could be used elsewhere more productively. It interferes with tourism from local residents to the point that they often go offshore to escape the crowding.
The tourism industry appears to have been focusing on body counts, not on profitability. As a whole, they probably need to start figuring out how to reframe their previous practices, because I'm not sure just how supportive the rest of the NZ population is going to be to any large resurgence.
Lprent-I think your analysis is simplistic. Better economic minds than mine will prove you to be wrong in the long term.
Just looking at the aggregate numbers. You’d think that with more than about 3.8 million tourists and other travelers arriving in 2019, that having virtually no new ones for 2 years would have a aggregate loss of income and taxes, plus massive labour under utilization.
Some happened in 2020. Essentially none happened in 2021. It certainly hurt the tourist towns. But it doesn’t appear to have hurt the national economy.
I think it is going to be an interesting lesson in unproductive economics.
Might help if the government didn’t make it easy for them
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-ministry-of-health-admits-requisitioned-rats-already-in-new-zealand/KZBQFKQ5IH5PWAAZDVPYIEEWDY/
'The Government'? or Bloomfield?
Yes, when Jacinda proclaims that the government is a trusted source for accurate information, and this turns out not to be the case, who could blame the media for becoming sceptical:
“”Instead, I want to send a clear message to the New Zealand public: We will share with you the most up-to-date information daily. You can trust us as a source of information.
“You can also trust the Director-General of Health [Dr Ashley Bloomfield] and the Ministry of Health.””
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/03/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-dismisses-rumours-being-spread-on-social-media-about-covid-19.html
And the cost?
Significant disruption to the Tourism industry but these are low paying jobs that do not contribute heavily to the country’s economy.
And there's the problem right there. Your first thought, apparently, is low paying jobs. Most other people would likely be thinking about the preventable loss of lives AND livelihoods.
Preventable deaths are fairly important, I would have thought. How is that waiting list for mammograms looking like?
Those women with cancer will just have to wait their turn because the Government can't chew gum and walk at the same time. Yeah I can see why that would rankle.
How about waiting lists for surgeries?
Yep it's not looking good.
Those needing surgery, just like those needing a mammogram, are going to have to be patient.
And then there was the Chartlotte Bellis debacle which illustrated the insanity and cruelty of MIQ.
And shall we discuss inflation and the burgeoning Crown debt?
In 2017, the PM said this:
The sad fact is we have had a transformational government. Just not in the way many might have imagined.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/08/more-people-reliant-on-morphine-as-waitlists-for-joint-replacement-surgeries-grows.html
https://www.1news.co.nz/2021/12/23/kiwis-with-postponed-elective-surgeries-now-face-long-wait/
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/126660961/the-face-of-covids-cancer-crisis–waiting-for-a-scan-to-see-if-its-a-tumour
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-throne-2017
Allegations of cruelty are completely overblown and some gratitude on her part would be welcome.
Oh but, Micky, she was grateful. She showed the Taleban much gratitude. At least she had somewhere to live before the Government here eventually realised that she was not only entitled to return to her homeland, but that she could do so outside the 14 day window that had proven so troublesome.
Eventually …
You mean within a couple of days?
You mean within a couple of days?
She returned to Afghanistan in December and had tried to enter MIQ prior to that. As this article makes clear. And if the Government was so quick to allow her to enter MIQ, what had changed in the meantime? The only thing that had changed was media coverage.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-charlotte-bellis-an-open-letter-on-miq/U4WQGYTJHUP36AGVOBN3F6PJSE/
Bellis says her application was rejected on January 24. Its unclear when she was offered an MIQ spot but reportedly accepted an offer on February 1.
The last two years have seen negative excess mortality in NZ, so while there are plenty of issues with delaying surgery and other medical care to keep capacity in the hospital system in case of Covid surges, less deaths than would otherwise be expected seems like a pretty good outcome as a counterbalance to other negative outcomes.
Those promises were "pre covid" but don't let that wreck your take Ross.
Patricia
The Government’s response to Covid can’t be blamed on someone else. The Health Ministry published a pandemic response plan in 2017. There was no mention of lockdowns, presumably due to their huge cost.
Hi Ross,that was a decision made when huge numbers of border cases were pressuring the plans. As the situation developed they had to adapt, so Lock down.
Yes, our son in Australia was 4 months late getting an operation for a life threatening condition. He was proud of QLD's response, but did as NZ Health advised to keep safe with his co-morbidities.
Robertson said "Not every business and job could be saved but they would do their best to get us through this.''
I don't agree with all the decisions, but they are our best choice currently. Cheers.
And there's the problem right there. Your first thought, apparently, is low paying jobs.
In a time where unemployment has not been lower for a long, long time I am completely indifferent if not hostile to low paying jobs. The better paying they are the better.
I thought Sir Ian Taylor was a rich Maori male.
He is … but that's a little too inconvenient for the crude by-rote ID Politics narrative.
Folk are folk
lol Swordfish….100%
Omicron has really changed things, driving through our village at 7 on Saturday night the pub had 3 or 4 cars in the car park, prior to the big O the car park was generally full with cars parked outside on the road and the dairy and licenced cafe were closed (the owner a few days before said to me that business went dead a few weeks ago. Coming back from the movie , small Arthouse and usually standing room only had about 1/3 of the patrons compared to other nights, the pub was closed and no one in sight. My brother who is a taxi driver in a small city, has said the same.
People seem to be staying home and waiting this one out, after all we have had plenty of practice at it. With a bit of luck it might work again. Bugger,I was looking forward to testing the booster and getting supercharged!.
I am sure before this is all a memory you will get to test your jabs
Adrian.
The booster knocked me off work for a day on Wednesday. I got my shot exactly 4 months after the second shot – and Feb 1 happened to be Tuesday.
Couldn't code properly. It was like my usual response to a dose of common cold – I go to bed until my head clears.
I'm pretty sure that I had the same response to my second shot. But I did that on a Friday, and Saturday is my traditional day to laze in bed reading anyway.
Sounds consistent, booster impact similar to the second jab reaction.
The state of NZ journalism has never been shabbier – an ignorant oik like Hosking should never be permitted to ask questions of any official – he has said himself that he's not a journalist. Fine – wait for requests from people that are qualified.
It's an important job, journalism – and it's largely not being done. Brien Priestly would have had a few things to say about idiot panels and other features of contemporary media, I expect.
TBF Ardern proved you don't have to listen to Hosking to interview her. By running away from him.
Her choice. And don't particularly think it is a big deal. But kind of shows to me the govt finds harder questions, no matter whether the odd ones are a bit bollocks, scare them.
Running away? Nope. Merely ceasing to pander to a noxious halfwit.
Unless and until "journalists" follow the protocols of their profession they should be treated with the contempt they have earned.
Harder questions are not the problem – it is malafide. Your problem too as it happens. Were Ardern personally appointed by God and ineffable to boot, you'd still be kvetching – not because you are capable of coming up with hard questions, but because you troll for the other team. Prove me wrong – ask a question made hard by something other than your deep-dyed bias.
"Unless and until "journalists" follow the protocols” of their profession they should be treated with the contempt they have earned."
What "protocols do people have to follow when asking any PM questions?
It is the PM of the times choice to rock up to high rating interviews. It is all PR for them.
If they don't like a certain persons ones as they are too hard to talk their way around, that is the politicians fault. As they chose to be on the thing in the first place.
In that instance ran away after it got too hard to handle it, after years of various PMs from all sides doing the same spot with the same person asking the same amount of hard questions.
I admit Hosking can be a biased annoying prick, but this doesn't change this basic fact.
She also seems to struggle with Ryan Bridge, surprised she ain't done a runner from AM, but laps her fan people up like Campbell like they are fans on Breakfast.
What protocols do they need to follow?
They should start with a concern for truth. They should not, when questioning decisions made in good faith with enviable results in world terms, be crude abusive, ill-informed, more concerned with click bait 'gotcha' moments than the issues at hand, nor should they expect to get away with imposing their ignorant and biased framing at every opportunity.
People who do these things while fraudulently drawing the pay of, and enjoying the legal protections of a profession they no longer practice deserve no respect at all. And that is why the execrable Mike Hosking was shit canned.
Now, we know you're a consistent voice of rw bias, and we note and do not respect your dishonest attempt to frame the rejection of Hosking as running away – that line may run in your native swamps, but it will win you no approval here. It was a good decision to dump Hosking, and the more of these unprofessional clowns subjected to similar treatment, the better.
Dump plenty of them, I say. Let the toxic faux journalists interview their keyboards until their last vestige of celebrity deserts them, and their employers go broke, or are obliged to impose journalistic standards once more.
A journalist is never the story.
As I said. I don't have an issue with her avoiding it.
She obviously couldn’t handle what he was doing and ditched it. All cool.
Just don’t pretend it is some politician taking some sort of moral high ground over some evil radio personality given so many other PMs just dealing with him. It ain’t
But it was her choice to do it in the first place for free PR, so her fans shouldn't moan so much given Hoskings record with PMs from all sides.
Clark for instance just used to make him look like a dickhead
She obviously couldn’t handle what he was doing
You know, repeating your inane nonsense isn't any more persuasive the nth time than it was the first time – it loses effectiveness at about 1-n.
She owned him so comprehensively he didn't even know he'd been chewed up and shat out. One can only throw pearls before swinish ignorance for so long however – so she said ‘so long’.
Thank you Stuart – fully agree. It seems to me that Chris T has comprehension issues.
I seem to remember a certain recently-knighted former PM was also pretty adept at giving the swerve to interviewers who asked too many awkward questions. Understandable, when one saw how he floundered when confronted with a real TV journalist on Hardtalk.
Thank you for agreeing with exactly what I said.
They all avoid awkward questions.
But not many actually publicly and weakly so much avoid actual people.
Sorry. Just found it a bit odd and embarrassing for her.
This isn't journalism it's talk back radio. Ratings from rantings.
I accept it's an extreme view but if the country were to have 10,000+ deaths the optimum of that terrible situation would be me choosing who the "victims' were to be.
Hosking doesn't get it because he's so far up his own self-centred orifices.
I look at equivalent populations to New Zealand.
Ireland, 6,200 deaths. South Carolina, in the enlightened US, 15,800, Alabama, 17,400.
Imagine it, a tourist industry flourishing with Hosking's sage scenarios. We could have Covid Cemeteries, I could organise tours of them. I mean Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium contains graves of more New Zealanders than any other First World War cemetery but there are only 520 Kiwis there.
I could have mass plantations spread over the fertile fields south of Auckland and around Christchurch. My tourist ventures would make heaps. Of course working out the strategic placement of star attractions to capitalise on patronage would be a bit of a problem. God, I could be the darling of entrepreneurship awards getting around that.
And the business world, those not amongst my chief exhibits? I'd be their darling too.
Ardern spent her first term with the NZME talking about her like she was the second coming, it doesn't really surprise me they have finally realised a lot of things were promised and not delivered.
And are actually holding them to account now.
It ain't like she doesn't still have her fan people in the media anymore. People politicians from all sides will leak to etc. Nudge nudge. Wink wink.
For every Hosking comment there is a Jenna Lynch story talking about her like she is her hero figure.
Just is what it is. Always happens.
Her honeymoon period just seems to be on the slide.
Was the same with Key. Hero first term, then started to get criticism in the media, which is presumably why he bit the bullet and left. Difference being he was bright enough to see the obvious coming.
Nope. He bit the bullet and left because he's pulled one too many ponytails. He'd destroyed his legacy trying to change the NZ flag to a a towel. He'd been exposed for using Cameron Slater and David Farrar as proxy attack dogs.
The public were sick of the mincing and the prison rape jokes, and Keys knew it.
I think you might be getting confused with date of the stupid immature ponytail thing. From memory it was about 2 years before he left.
And a flag change referendum was also Labour party policy at the same time.
And one of my pet hates is purposefully misnaming people because you dislike them.
But for every post from now on you personally say Keys like it is some clever joke, call it the child in me but I will call Ardern "Jacinta".
Because that is how stupid it come across
Actually, some of my keys are not working. It's quite difficult to type properly. That's why there are so many mistakes in my comments.
For instance, p only intermittently works, and when it doesn't I have to ⌘C a p from elsewhere on the screen, and ⌘V wherever I need a p. You can imagine it.
MacBook Pro, circa 2014. It has done a lot of work. It's been a faithful servant and a real workhorse, but I need a new MacBook Pro.
Lol
No worries mate!
Realise it could have just been an honest mistype.
Just find the whole miss-naming thing quite amusing after pathetically becoming addicted to listening to weirdos on radio talkback!
It has become a bit of a curse, but can't stop doing it now as people say some fricken weird stuff!
Just get a new external keyboard.
I thought it quite cunning of Key to depart leaving his mate English PM (he knew English was unable to become PM by conventional methods), thus securing his own knighthood in the process. A knighthood was possibly one of the motivations for Key to have had his folly with politics.
TBF there aren't many ex PMs that don't get Knighthood/Damehood/Order of Merit if a bit republican.
If you think Ardern is going to turn it down in a few years, it is a bit silly.
Hi Muttonbird
The key (pun intended) are:
28 February 2015 – Confirmed date of alleged ponytail pulling.
14 December 2015 – Herald Digipoll has Key at 65.2% for preferred PM.
23 November 2016 – One News Colmar Brunton has National on 50% (their highest for national since April). His personal popularity polled at 36%, above Ardern's current polling.
5 December 2016 – Key resigns
So Key resigned one year from the end of his third term, with his party above Labour's current polling, and his preferred PM rating just above that of the current PM.
Key and Clark had many things in common, one significant one being immense and enduring popularity.
But wait. If we are going to go that low when trying to find criticism.
Forget Keys and Jacinta.
I just realised there could be Robotson. Hupkins (Arderns way of saying it), Luxton. Judas Collins. and David Shearly not!, (You could use that with with Shaw as well to be fair.
🙂
The way people write off the disruption as just tourism jobs and oh just hospo jobs is really disconcerting, considering gen z and gen y the people labour needs on side, overwhelmingly work in hospo and tourism jobs, with bars cafes etc closing down we're being wiped out here and govt and it's supporters tell us we're not and then metaphorically block their ears and yell "not listening lala" , it's not hospo, factory's have closed , hours have been reduced.
our inflation may not be the highest but our low wages and Supermarket duopolies and apocalyptic living costs on top of the inflation is just depressingly unbearable. We complain and we get statistics thrown around at us to tell us we're wrong.
I really am worried by the language government supporters use to dismiss the economic suffering in this country. It gives off a very unapproachable, set in their ways , you're wrong I'm right "I'm not listening lalala" uncaring vibe and that vibe loses elections.
The 3% unemployment rate is a nonsense, it's playing musical chairs, people working an hour a week are considered fully employed, people working part time are considered fully employed. Unemployment stats are bullshit under national and they are bullshit under labour.
Ive never seen things so economically hard and I was living alone on the benefit after losing everything in the earthquakes and even when a shortage of rental stock made prices skyrocket but benefits stayed the same, I was more hopeful. This is just an awful existence at the moment. All our money goes to rent and groceries and power.
Labour and it's supporters need to stop worrying about shutting down criticism from right wing mouth pieces that noone can read because they are pay walled and start listening to the concerns of the public who actually want labour to do labour things, right now it feels like a tired disconnected government that doesn't listen, care and just tells us constantly how good we all have it.
This is just bog standard NZ right wing bullshit it's in no way similar to the lunacy of Murdoch bullshit if they had gone full Murdoch the country would be in the middle of a race war.
The media doesn't owe this government anything and they are entitled to bash this government as much as they want, they it's their prerogative, they have stuff all influence on my generation I don't anyone who watches TV or listens to the radio other than my nana we stream on YouTube, Netflix and Spotify (lol) angry NZ Tory's don't reach us so they are only really preaching to the converted.
Labours problem is that it's losing support from people who want the transformational change Labour promised but have no interest in, the public want house prices too fall dramatically Robbo and the Pm say they don't want them to fall at all and are doing.
The public aren't mad that labours being too progressive , they are mad that it's full of crap, you vote labour to fix capitalism not to keep everything exactly the same but with more bureaucrats.
Labours obsession with keeping everything the same and it's impossible fantasy of owning the center is what's turning people off, if the public wanted to keep everything the same they would have voted for the Nats not the people who promised to keep us moving.
Labour promised transformational change, they've done a bunch of good thinks but ultimately it's a new coat of paint , labour promised to keep us moving, but the second they got the car keys they stalled the engine.
Where's our water tax on water bottler exporters btw ? Winston is gone now and that was super popular.
When Ardern said let's keep moving did she mean let's keep moving house , considering how unstable my generations housing situation it feels like it ?
Corey, when i feel im banging my head against a brick wall on here i console myself with the belief that the generally expressed view here is not representative ….the demographics of this blog are somewhat skewed.
The headline rate certainly is. However if you read the actual statistics, or even the summary there are more usable figures from the household survey.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/labour-market-statistics-december-2021-quarter
Scroll down to the Key Facts section and below. And in particular look at the under-utilisation rate of 9.2 which covers exactly the points that you're looking for. If you look into the xlsx spread sheets, you'' see that the under-utilisation, as you'd expect rose significantly during 2020. But has been steadily decreasing throughout 2021 as labour economy adjusted. It is now lower than it was in December 2019 quarter.
As the labour market stats says (and apparently journalists can't read down that far)…
Meanwhile, back at the 'Poll' shack, Newshub has Labour and the PM up with National taking supporters back from Act. Perhaps the NZ electorate can at last recognise wheat from straw.
Good to see that despite all the vitriol and bitter rants about Jacinda and the Government the electorate at large is still supportive. Well done to their common sense in looking past the negativity and hatred.
NZME are most certainly on a mission to change the Govt.
When house prices rise 30% in one year…they are provided with a surfeit of…ammunition.
Doesn't make the change any less idiotic. All it means is that Omicron temporarily saved the Government from itself .
It's a legitimate question to ask at what cost. We actually could have had absolutely no covid here at all by closing the borders to ALL visitors and having far more rigourous quarantine policies at the border for returning kiwis, and holding tose settings indefinitely. But for whatever reason the govt decided that some level of risk is acceptable. So whether they say it out loud or not, there is obviously a calculation they are applying to balance the acceptable number deaths against the acceptable level of restrictions. There's actually nothing wrong with asking about the details of that calculation.
This is not news.
But if it fails I will either be very very happy or a little worried that conventional media has a completely limited effect on the national conversation. Or that people can read numbers. Also RNZ ran a breathlessly cheerleading piece with the last poll.
A more interesting phenomenon is the absolutely poor reporting there has been on the great work done on the light rail for Auckland. The Herald reported well, detailed information, considered headlines, benefits observed, future looked at. Stuff has focused on the location tax and cost. RNZ has run all manner of negativity and not observed the history and the many useful features it has, aside from one article. Like the City rail link, anyone pro the CBD, Auckland and the future can see this will be excellent, but the Nats have almost turned it into a culture war type issue. They don’t invest in rail on faith. Let alone the climate implications or possibilities for city growth…