When it comes to housing, we have things much worse here than investors like Mr King would have us believe, both internationally and according to standards of basic decency.
More than 40,000 peoplelive on the streets, in emergency housing or in substandard shelters in New Zealand, and thousands of children suffer from preventable diseases like whooping cough and rheumatic fever because they live in cold, damp, overcrowded homes; yet 33,000 vacant houses in Auckland alone gather dust, deliberately left empty by property speculators rubbing their hands with glee while prices increase. That’s f**ked.
Pardon me, but that’s absolutely f**ked, and anyone with a functioning conscience should agree that it’s f**ked.
The Labour government’s proposed changes to New Zealand’s rental system suggest bare-minimum protections for tenants, and we need them yesterday.
Opposition by the Property Investors Federation is heartless and self-interested, and Mr King’s suggestion that tenants actually enjoy the extra costs landlords heap on them is a sick joke.
I wonder if tenants don’t need a body to counter the self-serving spin of slumlords, the way unions have had to dilute the narrative of exploitive employers. Some kind of tenants union maybe.
Andrew King responded in the comments section making it clearer that what he actually said was that some tenants liked paying the letting fee because it let them secure the property ahead of others.
I call Bullshit, as you only pay the letting fee once the rental company agrees to let the property to you. You pay the letting fee with your bond and your first two weeks of rent.
So essentially in order to move into a property you need to be able to sort at the very least 6 weeks of rental money or 7 weeks. 3 – 4 weeks bond, 2 weeks rent, 1 week of rent + GST for letting fee.
Yep, BS. We have letting fees because the margins are so skinny for the property management divisions of Real Estate franchises that without them many operations would cease to be viable.
It used to be called ‘key money’ and the reason they could get away with it previously was the shortage of rentals.
For prime commercial properties the key money was enormous.
I’m not sure what you mean Duke. I thought key money for residential properties had always been illegal. These days letting fees are so common WINZ have been adding them to ‘move-in’ grants for several years.
Property management companies generally charge owners around 8% of the rent income. This sum is then split approx 50/50 between the property manager and the parent office franchise.
50 properties returning an average of $400 per week rent provide the property management division with an income of $1600 per week. Split 50/50 = $800 for the office and $800 for the manager. The manager is generally obliged to pay for their vehicle, phone, ACC and tax from their $800. This equates to an in the hand wage of about $400 per week.
This is why the industry has become dependent on letting fees. 3-4 new lets each month doubles incomes.
As Sabine points out, Mr Kings reasons for a letting fee are BS. The industry model would fall over if letting fees were banned…or a new creative way to milk end users and/or owners introduced.
And also a conflict of interest to have private health insurance or children in private schools. They should use the systems they are responsible for maintaining.
Bring back the stocks I say. Stack em up in the town centres so we can hurl cabbages and tomatoes at them. When sufficiently sodden with tomato juice, remove them to a desert island and leave them to drown in the rising sea levels.
Seriously, they’re brain-addled letters are still showing up in the ‘letters to the editor’ section of the newspapers. Why are newspapers printing them? And don’t anyone come the free speech garbage with me. These people are indeed crackpots and they should not be given platforms from which they can spread their dangerous message to the gullible.
Such people were locked up in WW2, and we’re in a war situation right now due to Climate Change.
Get real, Anne. Tomatoes???? Not at their current price!
Seriously, a good ‘get real’ speech. Good on the Samoan PM.
And Morrison is not getting off to a good start with Australia’s Pacific neighbours, as mentioned in that article:
“Australia’s new prime minister, Scott Morrison, is under pressure from some members of his party to abandon Australia’s commitment to reducing emissions under the Paris agreement.
His immediate predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, was due to attend the forum, but Morrison has announced he is sending his new foreign minister, Marisa Payne, a move the opposition Labor party condemned as “an insult to our neighbours” as well as “a serious strategic mistake”.”
As not mentioned, instead he went to Indonesia to sign a free trade agreement.
But this frenchy had enough and quit live on radio
Quote” Mr. Hulot was initially best known to the French public for presenting television shows that aimed to raise awareness about the environment. He later created an environmental foundation and was nominated in 2012 by the French presidency as a special climate envoy ahead of the 2015 Paris summit meeting that led to the signing of the climate deal.
“The planet is becoming a sauna, our natural resources are running out, biodiversity is melting like snow in the sun, and it still isn’t being handled like a priority issue,” he lamented on Tuesday.Quote End.
The French politicians may prefer light-hearted, clever humour to serious stuff that makes life more precarious and difficult in their role as people’s leaders serving the people democratically. But one revolution doesn’t solve all centuries’ problems. See below –
Maybe they should use Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot as a bon bon in between the sour and irksome task of listening to modern M. Hulot. Every hour, after intense and unpleasant discussion, a little more of M. Hulot’s Holiday to decrease their indigestion.
Short clips:
May 1968 events in France – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_events_in_France
The volatile period of civil unrest in France during May 1968 was punctuated by demonstrations … The student occupations and wildcat general strikes initiated across France were ….. While Communist leaders later denied that they had planned an armed uprising, and extreme militants only comprised 2% of the populace, …
Protests of 1968 · Wildcat strike action · Gaullist Party
In between there have been the Second World War 1939-1945,
and the First World War 1914-1918. (They were the largest military conflicts in human history. Both wars involved military alliances between different groups of countries. Wikipedia)
French Revolution of 1848 – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution_of_1848
On May 31, 15,000 jobless French rioted as rising xenophobia persecuted Belgian workers in the north. In 1848, 479 newspapers were founded alongside a 54% decline in the number of businesses in Paris, as most wealth had evacuated the city.
The French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies that lasted from 1789 until 1799. It was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire.
French Revolution – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
Well I thought it was a bad thing that M Hulot stepped down because he wasn’t being heard. And I suggested that the French are not living up to the ideals of their numerous revolutions, and should be listening to M Hulot even if they have to take a break for air and some relaxation FTTT.
garners just pissy because the government didn’t jump when he said around the sick traveller .
Ardern calmed businesses nerves and nailed it by standing down the bully pending investigation .that’s a pass in my books.
Little duncs just a pretender to hoskings toxic throne.
I agree Garner has gone over the top with his criticism – especially in the second half of the article. But there is some truth in what he says. Two cabinet minsters are showing signs they are wanting, and both of them are women. Not a good look.
Far better to cut their losses as soon as is practicable… before they become liabilities. Helen Clark did it and so did John Key.
Garner , the guy who said his name being amoung those leaked on the dating website Ashley Madison, was an imposter.
His 3rd marriage broke up less than 18 months later.
Trouble with Jacinda is she was not strong enough from the start as we all respecrt a strong woman as our leader dont we.
History told us that when faced with aggression such as Britains war with Argintena over the Falklands Island invassion Margret Thatcher stepped up to that challenge but when a junior Labour MP like Clare curran hands a hand grenade to her oer Curran’s botch-ups, all jacinda did was just cowered and folded.
So she needs to harden up and look decisive now; – as time is ticking.
Just look at jacindas Government now folding to the trucking lobby as she allows the Aucklander Phil Twyiord train wreck to roll on, – as he announces a massive road spending program of $11 Billion for just roading improvements for trucking freight to Ports and not allowing for any money for any regional rail services!!!!!!!
What a fuck-up that was!!!
Another lost cause or broken promises to her generation that faces “Climate change – her generations nucear moment”
Different leaders have different styles and I think that our PM should stick to her style and not try to become like (copy) so many other so-called (male) leaders. I think the PM is doing just fine; she ain’t perfect but that’s a ridiculous standard anyway and depends on whom you ask anyway (as in: you cannot please everyone all the time).
“National leader Simon Bridges – his hunt for the person who leaked his travel expenses could put him on a collision course with MPs who don’t want the party trawling through their private emails and might explode in his face if it turns out to be a National MP” Stuff.
Governments should ignore business and business should have no say in the running of the country. They’re the ones that are getting it all wrong because all they want is to get richer and they simply don’t care how much it costs the rest of us.
I recall a meeting with Michael Barnett CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber back in the early 2000’s where he stated that “what is good for business is good for New Zealand”. Many bought into that notion. Barnett still buys into it even today. At the time that quip didn’t quite gel with me as I had seen too many business’s prosper from being ruthless operators and some horrific polluters of the environment. Since then it has certainly become obvious that what was good for many business’s has been really bad for New Zealand.
True, but until we get another option the status quo will continue: most people can’t remain alive unless employed in a business. Remember the old socialist idea that governments ought to fund everyone’s subsistence? Socialist governments kept business to provide the money to do so. Which alternative to business funding do you advise us to switch to instead of that?
True, but until we get another option the status quo will continue: most people can’t remain alive unless employed in a business.
Change all businesses so that they’re a self-owned cooperative.
Remember the old socialist idea that governments ought to fund everyone’s subsistence? Socialist governments kept business to provide the money to do so.
And they failed because they kept the old, failed business model. The same business model that goes back thousands of years and which has always brought about the destruction of the society that used it.
Which alternative to business funding do you advise us to switch to instead of that??
The government owns all the resources in the country. Because of this they can simply create money and pay it out to utilise those resources, to hire people to produce what the country needs.
Yes, I agree with that brief outline of a viable alternative. Next step is for others to get on board in support. Then a political party to campaign on the basis of Monty Python’s slogan: “and now for something completely different”!
Keith ought to do an update of that analysis with appropriate conclusions and where to from here, eh? If you know the guy, suggest it to him. I recall attending a UBI seminar he presented in the early nineties, plus several of his papers were included in our process by JF when she led the GP economic policy working group back then. For those interested, here’s the Rankin site: http://new.rankinfile.co.nz/
Interesting data here about productivity and population growth. Getting rid of a few myths like for example that Israel is some sort of powerhouse of productivity.
It also is nailing what is going wrong with NZ, instead of spending tax money on high value investment and actually making ” high value things” or even “high value services” we are hinging our future on spending it on houses and roads to house more people who work at places like Burger King and hotels on close to minimum wages… or selling off our assets to others and just getting a small clip on the ticket. The stats show this will not work, our productivity is declining and at the bottom of the OECD.
Sadly, NZ ranks in the bottom 5 OECD countries for productivity and Israel and NZ are both there with the same problem, rapidly expanding populations. The costs to create all that new infrastructure are huge and NZ has an even more bizarre strategy of getting in low wage workers so therefore putting the burden on supporting them on the rest of the population taking more taxes away from productive areas they could be spending on as well as increasing social problems like more people in prison while crying nobody will employ them. Why would they, there are migrant labour hire firms touting cheap labour at every corner and making a killing being the middle man??? Likewise the private education firms aimed at foreigners, also making a killing while providing an appalling level of education and many having to be closed down, and funnelling in cheap workers.
We all hear about all the lobbying about how we need all these migrants for tourism. Nothing about opportunity for Maori interest to advance in. I would have thought the tourists visiting a country want to see indigenous people working in those places otherwise they might as well be in another country. The Maori economy is 15%, tourism is growing, wouldn’t that be a better combination to explore, and look at practically reducing the terrible statistics for many Maori and creating opportunities for them in?
The Maori economy is 15%, tourism is growing, wouldn’t that be a better combination to explore, and look at practically reducing the terrible statistics for many Maori and creating opportunities for them in?
Tourism, as we’re learning, is a really expensive form of low paying work. A few people may do well from it but the rest of the country will be worse off.
And that’s before we take climate change into account.
I’m all for the government investing in high value manufacturing and better education to support it but the government actually needs to be limiting tourism.
save nz and DracoTBastard
You are getting dangerously close to the truth there, and confirming the theories around the problems. I’m afraid that someone will knock on your door late at night and we will never hear from you again. Please keep safe, it seems that there is a glimmer of light coming through here.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
(from 1 September 1939 WH Auden)
“I’ve argued for some years, that rapid population growth can crowd out other business activities. The basic logic is pretty simple. New people – whether born or migrant – need new capital stock. A modern economy requires rather a lot of (physical) capital per person (houses, roads, offices, schools, shops, machines etc) and real resources that have to be devoted to meeting the needs and demand of the new people, can’t be used for other purposes. It is often those “other purposes” that seem to get squeezed out – in particular, investment in the tradables sector. People have to live somewhere, so that demand is often more inelastic (insensitive to changes in price) than is potential investment in support of new business opportunities”
Productivity is a myth that drives the problems we all are ecountering todaay with air pollution, climarte change and decreasing oxgen levels in our atmospheric air we breathe so we are well on the way to extingquishing our lives as we chast the ellusive “productivity”
last week the World health organisation rleased the findings of the largest study of the human damage caused by air pollution and it confirms that living near busy “productive” roads will cause brain damage and other damages to us all so we are really stuffed now.
Breaking News – Pollution ‘harms cognitive intelligence’
Air pollution could cause a significant reduction in intelligence, major study says
• Research finds that long-term exposure to air pollution impeded people’s performance in both verbal and math tests.
• More than four million people die each year from exposure to outdoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.
Air pollution could cause a significant reduction in intelligence, major study says
• Research finds that long-term exposure to air pollution impeded people’s performance in both verbal and math tests.
• More than four million people die each year from exposure to outdoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.
Productivity is a myth that drives the problems we all are ecountering todaay with air pollution, climarte change and decreasing oxgen levels in our atmospheric air we breathe so we are well on the way to extingquishing our lives as we chast the ellusive “productivity”
It’s not productivity doing that – it’s the profit drive and the greed of the capitalists.
Increasing productivity means one of two things in a society.
1. The society can shift people away from one industry into another while still providing everything that the first industry provided.
2. Could go from not providing enough of something to providing enough without increasing the number of people used in that industry. This usually also comes with increases in efficiency – in using less resources to provide the same or more.
More than four million people die each year from exposure to outdoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.
Last time I looked (admittedly quite a few years ago) there were an estimated 400 premature deaths in NZ from road pollution. More than half of them in Auckland.
Has Duncan nailed the terrible leaker who has been troubling Simon Bridges? I think it is a real shame that there has been no closure on such a simple problem.
Makes poor Simon look even less competent than Duncan – who knows everything.
I certainly hope Helen is keeping jacinda briefed Robert;
As I recieved several letters from Helen Clark as PM during the stormy days in 2003 when the arrogant roading lobby was pushing massive amounts of truck traffic through our residential ‘noise sensittive quiet zones’ areas in Napier.
Helen Clark took the lead to assist us,and she slowed their activities back to a reasonable manner and she arranged to have provided ($2m) – two million Dolllars for our community groups to get some much needed ‘mitigation’ for our 24hr 2400 truck activities roaming thriough our residential ‘quiet noise zones’ and since then the trucking lobby under national have been successful in trebbling road freight levels and ruining our health and lives.
Helen needs to assist Jacinda and to do what helen did to send Phil Twyford here to the HB Expressway to meet with our community Committee as Helen did and she confirmed this with us in a letter she sent to me as secretary of our residential area and she made good on her promises made to us by sending her minister for transport Mark Gosche then in 2003 with Finance Minister Michael Cullen and the CEO of Transit NZ (NZTA now) to meet with our committee then on the noisy poorly built “HB Expressway” to help so our community.
It is now Jacinda’s turn to step up as ‘champion for our community in Napier’ as Helen Clark was then in 2003.
Parliamentary commisioners report was warning government to act and they did then and need to again now sadly.
Helen Clark has been mentoring Jacinda Ardern for almost 20 years, cleangreen. After finishing university in 2001, Ardern worked as a researcher in Helen Clark’s office in Parliament when Clark was PM and they have been close friends and colleagues ever since. Clark is only one of many – but one of the most influential, who have helped Ardern over the years to grow and learn to the point that she was elected as Leader of the Labour Party at the age of 37.
Nah, she didn’t; she said, “…people wouldn’t have kept their jobs..” – the violent image you invoked is yours, not hers; Helen’s far more nuanced with her language than you are, naki and that’s just one criticism I have of your “naki” style comment.
I read in that link of Helen Clark’s interview: She said we live in an era “where you just have to expect the unexpected”.
“When you’re planning, you need to put the wildest scenarios on the table, because anything is possible.”
The other part of that saying is…’but you can’t count on it’.
Helen Clark didn’t say anything unexpected this time, but followed a line that would be expected from her talking about her preoccupations and her time. And thinking of the wildest scenarios – if that happens it is quickly reined in by groupthink, peer pressure and Treasury intelligence and overview.
Helen Clark’s opinion should be kept under wraps; it is no more welcome to me as a citizen than Jenny Shipley’s. Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark could usefully talk about every quarter, but we elected Jacinda and I expect to hear her speak up about her vision and practical polices for us as we voters expected. I don’t want to hear the unexpected of Helen Clark usurping Jacinda in the news or anywhere.
Helen did very well in her day which is not now. So I suggest she doesn’t muddy the waters as we have enough old Labourites eager to put their oar in already. We are rowing and trying to go in the right direction, and old Labourites seem more inclined to the right adding to the RW-aligned pullers; and the result is direction diversion and going round in circles, literally.
“Nah, she didn’t; she said, “…people wouldn’t have kept their jobs..” – the violent image you invoked is yours, not hers”
Bullshit, next time learn to read the link before making a fool of yourself.
“Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post after a Q&A session at the Property Council New Zealand national conference in Rotorua today, Clark said heads would have rolled if Labour’s youth camp sex scandal had occurred on her watch.”
See 8.2.4: reality really is goddam slippery to get a hold of sometimes! Like an eel. Ever try to grab one? Both you & RG were right. Just another instance of folks assuming stuff is either true or false. Both/and logic often applies instead.
I look for quotation marks. When I see them, I assume that inside of them is what a person said. When someone else says,”this person said”, I’m doubly careful not to accept the attribution without finding more reliable evidence. Clark may have said what naki claims, but there was no convincing evidence for that in the link he provided. I reckon.
Reality? “The former prime minister told the Rotorua Daily Post yesterday that heads would have rolled had the scandal occurred under her leadership. “Draw your own conclusions, go back to how I dealt with things like this, people wouldn’t have kept their jobs,” she said.”
I do often think of You and the good causes you promote.
Sometimes I wonder if very shortly Councils, Provinces and Government will force every car off the roads and highways that race across our marvellous North Island.
Just so that 50 Ton Trucks and their loads can take over and Kill at will. Wreck constantly the Roads into subsidence and rip up the peace. Day and Night.
There is hardly a foot of free width either side of our monster trucks- thundering along with a quivering trailer behind – at outrageous speed. Highway One is a war zone
All I know, is that very few Trains kill people. Heaps of Trucks kill heaps of people.
I hope with You that our lovely East Coast has Rail replaced – quick smart! Cleangreen.
Transcript:
And then, this orange apparition had the nerve to say she worked for him. You lugubrious leach! You doppelgänger of deceit and deviance! You lethal liar! You dimwitted dictator! You foolish fascist! She ain’t work for you. She worked above you! She worked beyond you! Get your preposition right! Then he got the nerve to say he goin’ grab it.
That ain’t what Aretha Franklin said. “I’m gonna give you something you can feel.” Like the brothers in the streets say, “Tap lightly. Like a woodpecker with a headache.” So don’t you sully the memory of our great Queen. Aretha Franklin was an original. Never one like her before. Never another like her afterwards.
One of the funniest moments at Aretha’s funeral was when Michael Eric Dyson, upon acknowledging the guests, said “to President Clinton, and her husband Bill”.— john oliver (@joliver46) August 31, 2018
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that Syrian rebels are planning a chemical weapons attack, with the aim of blaming it on the Syrian government to provoke a military response from the West……
…..The ministry also claimed that a private British contractor is helping the rebels stage the attack, according to news agency AFP…..
……”The militants have the task of simulating the rescue of the victims of the chemical weapons attack dressed in the clothes of the famous ‘White Helmets’,” it said.
” “I had two years of psychotherapy which were amazing but it was going to Peru and drinking ayahuasca, which is a class A drug in this country, that got to the root of my depression,” the comedian Simon Amstell has said. He is far from alone.”
This is from a Guardian opinion essay: “Ayahuasca rituals can be profoundly beneficial – if they’re done properly”. Good to see younger folk pursuing a transcendence pathway.
“In the west, ayahuasca can be portrayed as a shortcut to enlightenment, a product you can buy that will make you deep, or an “extreme” tourist experience. It’s become increasingly popular among tech millionaires who are, in the words of one report, looking to “find shortcuts to success in the ultra-competitive tech scene”. It seems unlikely ayahuasca was put on this Earth to help Bay Area tech bros crush the opposition.” But hey, you never know!
Christians spent the past couple of millennia explaining that `God moves in mysterious ways’. However, now that he has mysteriously relocated elsewhere, better to face reality and acknowledge that ayahuasca is part of Gaia, and ingestion is part of Gaian process. Those fit to play an ongoing part survive, wiser from the experience. Any entrepreneur seeking competitive advantage will spot that trend fast & leap onto it.
There was a decade or so in the hippie era when natural intelligence got powerfully enhanced via usage of plant allies – millions of us shared those experience before younger trend followers trashed the scenes with mindless hedonism. Western culture improved considerably as a result of the leading edge but the bad mental health produced by the capitalist system continues to victimise younger generations. Let’s hope their leading edge can also generate millions who wise up rather than turn into human vegetables!
I’ve only just started reading the comments, some of which are very interesting; it’s definitely not just “younger folk pursuing a transcendence pathway”.
Let’s hope their leading edge can also generate millions who wise up rather than turn into human vegetables!
Bit too late for that; many are stuck in a catachthonic state/world through their ‘pursuit’ of instant gratification, greed & gain, and thirst for power & control.
The most insightful poem In a Dark Time by Theodore Roethke shows that the path is not for the fainthearted. It happens to be my favourite poem 🙂
Oh yeah, I forgot the link, thanks. Didn’t realise there were comments available. Usual selection of retards & sceptics, then this: “hallucinogens can be tremendously helpful, do nothing much, or be very harmful. depends what’s in your head, what drug, what surroundings and companions for the trip.” Sensible.
“mushrooms: they grow on the golf courses near where my family live in Ireland and I’ve had some beautiful, gentle experiences with them.” Lucky! I’m just nostalgic, left tripping behind long ago. Catalysis & transcendence can be done without a plant ally. Incidentally, for readers who never read Castaneda, the ally is a tool – used as means to an end. The hippie thing turned to mush as soon as trend-followers started seeing it as an end in itself.
“Unlike LSD and shrooms, Ayahuasca gives people a “this is the truth” experience. Seems to active whatever part of the brain that gives us the “ring of truth” feeling.” I never went to Central or South America so I can’t endorse this from experience.
IrascibleOldGit89: “Being a true shallow suburbanite, I’m not sure how I’d react to taking powerful hallucinogens with Amazonian shamen, but I’m quite partial to imbibing modest amounts of novel lysergamides from time to time. Shame Theresa had one of her moral panics and banished the industry from the UK – it’s quite a global money spinner, I do believe…”
Well yes, with capitalism on its last legs any new industry ought to be got up & running pronto. I hope he gets together with IrascibleOldGits1-88 & forms a tribe of them. Can the internet enable such networking?
Personally I find the information around mushrooms and mental health to be fascinating.
“A number of small studies have found psychedelics to show promise in treating mental health disorders like depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder, often where other treatments have failed.
Now UK researchers are about to take part in the first major trials into whether one of these hallucinogenic drugs could be more effective than a leading antidepressant in the treatment of depression.
Researchers at Imperial College London are to compare the magic mushroom compound psilocybin with a leading SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant, escitalopram, in a large trial expected to take at least two years.”
The clinical trial mentioned in the BBC article is not all that large (50 participants) and lists Professor David Nutt as the Principal Investigator: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03429075
Nutt is a well-known not to say controversial scientist who strongly advocates for re-classification of drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis based on the actual harm they are causing (cannabis is quite a safe drug based on the evidence of social harm it causes; alcohol is ranked highly in terms of social harm).
Although (these) drugs have potential to be beneficial they could also be used with less desirable intentions such as re-programming people (AKA brainwashing) or crime fighting, e.g. Devil’s Breathhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscine#Society_and_culture
She is doing the Sydney one tomorrow (Sun) via satellite because the Aussie govt have not yet made a final decision on her visa application.
The Sydney event is not her alone. She was/is appearing as part of a much bigger event – the Antidote Festival – at the Sydney Opera House involving many other speakers etc. Tickets for her session only were/are AUD39.
Her other appearances in Aussie are not until next Friday, 7 Sept in Melbourne and Tues 11 Sept in Brisbane. So there is still time for a visa for those events to be issued. Tickets for those longer speaking engagements are AUD72 – AUD 249 for VIP Meet and Greet.
Her NZ appearances are Auckland next Sat, 8 Sept and Wellington Sun, 9 Sept, and barring any last minute changes of mind etc, the decision yesterday to grant her a special direction all but means her NZ visa will be issued. NZ prices are $59 – $249 for the VIP Meet and Greet.
Momentum gathering around some kind of US military action in Venezuela: Rubio, as well as some in DC bureaucracy openly discussing now. A friend with high-level DC contacts told me recently “I’m afraid they’re gonna do something crazy.” https://t.co/X7pnlzVA71— Brian Winter (@BrazilBrian) August 31, 2018
Marco Rubio , a Republican senator from Florida, held a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton , in which they spoke about the deep crisis that Venezuela is going through and its implications for the United States and Latin America. .
“For months and years I wanted the solution in Venezuela to be a non-military and peaceful solution, simply to restore democracy, there is a National Assembly elected by the people that has been clouded by this dictatorship,”
Rubio began when consulted for his meeting with Bolton.
I think there is an argument, very strong, that can be made at this time that Venezuela and the regime of (Nicolás) Maduro has become a threat
“I believe that the Armed Forces of the United States are only used in the event of a threat to national security, I believe that there is an argument, very strong , that can be made at this time that Venezuela and the (Nicolás) Maduro regime has become a threat to the region and even to the United States. ”
He said that in his meeting with Bolton, this topic was discussed in general. ” (The Government of) Maduro is a government that supports drug traffickers, guerrillas and terrorist groups that are threatening the stability of Colombia .”
Haha, they have broken away from the USD! Who’s next? Iran? Turkey!, hehehe. China, Russia, Japan; all selling US Fed bonds. Who’s buying? Can only be the US Fed, buying back their own bonds! The crash is coming, can’t wait.
“If anyone truly believes we can keep the same number of cows, cut emissions, and increase profits they’re mad. As in insane. Our Ag minister is insane.”
Great to see California State is passing a very strong net neutrality law.
This will set up a real fight with the FCC and a general federal-level fight. We’ll have to see whether Tom Wheeler the Obama appointee there is willing to really bend the ear of the majority there to revisit the issue.
The proposed rules in California go further than rules passed by Democrats at the Federal Communications Commission in 2015. The legislation not only transforms the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules into California law, but it also bars internet service providers from offering sponsored content, zero-rating or other deals that could provide an economic incentive to broadband companies to discriminate against content riding on their networks. Such offerings allow a company to pay data charges so that certain content doesn’t count against a wireless subscriber’s data plan.
Additionally, the bill allows the state to oversee commercial interconnection deals to ensure broadband companies can’t use their market power to charge hefty amounts from corporate customers. Interconnection deals are agreements between companies that provide internet content, such as Netflix, and ISPs, such as Comcast and Verizon.
Large internet service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, oppose the California law. While they say they support the basic idea of net neutrality, they argue that bans on things like zero-rating and paid-priority, which could allow companies to pay broadband providers to get their services delivered faster than competitors, limit their ability to try new business models. The big broadband providers say without the ability to experiment with new business models, they’ll have to charge consumers more for their services in the future.
What will be critical is whether the Democrat Party accept SuperPac money from Caifornia-domiciled big-tech companies who oppose any net neutrality. Generally the big internet companies support Democrats. If they accept the money, it signals that they are less likely to side with the California legislature and less likely to revisit the issue should they get a Senate majority from the November mid-terms.
“big-tech companies who oppose any net neutrality”
Thats surprising , any evidence of that. I thought the people own own the net infrastructure were the only ones to make money out of net priority.
Apple and Google dont want to pay to get their data their first and they would see their own profits at risk of going to those whos only job is infrastructure
“Taking a swipe at UK Prime Minister Theresa May as she struggled to dance with schoolchildren during her visit to South Africa this week, controversial British columnist Katie Hopkins tweeted: “Whites are being slaughtered in South Africa & inexplicably Appeaser May chooses to crucify herself”.
Hopkins’ tweet was the latest example of a global campaign to portray South Africa’s once dominant white population as a victimised minority under attack.
Her comments reflect the growing influence of South Africa’s conservative Afrikaner groups who are conducting global lobbying campaigns to support their message that white farmers are being targeted and killed, that the government is seizing their land, they are being discriminated against by affirmative action programmes and that their language is being sidelined.
…The BBC has found that there is no reliable data to suggest farmers are at greater risk of being murdered than the average South African.”
The outlaw Israeli regime told Al Jazeera not to show a documentary called The Lobby. Sadly for its credibility as a news organization, Al Jazeera obeyed.
outlaw Israeli regime huh?
there has never been a country called Palestine in the history of the world.
they are Bedouin who are a grouping of nomadic Arab people who have historically inhabited the desert regions in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and the Levant.
nomadic people ok.
Here’s a Central Banking trick from the Arabs. NZ and Australia could do the same. Australian Treasury could be funded from RBNZ, while they return finance to NZ Treasury from their Central Bank. Extend the balance sheets with a little regional QE number. Nice-one, mate. So long as it’s spent on long-term economic transition, and not lost on the pokies.
Trucking companies must be the biggest moaners in NZ. If only we could get more freight on the railways we already have.
Ken Shirley – ex Labour?
Ken Shirley, chief executive of trucking industry lobby group the Road Transport Forum…
Mr Shirley said the government’s pledged commitment to road safety was a good sign, but the greatest road safety improvements would come from investing in new highways.
“The biggest safety gains actually come from the big highway investment projects – the Roads Of National Significance – they have delivered spectacular improvement in safety and they’re the very projects that are now on hold.”
(Has the safety improvement been so good on TRONS?)
National:
National associate transport spokesperson Brett Hudson said the government’s policies were “totally out of whack”….
They didnt build the RONs for ‘the safety ‘- it was to suit the trucking industry.
The ordinary SH improvements and critical safety improvements were plundered to feed the fund for RONs.
Even the new route for the Manawatu Gorge back in 2012 was shelved in favour of some piece meal changes. All that money gone to waste as the new route has had to be done anyway – but slowly.
Even the spending for Aucklands CRL was delayed starting after after approval to begin was given- the Council kicked it off with its own money- because RONS had taken all the money
Ken Shirley and his ilk is backed by the oil industry who constantly lobby’s government relentlessly every day till they wear politicians down.
That is why things like RONs got to be paid by the taxpayer for the trucking industry.
Simple as that and if Phil twyford is a smart politician he should place sunset clauses all over his plans to reverse the roading projects for rail uptake so that when national does take over again they wont reinstate RONs again to keep milking the taxpayerr for the beneit of the trucking industry as it is just a rort.
The hui there you go Eco Maori has not seen any maori living the golden years not many if any are enjoying the good life when we get the silver back I see heap’s of Pakeha living the golden years .
The forestry industry industry on the East Coast’s was sold to maori as a big money spinner for maori but when I went to Ruatoria home the house’s look run down so not much money is flowing into the town .
I know how they work they will keep all the cream contracting jobs for Pakeha and give maori all the un profitable jobs to maori.
How does Eco Maori know this well that was one of the factors that caused my business to fail .
The reality is that this phenomenon is happening to Maori in all industry’s that is why we are so young old and BROKE. Many thanks Mihinarangi .
Ka kite ano
Goon morning Marae Jenny May kai pai for Matua Brown for telling that Gisborne City Councillor off for using raciest remakes about maori .
What he choses / Pakeha not to acknowledge is that I was all the Hard work of Maori tipunas /ancestors who have made Aotearoa so wealthy the East Coast was the back bone of Aotearoa in the Old day’s and thats a fact have a look at the farming and other industry’s. I no that the Pakeha can spinn there ——— back on maori .
I say the we need more statues of our tipuna..
Kia Kaha ka kite ano . Quade should play for Maori
Good evening Newshub the Senator John McCain funeral service give’s Eco Maori hope that we are going to leave OUR mokopuna’s a good future ka pai.
I say just for a ap and clients %35 cost that goes to Uber eats is to high .
No to lease hold land deals that’s my opinion enough said .
That’s the way Britain no honers ie Sir for un Honorable people .
Yes I have seen Rainier forestry do that in mangatu forest Gisborne has been striped of a lot of trees that were not mature so much for thinking about the future for the mokopuna’s.
Good story on Myanmar Michael Ka pai
Nicky you got the Star and the good job
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori has been studying OUR history back 5000 years and every time man has suppresed wahine the eventual out come has been a desaster War so I’m on the correct path’s in promoting OUR Wahine they are the majority of my offspring Kia kaha ka kite ano here a link below. P.S & equality
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 15, 2024 thru Sat, December 21, 2024. Based on feedback we received, this week's roundup is the first one published soleley by category. We are still interested in ...
Well, I've been there, sitting in that same chairWhispering that same prayer half a million timesIt's a lie, though buried in disciplesOne page of the Bible isn't worth a lifeThere's nothing wrong with youIt's true, it's trueThere's something wrong with the villageWith the villageSomething wrong with the villageSongwriters: Andrew Jackson ...
ACT would like to dictate what universities can and can’t say. We knew it was coming. It was outlined in the coalition agreement and has become part of Seymour’s strategy of “emphasising public funding” to prevent people from opposing him and his views—something he also uses to try and de-platform ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Are we heading ...
So the Solstice has arrived – Summer in this part of the world, Winter for the Northern Hemisphere. And with it, the publication my new Norse dark-fantasy piece, As Our Power Lessens at Eternal Haunted Summer: https://eternalhauntedsummer.com/issues/winter-solstice-2024/as-our-power-lessens/ As previously noted, this one is very ‘wyrd’, and Northern Theory of Courage. ...
The Natural Choice: As a starter for ten percent of the Party Vote, “saving the planet” is a very respectable objective. Young voters, in particular, raised on the dire (if unheeded) warnings of climate scientists, and the irrefutable evidence of devastating weather events linked to global warming, vote Green. After ...
The Government cancelled 60% of Kāinga Ora’s new builds next year, even though the land for them was already bought, the consents were consented and there are builders unemployed all over the place. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political ...
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on UnsplashEvery morning I get up at 3am to go around the traps of news sites in Aotearoa and globally. I pick out the top ones from my point of view and have been putting them into my Dawn Chorus email, which goes out with a podcast. ...
Over on Kikorangi Newsroom's Marc Daalder has published his annual OIA stats. So I thought I'd do mine: 82 OIA requests sent in 2024 7 posts based on those requests 20 average working days to receive a response Ministry of Justice was my most-requested entity, ...
Welcome to the December 2024 Economic Bulletin. We have two monthly features in this edition. In the first, we discuss what the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update from Treasury and the Budget Policy Statement from the Minister of Finance tell us about the fiscal position and what to ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi have submitted against the controversial Treaty Principles Bill, slamming the Bill as a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an attack on tino rangatiratanga and the collective rights of Tangata Whenua. “This Bill seeks to legislate for Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles that are ...
I don't knowHow to say what's got to be saidI don't know if it's black or whiteThere's others see it redI don't get the answers rightI'll leave that to youIs this love out of fashionOr is it the time of yearAre these words distraction?To the words you want to hearSongwriters: ...
Our economy has experienced its worst recession since 1991. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, December 20 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above and the daily Pick ‘n’ Mix below ...
Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the week we’ve been collecting stories for our final roundup of the year. As we start to wind down for the year we hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and new year. If you’re travelling please be safe on ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the year’s news with: on climate. Her book of the year was Tim Winton’s cli-fi novel Juice and she also mentioned Mike Joy’s memoir The Fight for Fresh Water. ...
The Government can head off to the holidays, entitled to assure itself that it has done more or less what it said it would do. The campaign last year promised to “get New Zealand back on track.” When you look at the basic promises—to trim back Government expenditure, toughen up ...
Open access notables An intensification of surface Earth’s energy imbalance since the late 20th century, Li et al., Communications Earth & Environment:Tracking the energy balance of the Earth system is a key method for studying the contribution of human activities to climate change. However, accurately estimating the surface energy balance ...
Photo by Mauricio Fanfa on UnsplashKia oraCome and join us for our weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with myself , plus regular guests and , ...
“Like you said, I’m an unreconstructed socialist. Everybody deserves to get something for Christmas.”“ONE OF THOSE had better be for me!” Hannah grinned, fascinated, as Laurie made his way, gingerly, to the bar, his arms full of gift-wrapped packages.“Of course!”, beamed Laurie. Depositing his armful on the bar-top and selecting ...
Data released by Statistics New Zealand today showed a significant slowdown in the economy over the past six months, with GDP falling by 1% in September, and 1.1% in June said CTU Economist Craig Renney. “The data shows that the size of the economy in GDP terms is now smaller ...
One last thing before I quitI never wanted any moreThan I could fit into my headI still remember every single word you saidAnd all the shit that somehow came along with itStill, there's one thing that comforts meSince I was always caged and now I'm freeSongwriters: David Grohl / Georg ...
Sparse offerings outside a Te Kauwhata church. Meanwhile, the Government is cutting spending in ways that make thousands of hungry children even hungrier, while also cutting funding for the charities that help them. It’s also doing that while winding back new building of affordable housing that would allow parents to ...
It is difficult to make sense of the Luxon Coalition Government’s economic management.This end-of-year review about the state of economic management – the state of the economy was last week – is not going to cover the National Party contribution. Frankly, like every other careful observer, I cannot make up ...
This morning I awoke to the lovely news that we are firmly back on track, that is if the scale was reversed.NZ ranks low in global economic comparisonsNew Zealand's economy has been ranked 33rd out of 37 in an international comparison of which have done best in 2024.Economies were ranked ...
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis seems intent on portraying herself as that damsel in distress. According to Willis, this country’s current economic problems have all been caused by the spending ...
Similar to the cuts and the austerity drive imposed by Ruth Richardson in the 1990’s, an era which to all intents and purposes we’ve largely fiddled around the edges with fixing in the time since – over, to be fair, several administrations – whilst trying our best it seems to ...
String-Pulling in the Dark: For the democratic process to be meaningful it must also be public. WITH TRUST AND CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s politicians and journalists steadily declining, restoring those virtues poses a daunting challenge. Just how daunting is made clear by comparing the way politicians and journalists treated New Zealanders ...
Dear Nicola Willis, thank you for letting us know in so many words that the swingeing austerity hasn't worked.By in so many words I mean the bit where you said, Here is a sea of red ink in which we are drowning after twelve months of savage cost cutting and ...
The Open Government Partnership is a multilateral organisation committed to advancing open government. Countries which join are supposed to co-create regular action plans with civil society, committing to making verifiable improvements in transparency, accountability, participation, or technology and innovation for the above. And they're held to account through an Independent ...
Today I tuned into something strange: a press conference that didn’t make my stomach churn or the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Which was strange, because it was about the torture of children. It was the announcement by Erica Stanford — on her own, unusually ...
This is a must watch, and puts on brilliant and practical display the implications and mechanics of fast-track law corruption and weakness.CLICK HERE: LINK TO WATCH VIDEOOur news media as it is set up is simply not equipped to deal with the brazen disinformation and corruption under this right wing ...
NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Acting Secretary Erin Polaczuk is welcoming the announcement from Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden that she is opening consultation on engineered stone and is calling on her to listen to the evidence and implement a total ban of the product. “We need ...
The Government has announced a 1.5% increase in the minimum wage from 1 April 2025, well below forecast inflation of 2.5%. Unions have reacted strongly and denounced it as a real terms cut. PSA and the CTU are opposing a new round of staff cuts at WorkSafe, which they say ...
The decision to unilaterally repudiate the contract for new Cook Strait ferries is beginning to look like one of the stupidest decisions a New Zealand government ever made. While cancelling the ferries and their associated port infrastructure may have made this year's books look good, it means higher costs later, ...
Hi there! I’ve been overseas recently, looking after a situation with a family member. So apologies if there any less than focused posts! Vanuatu has just had a significant 7.3 earthquake. Two MFAT staff are unaccounted for with local fatalities.It’s always sad to hear of such things happening.I think of ...
Today is a special member's morning, scheduled to make up for the government's theft of member's days throughout the year. First up was the first reading of Greg Fleming's Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill, which was passed unanimously. Currently the House is debating the third reading of ...
We're going backwardsIgnoring the realitiesGoing backwardsAre you counting all the casualties?We are not there yetWhere we need to beWe are still in debtTo our insanitiesSongwriter: Martin Gore Read more ...
Willis blamed Treasury for changing its productivity assumptions and Labour’s spending increases since Covid for the worsening Budget outlook. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, December 18 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast above ...
Today the Auckland Transport board meet for the last time this year. For those interested (and with time to spare), you can follow along via this MS Teams link from 10am. I’ve taken a quick look through the agenda items to see what I think the most interesting aspects are. ...
Hi,If you’re a New Zealander — you know who Mike King is. He is the face of New Zealand’s battle against mental health problems. He can be loud and brash. He raises, and is entrusted with, a lot of cash. Last year his “I Am Hope” charity reported a revenue ...
Probably about the only consolation available from yesterday’s unveiling of the Half-Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) is that it could have been worse. Though Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tightened the screws on future government spending, she has resisted the calls from hard-line academics, fiscal purists and fiscal hawks ...
The right have a stupid saying that is only occasionally true:When is democracy not democracy? When it hasn’t been voted on.While not true in regards to branches of government such as the judiciary, it’s a philosophy that probably should apply to recently-elected local government councillors. Nevertheless, this concept seemed to ...
Long story short: the Government’s austerity policy has driven the economy into a deeper and longer recession that means it will have to borrow $20 billion more over the next four years than it expected just six months ago. Treasury’s latest forecasts show the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s fiscal strategy of ...
Come and join myself and CTU Chief Economist for a pop-up ‘Hoon’ webinar on the Government’s Half Yearly Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) with paying subscribers to The Kākā for 30 minutes at 5 pm today.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream to watch our chat. Don’t worry if ...
In 1998, in the wake of the Paremoremo Prison riot, the Department of Corrections established the "Behaviour Management Regime". Prisoners were locked in their cells for 22 or 23 hours a day, with no fresh air, no exercise, no social contact, no entertainment, and in some cases no clothes and ...
New data released by the Treasury shows that the economic policies of this Government have made things worse in the year since they took office, said NZCTU Economist Craig Renney. “Our fiscal indicators are all heading in the wrong direction – with higher levels of debt, a higher deficit, and ...
At the 2023 election, National basically ran on a platform of being better economic managers. So how'd that turn out for us? In just one year, they've fucked us for two full political terms: The government's books are set to remain deeply in the red for the near term ...
AUSTERITYText within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMy spreadsheet insists This pain leads straight to glory (File not found) Read more ...
The NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi are saying that the Government should do the right thing and deliver minimum wage increases that don’t see workers fall further behind, in response to today’s announcement that the minimum wage will only be increased by 1.5%, well short of forecast inflation. “With inflation forecast ...
Oh, I weptFor daysFilled my eyesWith silly tearsOh, yeaBut I don'tCare no moreI don't care ifMy eyes get soreSongwriters: Paul Rodgers / Paul Kossoff. Read more ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bob HensonIn this aerial view, fingers of meltwater flow from the melting Isunnguata Sermia glacier descending from the Greenland Ice Sheet on July 11, 2024, near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. According to the Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE), the ...
In August, I wrote an article about David Seymour1 with a video of his testimony, to warn that there were grave dangers to his Ministry of Regulation:David Seymour's Ministry of Slush Hides Far Greater RisksWhy Seymour's exorbitant waste of taxpayers' money could be the least of concernThe money for Seymour ...
Willis is expected to have to reveal the bitter fiscal fruits of her austerity strategy in the HYEFU later today. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/TheKakaMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, December 17 in The Kākā’s Dawn Chorus podcast ...
On Friday the government announced it would double the number of toll roads in New Zealand as well as make a few other changes to how toll roads are used in the country. The real issue though is not that tolling is being used but the suggestion it will make ...
The Prime Minister yesterday engaged in what looked like a pre-emptive strike designed to counter what is likely to be a series of depressing economic statistics expected before the end of the week. He opened his weekly post-Cabinet press conference with a recitation of the Government’s achievements. “It certainly has ...
This whooping cough story from south Auckland is a good example of the coalition government’s approach to social need – spend money on urging people to get vaccinated but only after you’ve cut the funding to where they could get vaccinated. This has been the case all year with public ...
And if there is a GodI know he likes to rockHe likes his loud guitarsHis spiders from MarsAnd if there is a GodI know he's watching meHe likes what he seesBut there's trouble on the breezeSongwriter: William Patrick Corgan Read more ...
Here’s a quick round up of today’s political news:1. MORE FOOD BANKS, CHARITIES, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS AND YOUTH SOCIAL SERVICES SET TO CLOSE OR SCALE BACK AROUND THE COUNTRY AS GOVT CUTS FUNDINGSome of Auckland's largest foodbanks are warning they may need to close or significantly reduce food parcels after ...
Iain Rennie, CNZMSecretary and Chief Executive to the TreasuryDear Secretary, Undue restrictions on restricted briefings This week, the Treasury barred representatives from four organisations, including the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi, from attending the restricted briefing for the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update. We had been ...
This is a guest post by Tim Adriaansen, a community, climate, and accessibility advocate.I won’t shut up about climate breakdown, and whenever possible I try to shift the focus of a climate conversation towards solutions. But you’ll almost never hear me give more than a passing nod to ...
A grassroots backlash has forced a backdown from Brown, but he is still eyeing up plenty of tolls for other new roads. And the pressure is on Willis to ramp up the Government’s austerity strategy. Photo: Getty ImagesMōrena. Long stories short, the six things that matter in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
Hi all,I'm pretty overwhelmed by all your messages and emails today; thank you so very much.As much as my newsletter this morning was about money, and we all need to earn money, it was mostly about world domination if I'm honest. 😉I really hate what’s happening to our country, and ...
A listing of 23 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 8, 2024 thru Sat, December 14, 2024. Listing by Category Like last week's summary this one contains the list of articles twice: based on categories and based on ...
I started writing this morning about Hobson’s Pledge, examining the claims they and their supporters make, basically ripping into them. But I kept getting notifications coming through, and not good ones.Each time I looked up, there was another un-subscription message, and I felt a bit sicker at the thought of ...
Once, long before there was Harry and Meghan and Dodi and all those episodes of The Crown, they came to spend some time with us, Charles and Diana. Was there anyone in the world more glamorous than the Princess of Wales?Dazzled as everyone was by their company, the leader of ...
The collective right have a problem.The entire foundation for their world view is antiscientific. Their preferred economic strategies have been disproven. Their whole neoliberal model faces accusations of corporate corruption and worsening inequality. Climate change not only definitely exists, its rapid progression demands an immediate and expensive response in order ...
Just ten days ago, South Korea's president attempted a self-coup, declaring martial law and attempting to have opposition MPs murdered or arrested in an effort to seize unconstrained power. The attempt was rapidly defeated by the national assembly voting it down and the people flooding the streets to defend democracy. ...
Hi,“What I love about New Zealanders is that sometimes you use these expressions that as Americans we have no idea what those things mean!"I am watching a 30-something year old American ramble on about how different New Zealanders are to Americans. It’s his podcast, and this man is doing a ...
What Chris Penk has granted holocaust-denier and equal-opportunity-bigot Candace Owens is not “freedom of speech”. It’s not even really freedom of movement, though that technically is the right she has been granted. What he has given her is permission to perform. Freedom of SpeechIn New Zealand, the right to freedom ...
All those tears on your cheeksJust like deja vu flow nowWhen grandmother speaksSo tell me a story (I'll tell you a story)Spell it out, I can't hear (What do you want to hear?)Why you wear black in the morning?Why there's smoke in the air? Songwriter: Greg Johnson.Mōrena all ☀️Something a ...
National has only been in power for a year, but everywhere you look, its choices are taking New Zealand a long way backwards. In no particular order, here are the National Government's Top 50 Greatest Misses of its first year in power. ...
The Government is quietly undertaking consultation on the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill over the Christmas period to avoid too much attention. ...
The Government’s planned changes to the freedom of speech obligations of universities is little more than a front for stoking the political fires of disinformation and fear, placing teachers and students in the crosshairs. ...
The Ministry of Regulation’s report into Early Childhood Education (ECE) in Aotearoa raises serious concerns about the possibility of lowering qualification requirements, undermining quality and risking worse outcomes for tamariki, whānau, and kaiako. ...
A Bill to modernise the role of Justices of the Peace (JP), ensuring they remain active in their communities and connected with other JPs, has been put into the ballot. ...
Labour will continue to fight unsustainable and destructive projects that are able to leap-frog environment protection under National’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. ...
The Green Party has warned that a Green Government will revoke the consents of companies who override environmental protections as part of Fast-Track legislation being passed today. ...
The Green Party says the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update shows how the Government is failing to address the massive social and infrastructure deficits our country faces. ...
The Government’s latest move to reduce the earnings of migrant workers will not only hurt migrants but it will drive down the wages of Kiwi workers. ...
Te Pāti Māori has this morning issued a stern warning to Fast-Track applicants with interests in mining, pledging to hold them accountable through retrospective liability and to immediately revoke Fast-Track consents under a future Te Pāti Māori government. This warning comes ahead of today’s third reading of the Fast-Track Approvals ...
The Government’s announcement today of a 1.5 per cent increase to minimum wage is another blow for workers, with inflation projected to exceed the increase, meaning it’s a real terms pay reduction for many. ...
All the Government has achieved from its announcement today is to continue to push responsibility back on councils for its own lack of action to help bring down skyrocketing rates. ...
The Government has used its final post-Cabinet press conference of the year to punch down on local government without offering any credible solutions to the issues our councils are facing. ...
The Government has failed to keep its promise to ‘super charge’ the EV network, delivering just 292 chargers - less than half of the 670 chargers needed to meet its target. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Government to stop subsidising the largest user of the country’s gas supplies, Methanex, following a report highlighting the multi-national’s disproportionate influence on energy prices in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is appalled with the Government’s new child poverty targets that are based on a new ‘persistent poverty’ measure that could be met even with an increase in child poverty. ...
New independent analysis has revealed that the Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) will reduce emissions by a measly 1 per cent by 2030, failing to set us up for the future and meeting upcoming targets. ...
The loss of 27 kaimahi at Whakaata Māori and the end of its daily news bulletin is a sad day for Māori media and another step backwards for Te Tiriti o Waitangi justice. ...
Yesterday the Government passed cruel legislation through first reading to establish a new beneficiary sanction regime that will ultimately mean more households cannot afford the basic essentials. ...
Today's passing of the Government's Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill–which allows landlords to end tenancies with no reason–ignores the voice of the people and leaves renters in limbo ahead of the festive season. ...
After wasting a year, Nicola Willis has delivered a worse deal for the Cook Strait ferries that will end up being more expensive and take longer to arrive. ...
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick has today launched a Member’s Bill to sanction Israel for its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as the All Out For Gaza rally reaches Parliament. ...
After years of advocacy, the Green Party is very happy to hear the Government has listened to our collective voices and announced the closure of the greyhound racing industry, by 1 August 2026. ...
In response to a new report from ERO, the Government has acknowledged the urgent need for consistency across the curriculum for Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools. ...
The Green Party is appalled at the Government introducing legislation that will make it easier to penalise workers fighting for better pay and conditions. ...
Thank you for the invitation to speak with you tonight on behalf of the political party I belong to - which is New Zealand First. As we have heard before this evening the Kinleith Mill is proposing to reduce operations by focusing on pulp and discontinuing “lossmaking paper production”. They say that they are currently consulting on the plan to permanently shut ...
Auckland Central MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to Mayor Wayne Brown requesting he stop the unnecessary delays on St James Theatre’s restoration. ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says Health New Zealand will move swiftly to support dozens of internationally-trained doctors already in New Zealand on their journey to employment here, after a tripling of sought-after examination places. “The Medical Council has delivered great news for hardworking overseas doctors who want to contribute ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has appointed Sarah Ottrey to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). “At my first APEC Summit in Lima, I experienced firsthand the role that ABAC plays in guaranteeing political leaders hear the voice of business,” Mr Luxon says. “New Zealand’s ABAC representatives are very well respected and ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced four appointments to New Zealand’s intelligence oversight functions. The Honourable Robert Dobson KC has been appointed Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and the Honourable Brendan Brown KC has been appointed as a Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants. The appointments of Hon Robert Dobson and Hon ...
Improvements in the average time it takes to process survey and title applications means housing developments can progress more quickly, Minister for Land Information Chris Penk says. “The government is resolutely focused on improving the building and construction pipeline,” Mr Penk says. “Applications to issue titles and subdivide land are ...
The Government’s measures to reduce airport wait times, and better transparency around flight disruptions is delivering encouraging early results for passengers ahead of the busy summer period, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Improving the efficiency of air travel is a priority for the Government to give passengers a smoother, more reliable ...
The Government today announced the intended closure of the Apollo Hotel as Contracted Emergency Housing (CEH) in Rotorua, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. This follows a 30 per cent reduction in the number of households in CEH in Rotorua since National came into Government. “Our focus is on ending CEH in the Whakarewarewa area starting ...
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Mr Roger Holmes Miller and Ms Tarita Hutchinson have been appointed to the Charities Registration Board, Community and Voluntary Sector Minister Louise Upston says. “I would like to welcome the new members joining the Charities Registration Board. “The appointment of Ms Hutchinson and Mr Miller will strengthen the Board’s capacity ...
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In my opinion, it should be a considered a conflict of interest for any MP to be a landlord.
Claiming tenants like letting fees is a sick joke that underlines the need for change
Madeleine Holden – Newshub, August 31, 2018
Well said.
I wonder if tenants don’t need a body to counter the self-serving spin of slumlords, the way unions have had to dilute the narrative of exploitive employers. Some kind of tenants union maybe.
Like Renters United.
https://www.rentersunited.org.nz/join/
Andrew King responded in the comments section making it clearer that what he actually said was that some tenants liked paying the letting fee because it let them secure the property ahead of others.
I call Bullshit, as you only pay the letting fee once the rental company agrees to let the property to you. You pay the letting fee with your bond and your first two weeks of rent.
So essentially in order to move into a property you need to be able to sort at the very least 6 weeks of rental money or 7 weeks. 3 – 4 weeks bond, 2 weeks rent, 1 week of rent + GST for letting fee.
Me thinks the bullshitter does protest to much.
Yep, BS. We have letting fees because the margins are so skinny for the property management divisions of Real Estate franchises that without them many operations would cease to be viable.
The other way round .
It used to be called ‘key money’ and the reason they could get away with it previously was the shortage of rentals.
For prime commercial properties the key money was enormous.
I’m not sure what you mean Duke. I thought key money for residential properties had always been illegal. These days letting fees are so common WINZ have been adding them to ‘move-in’ grants for several years.
Property management companies generally charge owners around 8% of the rent income. This sum is then split approx 50/50 between the property manager and the parent office franchise.
50 properties returning an average of $400 per week rent provide the property management division with an income of $1600 per week. Split 50/50 = $800 for the office and $800 for the manager. The manager is generally obliged to pay for their vehicle, phone, ACC and tax from their $800. This equates to an in the hand wage of about $400 per week.
This is why the industry has become dependent on letting fees. 3-4 new lets each month doubles incomes.
As Sabine points out, Mr Kings reasons for a letting fee are BS. The industry model would fall over if letting fees were banned…or a new creative way to milk end users and/or owners introduced.
Which probably means that these people are bribing the agents with the bribe then being incorporated into the letting fee so as to hide it.
And also a conflict of interest to have private health insurance or children in private schools. They should use the systems they are responsible for maintaining.
+100
Just saying what we’re all thinking… 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/31/world-leaders-who-deny-climate-change-should-go-to-mental-hospital-samoan-pm
Bring back the stocks I say. Stack em up in the town centres so we can hurl cabbages and tomatoes at them. When sufficiently sodden with tomato juice, remove them to a desert island and leave them to drown in the rising sea levels.
Seriously, they’re brain-addled letters are still showing up in the ‘letters to the editor’ section of the newspapers. Why are newspapers printing them? And don’t anyone come the free speech garbage with me. These people are indeed crackpots and they should not be given platforms from which they can spread their dangerous message to the gullible.
Such people were locked up in WW2, and we’re in a war situation right now due to Climate Change.
Yep… it should be ‘their’ not they’re.
Out of bed on the wrong side this morning.
Get real, Anne. Tomatoes???? Not at their current price!
Seriously, a good ‘get real’ speech. Good on the Samoan PM.
And Morrison is not getting off to a good start with Australia’s Pacific neighbours, as mentioned in that article:
“Australia’s new prime minister, Scott Morrison, is under pressure from some members of his party to abandon Australia’s commitment to reducing emissions under the Paris agreement.
His immediate predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, was due to attend the forum, but Morrison has announced he is sending his new foreign minister, Marisa Payne, a move the opposition Labor party condemned as “an insult to our neighbours” as well as “a serious strategic mistake”.”
As not mentioned, instead he went to Indonesia to sign a free trade agreement.
Get real, Anne. Tomatoes???? Not at their current price!
Oops, I don’t eat tomatoes. 😳
Neither do I at present due to price! LOL. I must get ‘with it ‘on smilies. Liked your comment though!
Not sure if you saw this.
But this frenchy had enough and quit live on radio
Quote” Mr. Hulot was initially best known to the French public for presenting television shows that aimed to raise awareness about the environment. He later created an environmental foundation and was nominated in 2012 by the French presidency as a special climate envoy ahead of the 2015 Paris summit meeting that led to the signing of the climate deal.
“The planet is becoming a sauna, our natural resources are running out, biodiversity is melting like snow in the sun, and it still isn’t being handled like a priority issue,” he lamented on Tuesday.Quote End.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/28/world/europe/france-environment-minister-nicolas-hulot.html
The French politicians may prefer light-hearted, clever humour to serious stuff that makes life more precarious and difficult in their role as people’s leaders serving the people democratically. But one revolution doesn’t solve all centuries’ problems. See below –
Maybe they should use Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot as a bon bon in between the sour and irksome task of listening to modern M. Hulot. Every hour, after intense and unpleasant discussion, a little more of M. Hulot’s Holiday to decrease their indigestion.
Short clips:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZGUIpdc0i4
S’il vous plaît profiter du film en langue française.
(https://archive.org/details/TatiLesVacancesDeMonsieurHulot
May 1968 events in France – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_events_in_France
The volatile period of civil unrest in France during May 1968 was punctuated by demonstrations … The student occupations and wildcat general strikes initiated across France were ….. While Communist leaders later denied that they had planned an armed uprising, and extreme militants only comprised 2% of the populace, …
Protests of 1968 · Wildcat strike action · Gaullist Party
In between there have been the Second World War 1939-1945,
and the First World War 1914-1918. (They were the largest military conflicts in human history. Both wars involved military alliances between different groups of countries. Wikipedia)
French Revolution of 1848 – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution_of_1848
On May 31, 15,000 jobless French rioted as rising xenophobia persecuted Belgian workers in the north. In 1848, 479 newspapers were founded alongside a 54% decline in the number of businesses in Paris, as most wealth had evacuated the city.
The French Revolution (French: Révolution française [ʁevɔlysjɔ̃ fʁɑ̃sɛːz]) was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies that lasted from 1789 until 1799. It was partially carried forward by Napoleon during the later expansion of the French Empire.
French Revolution – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
i honestly don’t follow you. Sometimes i really don’t get it.
Maybe this is a better way of looking at the resignation of the French Environmental Minister.
La Belle Verte
Well I thought it was a bad thing that M Hulot stepped down because he wasn’t being heard. And I suggested that the French are not living up to the ideals of their numerous revolutions, and should be listening to M Hulot even if they have to take a break for air and some relaxation FTTT.
Duncan nails it this morning.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/106739975/labour-goes-from-charm-offensive-to-utterly-useless-in-72-hours
Sums up labour’s week well.
garners just pissy because the government didn’t jump when he said around the sick traveller .
Ardern calmed businesses nerves and nailed it by standing down the bully pending investigation .that’s a pass in my books.
Little duncs just a pretender to hoskings toxic throne.
I agree Garner has gone over the top with his criticism – especially in the second half of the article. But there is some truth in what he says. Two cabinet minsters are showing signs they are wanting, and both of them are women. Not a good look.
Far better to cut their losses as soon as is practicable… before they become liabilities. Helen Clark did it and so did John Key.
Garner , the guy who said his name being amoung those leaked on the dating website Ashley Madison, was an imposter.
His 3rd marriage broke up less than 18 months later.
Good comment there James.
Trouble with Jacinda is she was not strong enough from the start as we all respecrt a strong woman as our leader dont we.
History told us that when faced with aggression such as Britains war with Argintena over the Falklands Island invassion Margret Thatcher stepped up to that challenge but when a junior Labour MP like Clare curran hands a hand grenade to her oer Curran’s botch-ups, all jacinda did was just cowered and folded.
So she needs to harden up and look decisive now; – as time is ticking.
Just look at jacindas Government now folding to the trucking lobby as she allows the Aucklander Phil Twyiord train wreck to roll on, – as he announces a massive road spending program of $11 Billion for just roading improvements for trucking freight to Ports and not allowing for any money for any regional rail services!!!!!!!
What a fuck-up that was!!!
Another lost cause or broken promises to her generation that faces “Climate change – her generations nucear moment”
trucking lobby ‘ = one.
jacindas generation Climate change nuclear moment. = zero.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a powerful female leader who could drive forcefully the wasting of human life for political gain.
Different leaders have different styles and I think that our PM should stick to her style and not try to become like (copy) so many other so-called (male) leaders. I think the PM is doing just fine; she ain’t perfect but that’s a ridiculous standard anyway and depends on whom you ask anyway (as in: you cannot please everyone all the time).
Stuff nails it this morning.
So who’s up and who’s down this week?
UP
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Immigration Minister Iain Lees Galloway, Civil Defence Minister Kris Faafoi.
DOWN
National leader Simon Bridges, Labour Party president Nigel Haworth, Customs Minister Meka Whaitiri.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/106694559/below-the-beltway
Sums up National’s week well.
National is a joke.
“National leader Simon Bridges – his hunt for the person who leaked his travel expenses could put him on a collision course with MPs who don’t want the party trawling through their private emails and might explode in his face if it turns out to be a National MP” Stuff.
This proves things.
1. Garner ( like most to the corporate media puppets), in return for a five figure salary, pimps for the deep state.
2 You pimp for the deep state.
Called business nerves – hahahahahahaha you’re delusional if you think that.
They should bring the women home.
Oh and there was the borrowing by housing NZ via the loophole.
Labour is a joke.
A joke in power and your lot aren’t even a bad joke so ha ha ha james
You can’t even manage to make a comment here without screwing it up, or is this an example of your recurring dyslexia?
The joke is you.
Governments should ignore business and business should have no say in the running of the country. They’re the ones that are getting it all wrong because all they want is to get richer and they simply don’t care how much it costs the rest of us.
Business is killing us.
I recall a meeting with Michael Barnett CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber back in the early 2000’s where he stated that “what is good for business is good for New Zealand”. Many bought into that notion. Barnett still buys into it even today. At the time that quip didn’t quite gel with me as I had seen too many business’s prosper from being ruthless operators and some horrific polluters of the environment. Since then it has certainly become obvious that what was good for many business’s has been really bad for New Zealand.
where he stated that “what is good for business is good for New Zealand”. Many bought into that notion.
It’s the Randian con: basically saying, “What makes me rich is good for everyone.”
It’s amazing they’ve got away with such self-serving BS for so long, without the whole world laughing int heir faces.
Nailed it DTB. (Phrase of the day).
Completely spot on, as ever.
True, but until we get another option the status quo will continue: most people can’t remain alive unless employed in a business. Remember the old socialist idea that governments ought to fund everyone’s subsistence? Socialist governments kept business to provide the money to do so. Which alternative to business funding do you advise us to switch to instead of that?
Change all businesses so that they’re a self-owned cooperative.
And they failed because they kept the old, failed business model. The same business model that goes back thousands of years and which has always brought about the destruction of the society that used it.
Technically, the government doesn’t need funding. Indications are that it’s government spending and deficits that keeps private businesses going.
The government owns all the resources in the country. Because of this they can simply create money and pay it out to utilise those resources, to hire people to produce what the country needs.
Like this.
Yes, I agree with that brief outline of a viable alternative. Next step is for others to get on board in support. Then a political party to campaign on the basis of Monty Python’s slogan: “and now for something completely different”!
Keith ought to do an update of that analysis with appropriate conclusions and where to from here, eh? If you know the guy, suggest it to him. I recall attending a UBI seminar he presented in the early nineties, plus several of his papers were included in our process by JF when she led the GP economic policy working group back then. For those interested, here’s the Rankin site: http://new.rankinfile.co.nz/
Interesting data here about productivity and population growth. Getting rid of a few myths like for example that Israel is some sort of powerhouse of productivity.
https://croakingcassandra.com/2017/05/18/two-improbable-outposts/
It also is nailing what is going wrong with NZ, instead of spending tax money on high value investment and actually making ” high value things” or even “high value services” we are hinging our future on spending it on houses and roads to house more people who work at places like Burger King and hotels on close to minimum wages… or selling off our assets to others and just getting a small clip on the ticket. The stats show this will not work, our productivity is declining and at the bottom of the OECD.
Sadly, NZ ranks in the bottom 5 OECD countries for productivity and Israel and NZ are both there with the same problem, rapidly expanding populations. The costs to create all that new infrastructure are huge and NZ has an even more bizarre strategy of getting in low wage workers so therefore putting the burden on supporting them on the rest of the population taking more taxes away from productive areas they could be spending on as well as increasing social problems like more people in prison while crying nobody will employ them. Why would they, there are migrant labour hire firms touting cheap labour at every corner and making a killing being the middle man??? Likewise the private education firms aimed at foreigners, also making a killing while providing an appalling level of education and many having to be closed down, and funnelling in cheap workers.
We all hear about all the lobbying about how we need all these migrants for tourism. Nothing about opportunity for Maori interest to advance in. I would have thought the tourists visiting a country want to see indigenous people working in those places otherwise they might as well be in another country. The Maori economy is 15%, tourism is growing, wouldn’t that be a better combination to explore, and look at practically reducing the terrible statistics for many Maori and creating opportunities for them in?
More
Tourism, as we’re learning, is a really expensive form of low paying work. A few people may do well from it but the rest of the country will be worse off.
And that’s before we take climate change into account.
I’m all for the government investing in high value manufacturing and better education to support it but the government actually needs to be limiting tourism.
save nz and DracoTBastard
You are getting dangerously close to the truth there, and confirming the theories around the problems. I’m afraid that someone will knock on your door late at night and we will never hear from you again. Please keep safe, it seems that there is a glimmer of light coming through here.
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
(from 1 September 1939 WH Auden)
“I’ve argued for some years, that rapid population growth can crowd out other business activities. The basic logic is pretty simple. New people – whether born or migrant – need new capital stock. A modern economy requires rather a lot of (physical) capital per person (houses, roads, offices, schools, shops, machines etc) and real resources that have to be devoted to meeting the needs and demand of the new people, can’t be used for other purposes. It is often those “other purposes” that seem to get squeezed out – in particular, investment in the tradables sector. People have to live somewhere, so that demand is often more inelastic (insensitive to changes in price) than is potential investment in support of new business opportunities”
https://croakingcassandra.com/2017/05/18/two-improbable-outposts/
100% SaveNZ.
Productivity is a myth that drives the problems we all are ecountering todaay with air pollution, climarte change and decreasing oxgen levels in our atmospheric air we breathe so we are well on the way to extingquishing our lives as we chast the ellusive “productivity”
last week the World health organisation rleased the findings of the largest study of the human damage caused by air pollution and it confirms that living near busy “productive” roads will cause brain damage and other damages to us all so we are really stuffed now.
Taske a look at this;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=-m3HfZke6_w
Breaking News – Pollution ‘harms cognitive intelligence’
Air pollution could cause a significant reduction in intelligence, major study says
• Research finds that long-term exposure to air pollution impeded people’s performance in both verbal and math tests.
• More than four million people die each year from exposure to outdoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.
Air pollution could cause a significant reduction in intelligence, major study says
• Research finds that long-term exposure to air pollution impeded people’s performance in both verbal and math tests.
• More than four million people die each year from exposure to outdoor air pollution, according to the World Health Organization.
It’s not productivity doing that – it’s the profit drive and the greed of the capitalists.
Increasing productivity means one of two things in a society.
1. The society can shift people away from one industry into another while still providing everything that the first industry provided.
2. Could go from not providing enough of something to providing enough without increasing the number of people used in that industry. This usually also comes with increases in efficiency – in using less resources to provide the same or more.
Last time I looked (admittedly quite a few years ago) there were an estimated 400 premature deaths in NZ from road pollution. More than half of them in Auckland.
Hi James
Has Duncan nailed the terrible leaker who has been troubling Simon Bridges? I think it is a real shame that there has been no closure on such a simple problem.
Makes poor Simon look even less competent than Duncan – who knows everything.
Observer Tokoroa;
Thanks for that; – you put a smile on my saddened face today; thanks eternally for that.
Helen Clark said heads would have rolled if Labour’s youth camp sex scandal had
occurred on her watch.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12116497
Yes I have always deeply admired helen clark she was the very best we had.
As usual the press used their Venom to make Helen look somewhat evil when she was the most effective woman Prime minister we had.
Helen needs to coach Jacinda up here now.
Most National past PM’s did this so i dont see any issues in suggesting this.
Jacinda has a lot to learn and now is the time to begin.
Jacinda began learning long ago, cleangreen and any discussions with Helen today won’t be the first.
Robert;
I certainly hope Helen is keeping jacinda briefed Robert;
As I recieved several letters from Helen Clark as PM during the stormy days in 2003 when the arrogant roading lobby was pushing massive amounts of truck traffic through our residential ‘noise sensittive quiet zones’ areas in Napier.
Helen Clark took the lead to assist us,and she slowed their activities back to a reasonable manner and she arranged to have provided ($2m) – two million Dolllars for our community groups to get some much needed ‘mitigation’ for our 24hr 2400 truck activities roaming thriough our residential ‘quiet noise zones’ and since then the trucking lobby under national have been successful in trebbling road freight levels and ruining our health and lives.
Helen needs to assist Jacinda and to do what helen did to send Phil Twyford here to the HB Expressway to meet with our community Committee as Helen did and she confirmed this with us in a letter she sent to me as secretary of our residential area and she made good on her promises made to us by sending her minister for transport Mark Gosche then in 2003 with Finance Minister Michael Cullen and the CEO of Transit NZ (NZTA now) to meet with our committee then on the noisy poorly built “HB Expressway” to help so our community.
It is now Jacinda’s turn to step up as ‘champion for our community in Napier’ as Helen Clark was then in 2003.
Parliamentary commisioners report was warning government to act and they did then and need to again now sadly.
Labour’s resolutions to our long standing transport issues and how to solve them as suggested by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in his 2005 report seen here. https://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/pdfs/Hawkes-Bay-Expressway-Noise-and-air-quality-issues-June-2005.pdf
My idea of coaching/mentoring is to enable people to be the best they can be. Your idea seems somewhat different?
Helen Clark has been mentoring Jacinda Ardern for almost 20 years, cleangreen. After finishing university in 2001, Ardern worked as a researcher in Helen Clark’s office in Parliament when Clark was PM and they have been close friends and colleagues ever since. Clark is only one of many – but one of the most influential, who have helped Ardern over the years to grow and learn to the point that she was elected as Leader of the Labour Party at the age of 37.
Nah, she didn’t; she said, “…people wouldn’t have kept their jobs..” – the violent image you invoked is yours, not hers; Helen’s far more nuanced with her language than you are, naki and that’s just one criticism I have of your “naki” style comment.
Don’t use the n-word, please!
k
I read in that link of Helen Clark’s interview:
She said we live in an era “where you just have to expect the unexpected”.
“When you’re planning, you need to put the wildest scenarios on the table, because anything is possible.”
The other part of that saying is…’but you can’t count on it’.
Helen Clark didn’t say anything unexpected this time, but followed a line that would be expected from her talking about her preoccupations and her time. And thinking of the wildest scenarios – if that happens it is quickly reined in by groupthink, peer pressure and Treasury intelligence and overview.
Helen Clark’s opinion should be kept under wraps; it is no more welcome to me as a citizen than Jenny Shipley’s. Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark could usefully talk about every quarter, but we elected Jacinda and I expect to hear her speak up about her vision and practical polices for us as we voters expected. I don’t want to hear the unexpected of Helen Clark usurping Jacinda in the news or anywhere.
Helen did very well in her day which is not now. So I suggest she doesn’t muddy the waters as we have enough old Labourites eager to put their oar in already. We are rowing and trying to go in the right direction, and old Labourites seem more inclined to the right adding to the RW-aligned pullers; and the result is direction diversion and going round in circles, literally.
“Nah, she didn’t; she said, “…people wouldn’t have kept their jobs..” – the violent image you invoked is yours, not hers”
Bullshit, next time learn to read the link before making a fool of yourself.
“Speaking to the Rotorua Daily Post after a Q&A session at the Property Council New Zealand national conference in Rotorua today, Clark said heads would have rolled if Labour’s youth camp sex scandal had occurred on her watch.”
Naki man
It’s that nuance you lack. Why not stick to rugby. Things are so much more straightforward there.
See 8.2.4: reality really is goddam slippery to get a hold of sometimes! Like an eel. Ever try to grab one? Both you & RG were right. Just another instance of folks assuming stuff is either true or false. Both/and logic often applies instead.
I look for quotation marks. When I see them, I assume that inside of them is what a person said. When someone else says,”this person said”, I’m doubly careful not to accept the attribution without finding more reliable evidence. Clark may have said what naki claims, but there was no convincing evidence for that in the link he provided. I reckon.
Reality? “The former prime minister told the Rotorua Daily Post yesterday that heads would have rolled had the scandal occurred under her leadership. “Draw your own conclusions, go back to how I dealt with things like this, people wouldn’t have kept their jobs,” she said.”
The anonymous journo who put this on the TVNZ website may be telling the truth, may be misreporting what Bryce Edwards said, may be misreporting what HC said.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/helen-clark-wouldnt-have-meant-fire-youth-camp-sex-scandal-missile-jacinda-ardern-says-political-analyst
Hi Cleangreen
I do often think of You and the good causes you promote.
Sometimes I wonder if very shortly Councils, Provinces and Government will force every car off the roads and highways that race across our marvellous North Island.
Just so that 50 Ton Trucks and their loads can take over and Kill at will. Wreck constantly the Roads into subsidence and rip up the peace. Day and Night.
There is hardly a foot of free width either side of our monster trucks- thundering along with a quivering trailer behind – at outrageous speed. Highway One is a war zone
All I know, is that very few Trains kill people. Heaps of Trucks kill heaps of people.
I hope with You that our lovely East Coast has Rail replaced – quick smart! Cleangreen.
Best regards
Observer Tokoroa;
Thanks for the hands up here.
We hope Helen & jacinda read my latest respose to Robert up on 8.1.1.1. right above here.
Happy reading.
50 tonnes?
Its more than that. HGV are now over 60 tones.
oh my goodness, bring out the fainting couch 🙂
someone who knew Aretha Franklin well and took offense at the works of the orange menace “She worked for me”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=117&v=5ggTnrPmBVI
the quality is not the greatest so but still.
Transcript:
And then, this orange apparition had the nerve to say she worked for him. You lugubrious leach! You doppelgänger of deceit and deviance! You lethal liar! You dimwitted dictator! You foolish fascist! She ain’t work for you. She worked above you! She worked beyond you! Get your preposition right! Then he got the nerve to say he goin’ grab it.
That ain’t what Aretha Franklin said. “I’m gonna give you something you can feel.” Like the brothers in the streets say, “Tap lightly. Like a woodpecker with a headache.” So don’t you sully the memory of our great Queen. Aretha Franklin was an original. Never one like her before. Never another like her afterwards.
Go sister. Any colour – leave our respected ones alone. Don’t try to smooch off them; it detracts from both.
Quite the homegoing.
Russia claims rebels in Idlib, with the help of British contractors, are planning to gas their own people and blame it on Assad.
https://www.dw.com/en/russia-claims-syrian-rebels-planning-idlib-chemical-weapons-attack/a-45223057
” “I had two years of psychotherapy which were amazing but it was going to Peru and drinking ayahuasca, which is a class A drug in this country, that got to the root of my depression,” the comedian Simon Amstell has said. He is far from alone.”
This is from a Guardian opinion essay: “Ayahuasca rituals can be profoundly beneficial – if they’re done properly”. Good to see younger folk pursuing a transcendence pathway.
“In the west, ayahuasca can be portrayed as a shortcut to enlightenment, a product you can buy that will make you deep, or an “extreme” tourist experience. It’s become increasingly popular among tech millionaires who are, in the words of one report, looking to “find shortcuts to success in the ultra-competitive tech scene”. It seems unlikely ayahuasca was put on this Earth to help Bay Area tech bros crush the opposition.” But hey, you never know!
Christians spent the past couple of millennia explaining that `God moves in mysterious ways’. However, now that he has mysteriously relocated elsewhere, better to face reality and acknowledge that ayahuasca is part of Gaia, and ingestion is part of Gaian process. Those fit to play an ongoing part survive, wiser from the experience. Any entrepreneur seeking competitive advantage will spot that trend fast & leap onto it.
There was a decade or so in the hippie era when natural intelligence got powerfully enhanced via usage of plant allies – millions of us shared those experience before younger trend followers trashed the scenes with mindless hedonism. Western culture improved considerably as a result of the leading edge but the bad mental health produced by the capitalist system continues to victimise younger generations. Let’s hope their leading edge can also generate millions who wise up rather than turn into human vegetables!
Thanks for that and here’s the link for those who’d want to read the article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/31/ayahuasca-tourists-risk-death-henry-miller-colombia
I’ve only just started reading the comments, some of which are very interesting; it’s definitely not just “younger folk pursuing a transcendence pathway”.
Bit too late for that; many are stuck in a catachthonic state/world through their ‘pursuit’ of instant gratification, greed & gain, and thirst for power & control.
The most insightful poem In a Dark Time by Theodore Roethke shows that the path is not for the fainthearted. It happens to be my favourite poem 🙂
Oh yeah, I forgot the link, thanks. Didn’t realise there were comments available. Usual selection of retards & sceptics, then this: “hallucinogens can be tremendously helpful, do nothing much, or be very harmful. depends what’s in your head, what drug, what surroundings and companions for the trip.” Sensible.
“mushrooms: they grow on the golf courses near where my family live in Ireland and I’ve had some beautiful, gentle experiences with them.” Lucky! I’m just nostalgic, left tripping behind long ago. Catalysis & transcendence can be done without a plant ally. Incidentally, for readers who never read Castaneda, the ally is a tool – used as means to an end. The hippie thing turned to mush as soon as trend-followers started seeing it as an end in itself.
“Unlike LSD and shrooms, Ayahuasca gives people a “this is the truth” experience. Seems to active whatever part of the brain that gives us the “ring of truth” feeling.” I never went to Central or South America so I can’t endorse this from experience.
IrascibleOldGit89: “Being a true shallow suburbanite, I’m not sure how I’d react to taking powerful hallucinogens with Amazonian shamen, but I’m quite partial to imbibing modest amounts of novel lysergamides from time to time. Shame Theresa had one of her moral panics and banished the industry from the UK – it’s quite a global money spinner, I do believe…”
Well yes, with capitalism on its last legs any new industry ought to be got up & running pronto. I hope he gets together with IrascibleOldGits1-88 & forms a tribe of them. Can the internet enable such networking?
“Usual selection of retards…”
best if you don’t use that term thanks.
Personally I find the information around mushrooms and mental health to be fascinating.
“A number of small studies have found psychedelics to show promise in treating mental health disorders like depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder, often where other treatments have failed.
Now UK researchers are about to take part in the first major trials into whether one of these hallucinogenic drugs could be more effective than a leading antidepressant in the treatment of depression.
Researchers at Imperial College London are to compare the magic mushroom compound psilocybin with a leading SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant, escitalopram, in a large trial expected to take at least two years.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-44575139
Fascinating stuff!
The clinical trial mentioned in the BBC article is not all that large (50 participants) and lists Professor David Nutt as the Principal Investigator: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03429075
Nutt is a well-known not to say controversial scientist who strongly advocates for re-classification of drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, and cannabis based on the actual harm they are causing (cannabis is quite a safe drug based on the evidence of social harm it causes; alcohol is ranked highly in terms of social harm).
He visited New Zealand in February of this year: https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018633601/prof-david-nutt-it-s-irrational-to-deny-people-access-to-lsd
Although (these) drugs have potential to be beneficial they could also be used with less desirable intentions such as re-programming people (AKA brainwashing) or crime fighting, e.g. Devil’s Breath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscine#Society_and_culture
Just on the news Chelsea Manning is still doing her Aussie gigs but via video.
That’s like paying 200 bucks to watch one of her youtube videos.
Personally would be saying “No. Money back please”
Get your facts right.
She is doing the Sydney one tomorrow (Sun) via satellite because the Aussie govt have not yet made a final decision on her visa application.
The Sydney event is not her alone. She was/is appearing as part of a much bigger event – the Antidote Festival – at the Sydney Opera House involving many other speakers etc. Tickets for her session only were/are AUD39.
Her other appearances in Aussie are not until next Friday, 7 Sept in Melbourne and Tues 11 Sept in Brisbane. So there is still time for a visa for those events to be issued. Tickets for those longer speaking engagements are AUD72 – AUD 249 for VIP Meet and Greet.
Her NZ appearances are Auckland next Sat, 8 Sept and Wellington Sun, 9 Sept, and barring any last minute changes of mind etc, the decision yesterday to grant her a special direction all but means her NZ visa will be issued. NZ prices are $59 – $249 for the VIP Meet and Greet.
Think you might be confusing my facts with the news reporters
But all good
First, Idiocracy, and now Wag the Dog.
Marco Rubio , a Republican senator from Florida, held a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, John Bolton , in which they spoke about the deep crisis that Venezuela is going through and its implications for the United States and Latin America. .
Rubio began when consulted for his meeting with Bolton.
I think there is an argument, very strong, that can be made at this time that Venezuela and the regime of (Nicolás) Maduro has become a threat
“I believe that the Armed Forces of the United States are only used in the event of a threat to national security, I believe that there is an argument, very strong , that can be made at this time that Venezuela and the (Nicolás) Maduro regime has become a threat to the region and even to the United States. ”
He said that in his meeting with Bolton, this topic was discussed in general. ” (The Government of) Maduro is a government that supports drug traffickers, guerrillas and terrorist groups that are threatening the stability of Colombia .”
https://translate.google.co.nz/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=https://www.infobae.com/america/venezuela/2018/08/30/marco-rubio-no-descarto-la-opcion-militar-de-eeuu-en-venezuela-las-circunstancias-han-cambiado/&prev=search
Haha, they have broken away from the USD! Who’s next? Iran? Turkey!, hehehe. China, Russia, Japan; all selling US Fed bonds. Who’s buying? Can only be the US Fed, buying back their own bonds! The crash is coming, can’t wait.
Xtian POS relishes the impending impoverishing and suffering of perhaps hundreds of millions of ordinary folk.
All the oil in the ground and owned by the people of Venezuela, makes the US elites very mad.
Rachel Stewart.
“If anyone truly believes we can keep the same number of cows, cut emissions, and increase profits they’re mad. As in insane. Our Ag minister is insane.”
Click bait.
She gets it from reading the Guardian, where you have to be more absolutist than the Pope.
The Kaiser didnt take too much notice of the Grey River Argus back in 1914 either.
Great to see California State is passing a very strong net neutrality law.
This will set up a real fight with the FCC and a general federal-level fight. We’ll have to see whether Tom Wheeler the Obama appointee there is willing to really bend the ear of the majority there to revisit the issue.
The proposed rules in California go further than rules passed by Democrats at the Federal Communications Commission in 2015. The legislation not only transforms the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules into California law, but it also bars internet service providers from offering sponsored content, zero-rating or other deals that could provide an economic incentive to broadband companies to discriminate against content riding on their networks. Such offerings allow a company to pay data charges so that certain content doesn’t count against a wireless subscriber’s data plan.
Additionally, the bill allows the state to oversee commercial interconnection deals to ensure broadband companies can’t use their market power to charge hefty amounts from corporate customers. Interconnection deals are agreements between companies that provide internet content, such as Netflix, and ISPs, such as Comcast and Verizon.
Large internet service providers, such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, oppose the California law. While they say they support the basic idea of net neutrality, they argue that bans on things like zero-rating and paid-priority, which could allow companies to pay broadband providers to get their services delivered faster than competitors, limit their ability to try new business models. The big broadband providers say without the ability to experiment with new business models, they’ll have to charge consumers more for their services in the future.
What will be critical is whether the Democrat Party accept SuperPac money from Caifornia-domiciled big-tech companies who oppose any net neutrality. Generally the big internet companies support Democrats. If they accept the money, it signals that they are less likely to side with the California legislature and less likely to revisit the issue should they get a Senate majority from the November mid-terms.
Big test for free speech in its biggest power.
“big-tech companies who oppose any net neutrality”
Thats surprising , any evidence of that. I thought the people own own the net infrastructure were the only ones to make money out of net priority.
Apple and Google dont want to pay to get their data their first and they would see their own profits at risk of going to those whos only job is infrastructure
I made that distinction in the paragraph above.
Happy to reinforce that with “big-tech network companies…”
It will be a fight regardless since the FCC vote was along party-appointment-allegiance lines.
Good to read some facts instead of the propaganda
“Taking a swipe at UK Prime Minister Theresa May as she struggled to dance with schoolchildren during her visit to South Africa this week, controversial British columnist Katie Hopkins tweeted: “Whites are being slaughtered in South Africa & inexplicably Appeaser May chooses to crucify herself”.
Hopkins’ tweet was the latest example of a global campaign to portray South Africa’s once dominant white population as a victimised minority under attack.
Her comments reflect the growing influence of South Africa’s conservative Afrikaner groups who are conducting global lobbying campaigns to support their message that white farmers are being targeted and killed, that the government is seizing their land, they are being discriminated against by affirmative action programmes and that their language is being sidelined.
…The BBC has found that there is no reliable data to suggest farmers are at greater risk of being murdered than the average South African.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45336840
Profiles in Lack of Courage
No. 1: Al Jazeera
The outlaw Israeli regime told Al Jazeera not to show a documentary called The Lobby. Sadly for its credibility as a news organization, Al Jazeera obeyed.
outlaw Israeli regime huh?
there has never been a country called Palestine in the history of the world.
they are Bedouin who are a grouping of nomadic Arab people who have historically inhabited the desert regions in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq and the Levant.
nomadic people ok.
Idiot.
+ 1
Here’s a Central Banking trick from the Arabs. NZ and Australia could do the same. Australian Treasury could be funded from RBNZ, while they return finance to NZ Treasury from their Central Bank. Extend the balance sheets with a little regional QE number. Nice-one, mate. So long as it’s spent on long-term economic transition, and not lost on the pokies.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/qatar-turkey-central-banks-ink-currency-swap-deal-180820072749514.html
(NZ Govt 2018 have already added employment-level as a new consideration for setting RBNZ cash-rate, this fits with the above.)
https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/03/rbnz-mandate-changed-also-target-employment/
Trucking companies must be the biggest moaners in NZ. If only we could get more freight on the railways we already have.
Ken Shirley – ex Labour?
Ken Shirley, chief executive of trucking industry lobby group the Road Transport Forum…
Mr Shirley said the government’s pledged commitment to road safety was a good sign, but the greatest road safety improvements would come from investing in new highways.
“The biggest safety gains actually come from the big highway investment projects – the Roads Of National Significance – they have delivered spectacular improvement in safety and they’re the very projects that are now on hold.”
(Has the safety improvement been so good on TRONS?)
National:
National associate transport spokesperson Brett Hudson said the government’s policies were “totally out of whack”….
“The government claims to be focused on safety but if they truly were about that, then they’d be building more of those well-engineered roads, not just looking at some makeshift changes,” he said.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/365462/government-left-dangerous-road-off-priority-list
They didnt build the RONs for ‘the safety ‘- it was to suit the trucking industry.
The ordinary SH improvements and critical safety improvements were plundered to feed the fund for RONs.
Even the new route for the Manawatu Gorge back in 2012 was shelved in favour of some piece meal changes. All that money gone to waste as the new route has had to be done anyway – but slowly.
Even the spending for Aucklands CRL was delayed starting after after approval to begin was given- the Council kicked it off with its own money- because RONS had taken all the money
100% dukeofoul.
Ken Shirley and his ilk is backed by the oil industry who constantly lobby’s government relentlessly every day till they wear politicians down.
That is why things like RONs got to be paid by the taxpayer for the trucking industry.
Simple as that and if Phil twyford is a smart politician he should place sunset clauses all over his plans to reverse the roading projects for rail uptake so that when national does take over again they wont reinstate RONs again to keep milking the taxpayerr for the beneit of the trucking industry as it is just a rort.
The end of us….oops, I mean ice.
The hui there you go Eco Maori has not seen any maori living the golden years not many if any are enjoying the good life when we get the silver back I see heap’s of Pakeha living the golden years .
The forestry industry industry on the East Coast’s was sold to maori as a big money spinner for maori but when I went to Ruatoria home the house’s look run down so not much money is flowing into the town .
I know how they work they will keep all the cream contracting jobs for Pakeha and give maori all the un profitable jobs to maori.
How does Eco Maori know this well that was one of the factors that caused my business to fail .
The reality is that this phenomenon is happening to Maori in all industry’s that is why we are so young old and BROKE. Many thanks Mihinarangi .
Ka kite ano
Goon morning Marae Jenny May kai pai for Matua Brown for telling that Gisborne City Councillor off for using raciest remakes about maori .
What he choses / Pakeha not to acknowledge is that I was all the Hard work of Maori tipunas /ancestors who have made Aotearoa so wealthy the East Coast was the back bone of Aotearoa in the Old day’s and thats a fact have a look at the farming and other industry’s. I no that the Pakeha can spinn there ——— back on maori .
I say the we need more statues of our tipuna..
Kia Kaha ka kite ano . Quade should play for Maori
Good evening Newshub the Senator John McCain funeral service give’s Eco Maori hope that we are going to leave OUR mokopuna’s a good future ka pai.
I say just for a ap and clients %35 cost that goes to Uber eats is to high .
No to lease hold land deals that’s my opinion enough said .
That’s the way Britain no honers ie Sir for un Honorable people .
Yes I have seen Rainier forestry do that in mangatu forest Gisborne has been striped of a lot of trees that were not mature so much for thinking about the future for the mokopuna’s.
Good story on Myanmar Michael Ka pai
Nicky you got the Star and the good job
Ka kite ano
Eco Maori has been studying OUR history back 5000 years and every time man has suppresed wahine the eventual out come has been a desaster War so I’m on the correct path’s in promoting OUR Wahine they are the majority of my offspring Kia kaha ka kite ano here a link below. P.S & equality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClU3fctbGls
Well I stuffed that up lol