Honestly this is harming the police here if no-one is found responsible, because any fair minded person wants to see “justice” at work there as in every case because we meak 99% are being row beaten by “beaurocrats and the police” to “comply with the law” so should they enforce the same law there too.
“one law for all must apply.”
“Police has determined that there will be no criminal prosecution in relation to the collapse of the CTV building in Christchurch in February 2011.”
No, that’s not right. The Police have got this right, despite the fact that the CTV collapsed due to a series of human errors and negligence (not just Reay, but those that fiddled with the building structure some years later).
Grenfell Tower in London was third world. And that makes the whole world third world.
To the rest of New Zealand – your towns and cities building owners have been given plenty of time to get their buildings safe/r, yet they are not doing so. Tell the building owners in your towns to sort their buildings out quick-smart…
You will find most Christchurch people who went through the earthquakes walk around towns in the rest of New Zealand in fear – constantly looking up at the unsupported verandahs and facades. I do. I hate walking near old buildings everywhere except Christchurch now. Invercargill, Dunedin, Ranfurly, Taihape, Taupo, Whangarei, it just goes on and on… Those facades and verandahs in your towns are going to collapse and kill people. Sort it out. Harass the building owners.
I am from Napier and drive up north of Gisborne a lot.
We get spooked every time I go through gullies now with tall steep hilllsides, and see the cliffs above fracturing with big cracks going down there, so I become a dangerous driver & find i need to break the law and drive on the other side of the road now, further away from the steep hillside to save ourselves should the hillside slip occur and bury us and kill us now.
I know we could be fined for this but it is now becomming a threat to our very lives that count more.
So we asked the the roading engineers of three road companies, who conduct the road repairs and they all are now confirming to us now they suspect the larger, bigger heavier “over-weight” “HPMV” trucks that are causing large, stronger, road vibrations now, that they believe are responsible for the hillside fractures, as they have placed vibration monitoring devices on these hillisides, and are detecting heavier ground shacking vibrations occurring with the bigger, heavier HPMV trucks now.
So are the heavier truck operators now liable for legal costs if they damage people and/or property?
“so I become a dangerous driver & find i need to break the law and drive on the other side of the road now, further away from the steep hillside to save ourselves should the hillside slip occur and bury us and kill us now.”
Of course you are now more at risk of having a head on accident and killing yourselves and the poor sap who was innocently coming the other way.
Putting others lives at risk because you perceive it to be better for you.
I’ve lost friends on motorbikes because of people doing what you are doing. It’s a disgusting and selfish act.
If you end up having an accident I hope you don’t kill an innocent person.
Oh for fucksake! Somethings eventually going to get you, your only choice is to stay in bed and not do anything at all all the while remembering that the vast majority of people die in bed, but in your stupid case it’s most likely to be a truck coming the other way.
So are the heavier truck operators now liable for legal costs if they damage people and/or property?
Actually, I say that the ministers of the government that passed the legislation allowing the bigger trucks should held personally liable. This is an obvious consequence of doing so and they should have at lest asked the engineers about it.
cleangreen, your risk assessment seems a bit out of kilter so I’ll try to help you.
Failure to keep left is the fourth most common contributing cause to a fatal accident in the 2011 – 2016 period, cited as a factor in 191 fatal crashes, according to this government analysis.
The only road fatality attributable to landslide I can find any reference to is the 2014 double fatality in Westland where a tourist couple were apparently swept off the road into a river during an extreme weather event. Interestingly, landslides have caused a number of train accidents with numerous fatalities, but appear to be a negligible risk to road users.
So by crossing the centreline to keep away from cliffs, it certainly appears that you are choosing to create a very real hazard to yourself and other road users, in response to an imaginary threat.
not only what the others said, but the extra few metres will not give you time to dodge a darn thing. And where will you dodge to? Over the bank? Roads are often nowhere near the bottom of steep gullies, usually halfway up the darn hillside.
Sad to say that the police have been politicised.
Look at the Hager raids as one example of this.
And the Barclay shambles as a second exemplar of police conduct.
Roast Busters, TeaPot tapes etc we sort of only hear about the prominent ones.
Hagers book indicated the potential for alot more in exposing the behaviour of Collins which IMO should’ve triggered an inquiry into her activity across many portfolios.
This shows that under certain circumstances there is no backbone by the police to bring certain corporates to justice. It seems it is much easier to accuse and charge an ordinary person with average means than people who are well connected.
Remember the extraordinary involvement of police and management in TV presentation to the media, it was similar to a tag team, when the viewer is uncertain what the job of the police should be. Corruption in places is rife, always attempting to protect the corporation instead of siding with the innocent. Remember the planted cartridge, the disgraceful blame game in the Erebus disaster, or the very poor investigation in the Bain murders.
Anyone who thought anything as terrible as being held to account, being tried and going to jail might occur to professionals who are men of reputation and pillars of the establishment needed only look at at Pike River to know nothing was going to happen here.
If you want concerted outrage against a great injustice, you won’t find it in thundering newspaper editorials or middle aged white male shick jocks quaking in anger demanding justice for the 144 dead of the CTV building and Pike River.
However, true outrage still exists if you can can spitefully twist the truth and the target is a smart 32 year female lawyer from a refugee family.
Don’t forget National ‘realigned’ the SFO in a similar manner to the way it sorted out the commerce commission and anybody getting in the way of corporate cowboy antics.
She’s just giving the accepted spin to the reality that they neither have the resources or will to form a posse and chase the cowboys down as the evidence is available without a whistle blower.
I don’t agree with this decision by the NZPolice not to prosecute the designers of the CTV Building.
I perfectly understand why they went for internal legal and then Crown Law advice.
But they should publish all the advice.
If the Police had had an urge for justice, and Crown Law’s Deputy Solicitor was being more cautious, then Police should have insisted that the advice be escalated to the Solicitor General.
With a new government and Minister, I think the Solicitor General should also have had a chat with the Attourney General as Minister.
It should have gone to trial, at which Defence would put up a line that “It wasn’t just us, it was a systemic failure.”
At that point the judge could make a judgement on both the people, and the whole system.
A key point that mostly gets lost but would probably form a large part of the defence: the CTV building had already experienced its design event in the 2010 earthquake, and despite its serious design flaws it met its performance requirement that any occupants would have been able to safely leave.
It’s beyond me how to fairly apportion culpability between those who produced a seriously flawed design, those who approved the seriously flawed design, and those who allowed the re-occupation of a seriously flawed building after an extreme event that would be expected to produce serious structural damage.
Approval of a flawed building: Why hasn’t Alan Reay been taken to court for his part in the poor design and construction of the CTV building? He failed to do his job properly and unlawfully threatened the local council in order to have the building signed off as fit and proper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_Building
I agree Reay was seriously deficient in his lax oversight and rubberstamp approval of the work done by his firm. But he still has a pretty good defense that the building met the performance standard required of it in the 2010 quake.
And there are many other culpable parties. Yes, Reay appears to have applied inappropriate pressure to get approval of that building. But council officials are expected to wear big-boy pants – they also behaved inappropriately in caving to the pressure.
The approval process for re-occupation also appears to have been culpably flawed. ISTR reports that building occupants were uncomfortable with how much more building movement there seemed to be post-2010-quake than pre-quake.
Given how much other culpability seems to floating around this disaster, and how any of the many parties involved could plausibly have prevented the disaster by doing their jobs properly, the near exclusive focus on Reay really bothers me. Because if Reay is the sole scapegoat, then all those other failings won’t get addressed.
“I think the Solicitor General should also have had a chat with the Attourney General as Minister.”
Are you seriously suggesting that an MP, acting with the title of Attorney General but still just an MP, should have any say at all in deciding who should, or should not, face trial?
We have enough such countries in the world already. I don’t want NZ to become another one.
You want us to become like Turkey? Like Venezuela? Like The Philippines? Like Syria? No thanks.
Has anyone checked other buildings designed by those responsible for the CTV building ? I’ve heard rumours of a former commercial building in Auckland alledgedly designed by the CTV designers. This commercial building has recently been converted into very expensive apartments – most sold and waiting for sign off.
“Nothing to see here”. “Time to move on”.
You didn’t hear those lines used repeatedly and regularly during Key’s time as PM, Alwyn?
You must be as deaf as a post and unable to lip-read to boot!
What apology? The bit I saw has Shaw saying he made a mistake in his speech. That was only one of the many things thrown at Golriz and the Greens this week on the issue.
I have a theory about this issue-I think the Nats are really pissed off they didn’t carry out this nasty vicious hatchet job on Golriz before the election and so are sounding more bitter and twisted than ever.
They realise that this could have (unfairly) cost the Greens a percentage point or more and changed the election result…..epic fail Mr. Farrar.
Let’s open a discussion on the appalling behavior of Dr Nigel Murray and the path that led to his appointment.
He was appointed by Bob Murray who was, in turn, appointed by that smarmiest of National Cabinet Ministers’ one Tony Ryall, who on his retirement from his portfolio as Minister of Health, claimed to have left the department in wonderful shape and with morale on a high. I wonder how the good folk of Dunedin felt about that claim.
Murray was granted the post at the Waikato DHB in spite of grave concerns expressed by both Labour’s Shadow Minister of Health at the time, the wonderful Annette King who herself had been a superb Minister of Health, and the local MP Sue Maroney.
Below is a quote from the NZ Herald of 15th July 2014.
“Labour urged the DHB to hold off confirming Dr Murray’s Waikato appointment until this latest report had been released. It declined,” she said.
“I also sought information from the Ministry of Health and from Health Minister Tony Ryall as to the process around the appointment, but was given the brush-off.”
The “latest report” referred to the damming assessment of the performance of a Canadian Health Authority which had been in the charge of Murray.
This whole rotten episodes reeks of political cronyism. Sue Maroney has instigated the process for an official inquiry into the whole sordid affair.
This should be yet one more incident to expose the tawdriness of nine years of National misgovernment.
Derek Wright told Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking this morning he was not concerned about the complaint
He said there were no red flags over Murray, who resigned in October amid an expenses scandal and after spending $218,000 of taxpayers money in his three years in the job.
HUH
No red flags
Wot about the Canadian report then?
The “latest report” referred to the damming assessment of the performance of a Canadian Health Authority which had been in the charge of Murray.
The problems we are getting because of the government’s welcome to private enterprise to come in and buy up the provision of services at a profit is going to compound.
I was thinking about the latest revelations around Waikato DHB.
Just having a new government which has some clues and wishes to be a government for the people, not business and not redcarpeting foreign business, is not enough to stop an insidious bleeding of NZ opportunities and provision of acceptable self-sufficiency and standards for us all.
1 Dec 2017
Purchase of HealthTap criticised, no value for money – Audit NZ
by Natalie Akoorie http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11951201 State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes announced today he has formally requested the Auditor-General conduct an inquiry into the Waikato District Health Board’s SmartHealth product and the procurement process from HealthTap…..
The news comes as the two-year contract with HealthTap, the American company that powers the DHB’s controversial SmartHealth app, has been revealed to have cost taxpayers almost $15 million….
Waikato DHB has kept the cost of HealthTap, which together with the cost to launch SmartHealth totals $18.8m, a closely guarded secret, citing commercial sensitivity and contract negotiations as reasons….
Auditors said the procurement raised a number of concerns including that:
• It should have been conducted through an open tendering process and that the US$10m trial was an amount well over any threshold for open tendering;…
Murray went on to champion the product, spending more than $45,000 flying internationally and domestically to learn about and promote SmartHealth, an app that uses smartphones and iPads to conduct online appointments between doctors and patients.
The app has flopped, not attracting the targeted number of users despite targets being lowered, and is now being independently reviewed ahead of the end of the trial.
Audit NZ says it’s been unable to establish the true extent of former Waikato DHB boss Nigel Murray’s excessive travel costs because of holes in the paper trail.
(I thought that holey punchcard technology had been replaced with better technology? Hanging chads anyone?)
I think there is an in-group with a secret handshake called the PPPP (Past Peter Principle Phoenixes.)
The executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Ian Powell, says the resignation of the Waikato DHB Chairman Bob Simcock follows a period of destabilisation at the DHB. He tells us there’s been a “complete denial of responsibility all the way through the process” and there are still “some urchins that need to move on”.
And the neolibs still in the Departments will probably go on running down our national health while putting little injections of cash into new smart methods of delivering health better and cheaper. They will try and save money by running things down so that we are reliant on these new ideas. to fill the gaps that occur. (Think Pharmac swopping over contraceptive pills and running out – just what people don’t need. )
It seems that it it is cowboy territory out there, and good systems might be dirtied by those which don’t stand up to clear-eyed scrutiny for service to the people who need it most.
Here is a story about clever new tech. Navilluso Medical is led by 2014 New Zealander of the year Lance O’Sullivan who also developed iMoko, a virtual medical service to help vulnerable children.
Dr O’Sullivan said he constantly heard about patients not having access to doctors in isolated locations.
“These people aren’t coming in with trivial problems, it just goes to show we need to redesign how we allow people to get access to health.”
I like Lance O’Sullivan but we shouldn’t be dependent on him and others like the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust, POBox 20409, Bishopdale, Christchurch 8543 – (donations will be welcome). There is a desperate need for good basic health care, which surely can be identified easily as it has been talked about for ages. Let’s do this and the new systems can fine-tune the effects.
I really wish that the David Parker has been given the Finance port folio. Grant is a superb MP and has the capability to be a fantastic Minister. I just don’t think that should be in Finance.
I am far from convinced that he has the knowledge or skills to be able to effect real change in the economy.
“I really wish that the David Parker has been given the Finance port folio. Grant is a superb MP and has the capability to be a fantastic Minister. I just don’t think that should be in Finance.
I am far from convinced that he has the knowledge or skills to be able to effect real change in the economy.”
This highlights to me that Grant Robertson is little more than a Mandarin following the prescribed way of economic thinking of the day, while underscoring why nothing fundamental is going to change with this Government. Running surpluses is not going to fix this country. However, it will ingratiate him with the economic apparatchiks in Treasury and high-finance.
Oh, it’s far better (worse!) than just running a surplus (which might be okay if the economy was humming and needed ‘cooling’).
He’s saying (in the links you provided) that the economy will likely dip, meaning less government revenue coming in while trying to produce a surplus. And that’s austerity.
Indeed. Announcing the running of surpluses while also forecasting an economic dip is just… dumb. It’s like no thinking has been applied and he’s just reading a script that someone has prepared for him. Robertson should NOT be Minister of Finance.
Over the last few decades we’ve been trained to believe that a government runs like a business and that it should have ‘profits’ which it can then divvy out like dividends as tax cuts.
This is, of course, a load of bollocks but it helps to maintain the status quo of the rich getting richer at everyone else’s expense.
Yes Bill I couldn’t help noticing that – it’s the cliche background for austerity measures. Hasn’t anyone noticed this or are we all bums in the air in NZ, with our heads in the sand?
I wonder what comfy chair Robertson has got his eye on after Labour loses in an election or two. He’s got that fatcat look of complacency and certainty.
Well, I’ll punt the “guys plan” is basically to mollify some abstract sense of “middle class” by introducing kiwi-build for middle class first time house buyers.
And that’s it.
Oh. And some ‘nice to have stuff’ around parental leave etc.
A fair shot at the kiwi dream then – at least for those occupying some position in society that’s deemed as “deserving”.
He claims he’s not pursuing “business as usual” which is a bit like the guy throwing punches making claims to pacifism. When this austerity ends badly (and austerity is the only name for an economic policy that seeks surpluses during times of economic slow-down), the National Party will sway back in as the “natural” government of capitalism.
I wouldn’t put money on NZ Labour achieving a second term.
“….the idea that Roy Moore, someone who is so clearly a repeated child molester and pedophile, could be endorsed meaningfully by the White House—it makes your skin crawl. And I think the Republican Party has a reckoning that they have to do about their morality as they take away children’s healthcare, as they bankrupt our future and endorse a pedophile.”—HEATHER McGHEE, head of Demos. https://www.democracynow.org/2017/11/29/abuses_of_power_heather_mcghee_on
What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the Union
To help you along
What’s going wrong?
“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile; No. 11 Dr Morgan Fahey; No.12 Prince Harry; No. 13 Bill (“I feel your pain”) Clinton
Be assured, alwyn, the Kennedy clan is on the roster. In fact, No. 6 in the series, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was married to JFK’s niece—before she discovered he’d been JFKing around on her.
So farmers are into land speculation and making money that way and not productive agriculture as we might have been believing all this time. That would appear to be the National Party view through spokesperson on all things, Steven Joyce.
Opposition finance spokesperson Steven Joyce told Morning Report that farm buyers will be in favour of the change, but sellers may not be.”The changes could soften the farm sales market which is not necessarily a good thing,” Mr Joyce said.
Yep! National stands for looking after those who have – but those who have not; see things differently – Young farmers for instance welcomed the move saying stable farm prices would help to enable those seeking to buy their first farm.
I’m a bit sceptical about David Parker’s analysis though. He was of the opinion that overseas buyers only effected a small increase on the market. Having sold some rural land in the past 7 years, in my experience the price offered from overseas purchasers was always a significant margin over and above what NZ buyers could offer. Furthermore they were invariably “clean” offers – ie cash and not subject to finance, or the sale of another property.
Malcolm Turnbull and his gang could intimidate the previous N.Z. government, but Jimmy Barnes is having none of their nonsense….
Rock legend Jimmy Barnes has again taken aim at the Liberal government, demanding they stop using his name and songs to spruik their “shitty policies”.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and energy minister Josh Frydenberg went to the Bluescope steelworks in Port Kembla, south of Wollongong, on Monday to talk about energy policy, industry and jobs.
“More than 30 years ago Jimmy Barnes came to Port Kembla to make the film clip for Working Class Man. Today the Prime Minister has come to Port Kembla to create jobs for Australia’s working class men and women,” Frydenberg said proudly.
He was referencing Barnes’ famous hit and iconic video clip, which was filmed at the NSW steelmaking facility.
Early on Tuesday morning, Barnes fired back on Twitter.
Barnes is outspoken and unabashedly political on Twitter, sharing lots of support for progressive causes. He was a loud supporter of marriage equality during the recent postal survey, as well as criticising Australia’s current asylum seeker policy as it relates to offshore detention.
They [Greenwald and Snowden] challenged Key over his promise to resign if mass surveillance was taking place and disclosed details about Speargun’s ability to suck data out of our only internet connection to the world. But Key said they were wrong and that Speargun had been cancelled in March 2013 because he believed it was “too intrusive”. [my bold]
The Herald investigation found Key approved the use of a Speargun test probe by signing a warrant which would have allowed the GCSB to spike it into the Southern Cross Cable and access New Zealanders’ data. Rather than stopping the project in March 2013, work continued on Speargun for months, then Key was briefed in June 2013 that Snowden could have stolen details about it and funding was eventually pulled by Cabinet in September 2013.
So much for Key’s claim he acted on the principle of being “too intrusive”. The programme was cancelled because they suspected Snowden had the details.
What we can deduce is: had Snowden not done what he did… the GCSB and it’s off-shore mates would be conducting mass surveillance of NZ citizens and we would not know it.
It certainly did, Anne! I recommend you click on the links below, especially the second one, and follow the angry snarling, the aneurisms and the gnashings of teeth. They’re hurt, and VERY angry….
No mikes, I don’t believe they are. Certainly Andrew Little is quite sure they are not conducting mass surveillance and he is an astute and highly intelligent politician. Add to that his sharp, experienced lawyer mind, I doubt anyone would try to pull the wool over his eyes.
I see they have breach my privacy rights here in Auckland many thanks for more Mana boys I see even the boys in Auckland like there fireworks to and all there idiot lying contracted liars they tried a move with a old work m8 but no my sense of smell is to good for those idiots. Got the bot hopefully it will be over by Monday Kia Kaha
Many thanks to OUR new coalition Government for increasing our spending on research and development and having a 10 year plan to target 2% of GDP spent on research and development . Also increasing OUR border security to keep out invasive species which would wreck our primary sector of $38 billion ka pai.
I think that we should investigate the feasibility into industrial scale worm farming so instead of pouring nitrogen on our farm which degrades our topsoil we could pour worm casting on our farms this will reduce waste to the landfill and increase our topsoil this will reduce OUR imports cost ECT subsidizing second hand electric cars will reduce our export spend immensely .kIa kaha
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The last decade has seen a trend of increasing weapons availability to police. Assault rifles. Tasers on every hip. Guns in cars. And following the march 15 massacre, pistols on every hip, all over the country. At the same time, its also seen an increase in the abuse of force: ...
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been busy preparing for our summer paper on Science Communication. Looking for something amusing about ‘risk’ in science, I came across this neat xkcd.com cartoon about why so many people come knocking on my door (or phoning me, or emailing me) desperately wanting ...
by John Edmundson The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) have recently reposted a February article, by Romany Tasker-Poland, explaining ISO’s position in the “trans rights” debate. It is available on their website and on their Facebook Page. The article sets out to explain why “socialists support trans rights”. It reads more ...
"Auckland City Mission: 10% of Kiwis experiencing food insecurity", RNZ, 16 October 2019:About half a million people are experiencing food insecurity, according to new research from the Auckland City Mission. Food insecurity, or food poverty, is defined as not having enough appropriate food. The City Mission said over the last ...
Media Statement for Immediate Release 16th October 2019 “Fake News” from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers Despite comments from Auckland City Council CCOs Board Chairs re pay and performance bonuses for top managers—Herald Newspaper Tuesday Oct 15th–there is very little evidence ...
Would You Buy A Used Propaganda Video From This Man? Bridges and the National Party’s strategists have discovered that the ideas and attitudes considered acceptable by today’s editors and journalists are no longer enforceable. The rise and rise of the Internet and the social media platforms it spawned means that ...
There is plenty of evidence of the way the business mentality has permeated every level of society since the recrudescence of market liberalism 35 years ago. You only need to think of how citizens in need of help from their government, their state, their country, are now routinely described as ...
John MacCormickOver the last 40 years, New Zealanders – and people in other countries – have experienced big changes in the jobs they do and where they live and work. These changes include: a decline in manufacturing jobs an increase in jobs in ‘information-intensive’ industries (which are better paid ...
Nick Wilson, Leah Grout, Mereana Wilson, Anja Mizdrak, Phil Shoemack, Michael BakerProtecting waterways has the benefits of: (1) protecting water from hazardous microbes; (2) minimising cancer risk and other problems from nitrates in water; (3) avoiding algal blooms that are hazardous to health; (4) protecting mahinga kai uses (cultural ...
by The Council of Disobedient Women In a press release today Massey University announced it has decided to rebrand and reorientate after struggling to be a University for grown-ups. For some time the University has wanted to be a safe play space for wee-woke-misogynists who have been really badly triggered ...
After a brief dalliance with 'hard Revoke' it looks like the Lib Dems are changing ground on on Brexit, with leader Jo Swinson reverting to calling for a second referendum on Johnson's deal.The party has tabled an amendment to the Queen’s speech requesting that any deal brought back from Brussels ...
The government has decided that someone has done Something Bad. But despite their belief, there seems to be no evidence that they have actually broken the law. So the government's solution is to pass a retrospective law allowing them to be punished anyway, on a lower standard of proof. If ...
So, Judith Collins has done a Facebook rant about climate change, peddling the same shit National has been shovelling for the past twenty years: the impacts are overstated, there's no need to do anything about it, and its too hard anyway (oh, and its so unfair that people who peddle ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzThere is a lot of discussion on the benefits of ...
I came across this song quite by accident. If it isn't one of Greta Thunberg's favourites - it should be.Video courtesy of YouTube.This post is exclusive to Bowalley Road. ...
Last month, NZDF's shoddy coverup of what it knew about civilian casualties in Operation Burnham began to fall apart, with the revelation that a report on the matter, which NZDF claimed not to have, had been sitting in an NZDF safe for the past nine years. Yesterday, the man responsible ...
While many imagine that countries like the USA and Europe dominate space activities, in fact India is now a major player on this stage. It launches satellites for its own purposes and also commercially, and has constellations orbiting our planet and returning data of vital importance to that nation in ...
Thanks to a report from the Acting Inspector General of Intelligence and Security following a complaint by Nicky Hager, we have come to find out that the SIS illegally spied on Mr. Hager on behalf of the NZDF after publication of Hager’s 2011 book, Other People’s Wars. The NZDF justified ...
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING MYTH 1: Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: The HadCRUT3 surface temperature index, produced by the Hadley Centre of the UK Met Office and the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, shows warming to 1878, cooling to 1911, ...
For the past week, Extinction Rebellion has been peacefully protesting in London to demand action on climate change. The British government's response? Ban their protests:Police have banned Extinction Rebellion protests from continuing anywhere in London, as they moved in almost without warning to clear protesters who remained at the movement’s ...
An essay by Judith Collins MP reported on Carbon News yesterday seems to show an alarming shift in attitude within the National Party. Collins argues against the Zero Carbon Bill, the Paris Agreement, and downplays the magnitude of climate impacts. The Paris Agreement was adopted in December 2015 and ratified ...
When they were running for election, Labour promised to overhaul the Employment Relations Act and introduce fair pay agreements to set basic pay and conditions on an industry level, preventing bad employers from undercutting good ones. They followed this up by establishing a working group, which reported back in January ...
A list of indicators of bad science – many of these are found in articles promoted by anti-fluoride activists. Anti-fluoride activists have been pouring money into a scaremongering campaign warning pregnant women not to drink fluoridated water. They claim fluoride will lower the IQ of their future child. Fluoride ...
Nothing Left To Say: Labour's pollster, Stephen Mills, remains swaddled-up in the comforting myths of the 1980s. As if the experience of Roger Douglas’s genuinely radical post-Muldoon policy agenda was literally a once-in-a-lifetime thing – as much as the party could possibly absorb for at least the next 50 years.MEMO ...
The Royal Commission on abuse in care is very significant for the disability community. For many decades last century, thousands of disabled children, and adults who managed to survive, were locked away from families and communities. This was not for anything they had done, but for the perceived threat their ...
With an unfair voting system, uneven electorates and an un-elected upper house, the UK's "democracy" is barely worthy of the name. But now the government wants to make it worse:The government has been accused of suppressing voters’ rights with the potential disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of people after plans ...
Back in the 90's and early 2000's, the building industry was building leaky homes which should never have been granted consent. Now it turns out they've been building dodgy office blocks as well:New imaging technology has revealed hundreds of major buildings nationwide have defective or missing concrete or reinforcing steel. ...
Local body election results were released over the weekend, to joy or despair depending on where you live. In Auckland, Phil Goff trounced John Tamihere, who is muttering darkly about running for Parliament again (but which party would want him?) Wellington is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Weta Workshop, except ...
How could government evolve over the next decades? Reports of democracy’s imminent demise are greatly exaggerated. However, satisfaction with political systems in many countries is low, so there is much to do for governments of all political stripes to improve relevance and trust. Digital technologies are seen as one ...
Two years have now gone by since the Friday afternoon when my university-student son and I headed out of our Barcelona flat to a nearby primary school, designated as a polling station for the vote that was to be held the following Sunday: the referendum on Catalonia’s independence from Spain ...
Overruled: The joint decision of Finance Minister, Grant Robertson (Labour) and his Associate Minister, David Parker (Labour) arguably the two most powerful ministers in Jacinda Ardern’s government, to grant OceanaGold the consents which Land Information Minister, Eugenie Sage (Greens) had earlier denied them, offers bitter proof of how hard fighting ...
More than double the number of people who will vote in this year’s local body elections have tried marijuana or urinated somewhere they shouldn’t have. As local elections look set for the lowest turnout in decades, with many regions falling well short of 40%, the Government is exploring a number ...
A Statement on Abortion Law Reform by the Council of Disobedient Women On the eve of bringing an end to antiquated, anti-women abortion laws Green MP Jan Logie intends to write women out of the Bill. With a stroke of the pen, the woke are aiming for total erasure ...
Musings continue apace about “the experienced businessman!” soon to be taking up a National Party MP position. Or to be more accurate, being parachuted into a seat to shut down their former MP Jamie-Lee Ross, who despite his own shortcomings shed at least some more light on the inner workings ...
The Ugandan government wants to murder gay people:Uganda has announced plans to impose the death penalty on homosexuals. The bill, colloquially known as “Kill the Gays” in Uganda, was nullified five years ago on a technicality, but the government said on Thursday it plans to resurrect it within weeks. The ...
Hassan Vally, La Trobe UniversityWho doesn’t want to know if drinking that second or third cup of coffee a day will improve your memory, or if sleeping too much increases your risk of a heart attack? We’re invested in staying healthy and many of us are interested in reading ...
Freedom Of Speech? The Säuberung (cleansing by fire) was the work of the German Student Union which, on 10 May 1933, under the watchful eye of the Nazi Reichminister for Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, consigned 25,000 books to the flames in a ritual exorcism of “un-German thought”. According to the logic of the ...
“There can be no such thing as kaupapa Māori political parties or politics in Aotearoa” (Willie Jackson, Labour Party (2017). Māori TV, General/List Election Special) I begin with that claim because at the time, I was confounded at first that it fell out of Willie Jackson’s mouth, and then ...
New Zealand has prided itself for decades with regard to its lack of pollution, and all will be aware that the ‘100% Pure New Zealand‘ meme is under threat through land, water and air pollution of various causes. There is another type of contamination that the country also faces: light ...
New Zealand’s media is doing its part in Japan, reassuring those in the path of the storm that they won’t miss any rugby while away from their flooded homes. New Zealand sports reporters stationed in Japan for the Rugby World Cup have had the rare and heartwarming opportunity to inform ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is the only Cabinet member in favour of putting it all on green. As Finance Minister Grant Robertson finds himself with an enormous $7.5 billion surplus, the Government has begun intense, at times contentious conversations about whether to put the money on red or black at ...
by Susanne Kemp At the start of September close to 100,000 school teachers went on strike in Jordan. They demanded a 50% pay rise. A pay rise actually agreed to by the regime back in 2014. In early October, however, in the face of government repression and threats, the teachers’ ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhy do people still think climate change isn’t real?David ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones has hit back at those who are upset over a change in approach to partnership visas. There has been a specific government directive to stop waiving requirements such as couples needing to have lived together for 12 months - a test Indian couples who have ...
The North Auckland Line rejuvenation kicks off with teams surveying the rail corridor and Northland construction contractors are showing interest in the project.KiwiRail provided an industry briefing for Northland contracting and construction companies about future work opportunities on rejuvenating Northland’s rail lines. The briefing session in Whangarei was held to ...
Journalist Andrew Dickens, reporting from the 2019 New Zealand First Conference, states that the Party once again proved “they are more than a sideshow”. In his op-ed article for NewstalkZB, Mr Dickens said he has always been an admirer of the Party, saying they are “a true centrist party”. “[NZ ...
New Zealand First's potential policy of compulsory community service for ages 15-19 years old has been getting support from those in the industry. A policy remit was passed during their recent Conference in Christchurch, gaining the support of a majority of its membership. Party leader Winston Peters has been talking ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says the Party hopes to decide it’s stance pill testing at music festivals "before the season of concern", with festivals generally held during the summer months. Mr Peters' comments come in an interview with TVNZ's Q+A and follow a remit from the party's youth ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says he has been told to be "alert" to potential cost blowouts for the light rail project in Auckland. Mr Peters said no such concerns were raised with him from ministerial colleagues, including Transport Minister Phil Twyford of the Labour Party. He suggested that ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters Leader of New Zealand First The Benefits of having New Zealand First in the Centre: Security, Experience & Balance 2.00pm, 20th October 2019 Ladies and Gentlemen Thank you all for your warm welcome to this, the party’s 26thConvention. Speaking on behalf of caucus colleagues, it’s great to ...
Fletcher Tabuteau, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fletcher Tabuteau is travelling to the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu this week to continue toadvance important bilateral relationships in our region consistent with thePacific Reset. Mr Tabuteau will engage in a range of bilateral meetings and visit New Zealand development ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is predicting a hard Brexit for the United Kingdom, as he believes British Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be able to negotiate terms before the October 30 deadline. The Minister, who was one of the first to publicly come out and predict British voters would leave ...
Speaking at the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) biennial conference, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters told unionists that any future attacks on the Government won't work. "Now, we are being attacked by the union movement in this country. You can have your views but I'm here to say standing ...
We want every New Zealander to be happy, safe, and healthy. To do this, we need to support strong, safe communities, and a robust and efficient health system. ...
Defence Minister Ron Mark has used his powers to overrule a noise complaint ruling against Whenuapai airbase on the grounds of "national security". The Environment Court last month released a ruling in favour of a private developer, declaring the Auckland airbase had to comply with noise restrictions when it performs ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has opened fire against "unreconstructed morons" after NZ First MP Shane Jones was photographed on holiday holding an AR-15 rifle. Mr Peters is defending Mr Jones, telling Magic Talk host Peter Williams that his MP was just having fun "like most people do". "The ...
New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau was in attendance during the morning blessing of the Rotorua Lakefront development project. Around 60 people gathered on the shores of Lake Rotorua, including city mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy Dave Donaldson. The Lakefront development is a ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones is considering reining in on conversions of farmland to forestry, and also issued a warning to foreign-owned forestry companies that make up nearly 75 per cent of the industry. He said too many foreign companies had not provided enough access for domestic processors to get timber. ...
Speaking to Radio NZ, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the tightening of the parental category visa is a direct result of the Party’s coalition negotiations with the Labour Party. He said the new changes switch the financial onus from the parent moving to New Zealand to the child ...
The Coalition Government is set to cut red tape in the building and construction sector in an effort to allow more houses to be built, including prefabricated houses. The changes will enable the mass factory production of "high quality" buildings, slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced ...
Since coming into Government, we’ve worked hard to tackle homelessness and make sure everyone has a warm, dry home. And today, on World Homeless Day, we want to report back and update you on our progress so far. ...
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has hit back at National Party leader Simon Bridges who criticized the Coalition Government’s approach to crime, and said that the latter isn't credible in his attack on the Government over gang recruitment. "We've got as massive drug problem in this country. It is ...
New Zealand Mānuka honey exporters have welcomed an initiative by the Coalition Government to help secure the term “mānuka honey” to be used exclusively by Kiwi exporters, ensuring that our multimillion-dollar industry is protected. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had recently announced that a Provincial Growth Funding of $5.7 ...
Political commentator Mike Hosking has labelled New Zealand First leader Winston Peters as “the voice of reason in a government soft on drugs”, for the Party’s stance on drug testing at music festivals. “If common sense is worth a vote, Winston Peters is quids in,” Mr Hosking said. The Labour ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau has announced Provincial Growth Funding to ensure work opportunities in Turangi and Whanganui, through its skills and employment programme, Te Ara Mahi. A fund of $500,000 will go to Rafting NZ in Turangi for a 16-week river guide training course to train ...
Treasury has shown that the Coalition Government has a $7.5 billion surplus, which is $4 billion higher than what was expected in the 2019 Budget unveiled last May. It is also $2 billion higher than the actual surplus unveiled this time last year, and at a size that has not ...
Official Information Act figures released to NZME show there were 350 assaults on officers in the year to the end of June, 79 more than the year before. The increase in attacks have sparked calls for more legal protection for first responders to be enacted. The assaults included officers being ...
“Nobody wants to see babies uplifted”, this was the pronouncement of Minister for Children Hon. Tracey Martin as her department, Oranga Tamariki, faces multiple inquiries into the number of babies being taken from their families. “But a baby can die with a single punch, “the Minister continued. “So sometimes, Oranga ...
We're making progress on tackling the long-term challenges: from homelessness, to strengthening border security, to bringing banking back New Zealand's small towns. ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones has backed the ambitious plan to move Auckland’s port to Northport, at Whangarei harbour, which he says will be the “King Kong of infrastructure”. The plan is part of the recommendations of a six-person independent working group, which has recommended the Ports of Auckland be ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson departs tomorrow for events and meetings in Japan and Vietnam. While in Japan, he will discuss economic and fiscal issues including meeting with the Minister of Finance, Taro Aso, and Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy, Yasutoshi Nishimura. He will meet with the Minister of Education, ...
The Government’s Housing Dashboard released today confirms record numbers of state houses are under construction and shows the Government build programme is gaining momentum. “After nine years of inaction, and a hands-off attitude from the previous government we’re starting to see things move in the right direction for housing,” says ...
Mr Speaker, I wish to make a ministerial statement relating to the Auckland fire. The Government is closely monitoring the situation with the fire at the NZ International Convention Centre and is thankful that everyone is now safe. Firefighters are doing an incredible job managing the fire and bringing it ...
The Government is investing in ambitious research that will digitise Te Reo, grow the low-carbon protein efficient aquaculture industry, help interpret environmental trends, and large data sets says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The four projects range from teaching Siri to speak Te Reo to crunching large environmental ...
A new education-to-employment brokerage service to strengthen connections between local employers and schools. Funding for more trades focused ‘speed-dating’ events to connect schools with employers. Promotional campaign to raise profile of vocational education. The Government is taking action to increase the number of young people taking up vocational education and ...
A Bill to improve prison security and ensure the fair, safe, and humane treatment of people in prison while upholding public safety has passed its third reading. Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says the Corrections Amendment Bill makes a number of changes to ensure the Corrections Act 2004 is fit for ...
Minister for Māori Development, Nanaia Mahuta, has selected Arihia Bennett MNZM, Chief Executive Officer of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, as the Te Puni Kōkiri appointed representative on the New Zealand-China Council. The New Zealand-China Council (the Council) was established in 2012 as a New Zealand led and funded organisation ...
Responsibility for processing the small number of Southern Response claims still to be settled will be transferred to EQC by the end of the year. “As claim numbers reduce, it no longer makes sense for the Crown to have two organisations processing the remaining Canterbury claims,” Grant Robertson says. “Since ...
Health Minister David Clark is encouraging Whanganui residents to take up the opportunity for free bowel screening, which can detect cancer early when it’s easier to treat. Over the next two years 12,000 Whanganui locals, aged 60 to 74 will be invited to participate in the National Bowel Screening ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, heads to Oslo today to represent New Zealand at the sixth Our Ocean Conference, which is being hosted by the Norwegian Government from the 23-24 October. “The Our Ocean Conference mobilises real action on issues like marine plastic pollution and the impacts of ...
Two secondary-school initiatives are being expanded as part of the Government’s plan to see more young New Zealanders take up a trade to help close the skills gap. This includes the largest single increase in Trades Academy places in recent years. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris ...
Session 4: Pacific Connectivity – Youth, Media and New Opportunities Kia ora tatou katoa and Warm Pacific greetings to one and all. Representatives of Tainui, the local people of the land, or manawhenua – the indigenous peoples of this area – have welcomed you this morning in accordance with ...
The Government today announced its support for a project that could substantially reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. The announcement was made as part of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s visit to Nelson’s Cawthron Aquaculture Park. The Cawthron Institute will receive $100,000 from the Government’s ...
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni has welcomed the first reading of the New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill. “Every New Zealander has a stake in New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension,” says Carmel Sepuloni. “They are our most common form of social assistance – nearly 800,000 New ...
Babies in Auckland aged six months and over can receive a free vaccination and children will all have access to vaccines, Associate Minister of Health Julie Anne Genter announced today at Papatoetoe High School. The move comes as part of Government efforts to step up the fight against measles. ...
***Check against delivery*** Good morning. It is a pleasure to be here, and to have the honour of opening this important conference on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. Let us take the opportunity to acknowledge all the people who have helped make today possible, including our special ...
Police Minister Stuart Nash says the safety of frontline officers and members of the public will be the focus of a new trial of specialist Police response teams in three of our largest urban centres. Police have this morning released details of an initiative to be trialled in Counties Manukau, ...
The Minister of Fisheries is calling for entries for a new public award to celebrate innovation in our seafood sector. “I have established the Seafood Sustainability Awards to recognise and celebrate those throughout industry, tangata whenua and communities who demonstrate outstanding dedication and innovation towards the sustainability of New Zealand’s ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter welcomes leaders in the private sector taking action on closing their gender pay gaps to ensure a fairer workplace for all New Zealanders. Ms Genter today launched a new report, Addressing the gender pay gap and driving women’s representation in senior leadership, from the Champions for ...
Government Ministers today welcomed the release of a marine environment report highlighting the four key issues affecting our oceans, estuaries and coastlines. The release underlines the importance of government proposals to combat climate pollution, ensure clean freshwater, protect biodiversity, make land use more sustainable, and reduce waste and plastic. Environment ...
The Government has approved funding for a new acute mental health facility for Waikato which will provide better care and support to people with mental health and addiction issues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister Dr David Clark announced the $100 million project to replace the aging Henry Rongomau ...
The Government is making progress on its goal to integrate te reo Māori into education by 2025, with over 500 teachers and support staff already graduating from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Kelvin Davis made the announcement at an awards ceremony in Waikanae today, for ...
Statistics Minister James Shaw has welcomed the first release of 2018 Census data. The first release of data today, 23 September, includes key data on population, regional growth, the number of homes and the size of different ethnic groups in New Zealand. Data from the 2018 Census will support the ...
Minister for Statistics James Shaw today announced a public consultation on a proposed algorithm charter for government agencies. The charter has been developed by the Government Chief Data Steward in response to growing calls for more transparency in government use of data. Computer algorithms – procedures or formulas for solving ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, Climate Change Minister James Shaw and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte co-hosted a business roundtable in Auckland this morning focused on working together to address climate change. “The Netherlands is an important partner for New Zealand. We share a strong agricultural history. Sustainable agribusiness and ...
The Government is taking action to build an inclusive economy where more of us receive our fair share at work and businesses can compete on great products and services, not undercutting wages and conditions, Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. Two consultations launched today seek feedback ...
The future for New Zealand’s threatened indigenous freshwater fish looks brighter with the passing of the Conservation (Indigenous Freshwater Fish) Amendment Bill in Parliament today said Minister of Conservation, Eugenie Sage. “Until now, our freshwater fish legislation has been 20 years out of date. We have lacked effective tools to ...
At 1.30pm tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of Kiwis will join about 65 million people around the globe in ShakeOut, the world’s biggest earthquake drill. The annual drill is to remind people of the right action to take during an earthquake which is to Drop, Cover, Hold, and to practise their ...
Kiwis are benefiting from higher wage growth and low inflation under the Coalition Government. Stats NZ data out today shows the rise in the cost of living remains low, as annual Consumers Price Index (CPI) inflation fell to 1.5% in September from 1.7% in June. “The low inflation comes as ...
New Zealand’s economic strength and resilience has been recognised in a major update on the state of the global economy. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook released overnight shows a reduced global growth forecast over the next two years as issues like the US-China trade war and Brexit take hold. ...
Justice Minister Andrew Little has today introduced a new Bill to prevent terrorism and support the de-radicalisation of New Zealanders returning from overseas. The Terrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill gives the New Zealand Police the ability to apply to the High Court to impose control orders on New Zealanders who ...
A Bill that proposes targeted changes to simplify the processes for Māori land owners when engaging with the Māori Land Court has had its First Reading today. “The approach taken by the Government is to ensure that the protection of Māori land remains a priority as we seek to improve ...
Let me first thank all the new unionists and members in the room. There is nothing more important to improving people’s working lives than people making the decision to care, to get on board and help, to take up the reins and get involved. Congratulations to you. You bring the ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark has signed a certificate exempting the activity of engine testing at Whenuapai Airbase from the Resource Management Act 1991. The Act gives the Minister of Defence the power to exempt activities for the purposes of national security. The certificate will mean the recent Environment Court ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has announced New Zealand will join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action while attending APEC meetings in Chile. The objective of the 39 member Coalition is to share information and promote action to tackle climate change. It was formed in April this year, in ...
Feedback sought– Lyttelton commercial zone parking The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to remove on-site car parking requirements for new developments in the Lyttelton commercial zone. The proposal, by Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section 71 of the Greater ...
Hon Minister Poto Williams Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration MEDIA STATEMENT Tuesday 15 October 2019 Feedback sought – Hagley Oval The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal about Hagley Oval. The proposal was developed by Regenerate Christchurch ...
Ladies and gentlemen, NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff, members of respective unions – thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. This might be preaching to the choir, but the importance of trade unions in New Zealand’s historical arch is difficult to understate. And it is my belief that ...
"Let’s start by acknowledging that it has been a huge year. " Police Association Annual Conference James Cook Grand Chancellor Hotel Wellington Nau mai, haere mai. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, ka nui te mihi, ki a koutou katoa. President of the Police Association, Chris Cahill; Members of the Association and ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters and Minister of Defence Ron Mark have announced the New Zealand Government’s decision to again deploy a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 (P-3) maritime patrol aircraft to support the implementation of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions imposing sanctions against North Korea. New ...
The latest in Sony’s stable of 90s remasters should come with a pair of rose-coloured glasses. Sam Brooks reviews the 2019 MediEvil remaster.In this generation of gaming, we’ve seen the glowed-up return of a few of our childhood avatars. The bandicoot spins back in, looking fresher than ever. The purple dragon ...
With over 15,000 public submissions on the bill, the Environment Select Committee had a lot to think about. Here’s everything they did – and didn’t – seek to change about the Zero Carbon Bill.Please do not print it out, but let it be known that the Environment Select Committee has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has finally seen off John Setka from the ALP, with the militant construction union leader capitulating and quitting the party. Setka, who lost a court case he brought in his fight ...
New Zealanders will almost certainly face a referendum next year on whether to legalise voluntary euthanasia after a make-or-break vote in Parliament cleared the way. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Nationals leader Michael McCormack has admitted his party should have handled better agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie’s bring-forward of the planned dairy code. Some Nationals were furious when McKenzie suddenly sped up the code’s preparation in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra While the drought continues to hit the Nationals’ constituents hard, the party faces a testing terrain on a political level. In this episode of Politics with Michelle Grattan, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack acknowledges the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy – in the job for for just weeks after moving across from the department of infrastructure last month – has dismissed talk of spending big on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Downie, Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, Australian National University It’s time we started talking about the principal opponents to action on climate change – fossil fuel industries. If history has taught us anything, it is when oil, gas and coal industries ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodie Grigg, Research Associate at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University My friends are taking ecstasy at raves and music festivals. Is it safe? — Anonymous Key points no drug use, including ecstasy, is 100% safe festivals can present ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s content by Dr Bryce Edwards.Transport Todd Niall (Stuff): Auckland Light Rail: Goff says it’s the Government’s call Richard Harman ...
It isn't the first time Tiwai Point's owners have warned they may close the aluminium smelter, but this Government is unlikely to be handing out financial assistance. ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says APEC will definitely still be held in Auckland in 2021, despite the destruction caused by the fire at the NZ International Convention Centre. ...
The headline said it all. Stats NZ has released 2018 census data on New Zealanders’ commuting habits and, guess what, we love a motorised polluter. “Car streets ahead for travel to work and education” was the heading. It should have been “cars rule, all other options drool”.New cycleways are under construction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Liu, Chancellors Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Fashion and Textiles Designer, University of Technology Sydney The tech giants Amazon, Google and Facebook have all begun to use machine learning to give you tips on what to wear. Is fashion styling the next field ...
Prime Minister is meeting with officials at the scene of a massive blaze in Auckland's CBD. Watch a live video of a media stand-up with FENZ and the PM. ...
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Rachel Stewart
‘This is when you realise that NZ is basically a third world country.’
http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/outcome-investigation-collapse-ctv-building
Although I would disagree with her slightly.
We found this out when no-one got prosecuted for Pike River.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/pike-river-mine-blast/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503000&objectid=10899419
Honestly this is harming the police here if no-one is found responsible, because any fair minded person wants to see “justice” at work there as in every case because we meak 99% are being row beaten by “beaurocrats and the police” to “comply with the law” so should they enforce the same law there too.
“one law for all must apply.”
“Police has determined that there will be no criminal prosecution in relation to the collapse of the CTV building in Christchurch in February 2011.”
No, that’s not right. The Police have got this right, despite the fact that the CTV collapsed due to a series of human errors and negligence (not just Reay, but those that fiddled with the building structure some years later).
Grenfell Tower in London was third world. And that makes the whole world third world.
To the rest of New Zealand – your towns and cities building owners have been given plenty of time to get their buildings safe/r, yet they are not doing so. Tell the building owners in your towns to sort their buildings out quick-smart…
You will find most Christchurch people who went through the earthquakes walk around towns in the rest of New Zealand in fear – constantly looking up at the unsupported verandahs and facades. I do. I hate walking near old buildings everywhere except Christchurch now. Invercargill, Dunedin, Ranfurly, Taihape, Taupo, Whangarei, it just goes on and on… Those facades and verandahs in your towns are going to collapse and kill people. Sort it out. Harass the building owners.
Hey VTO;
I am from Napier and drive up north of Gisborne a lot.
We get spooked every time I go through gullies now with tall steep hilllsides, and see the cliffs above fracturing with big cracks going down there, so I become a dangerous driver & find i need to break the law and drive on the other side of the road now, further away from the steep hillside to save ourselves should the hillside slip occur and bury us and kill us now.
I know we could be fined for this but it is now becomming a threat to our very lives that count more.
So we asked the the roading engineers of three road companies, who conduct the road repairs and they all are now confirming to us now they suspect the larger, bigger heavier “over-weight” “HPMV” trucks that are causing large, stronger, road vibrations now, that they believe are responsible for the hillside fractures, as they have placed vibration monitoring devices on these hillisides, and are detecting heavier ground shacking vibrations occurring with the bigger, heavier HPMV trucks now.
So are the heavier truck operators now liable for legal costs if they damage people and/or property?
“so I become a dangerous driver & find i need to break the law and drive on the other side of the road now, further away from the steep hillside to save ourselves should the hillside slip occur and bury us and kill us now.”
Of course you are now more at risk of having a head on accident and killing yourselves and the poor sap who was innocently coming the other way.
Putting others lives at risk because you perceive it to be better for you.
I’ve lost friends on motorbikes because of people doing what you are doing. It’s a disgusting and selfish act.
If you end up having an accident I hope you don’t kill an innocent person.
Oh for fucksake! Somethings eventually going to get you, your only choice is to stay in bed and not do anything at all all the while remembering that the vast majority of people die in bed, but in your stupid case it’s most likely to be a truck coming the other way.
assuming they dont kill somebody else first
Actually, I say that the ministers of the government that passed the legislation allowing the bigger trucks should held personally liable. This is an obvious consequence of doing so and they should have at lest asked the engineers about it.
cleangreen, your risk assessment seems a bit out of kilter so I’ll try to help you.
Failure to keep left is the fourth most common contributing cause to a fatal accident in the 2011 – 2016 period, cited as a factor in 191 fatal crashes, according to this government analysis.
http://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Research/Documents/Overseas-drivers2016.pdf
The only road fatality attributable to landslide I can find any reference to is the 2014 double fatality in Westland where a tourist couple were apparently swept off the road into a river during an extreme weather event. Interestingly, landslides have caused a number of train accidents with numerous fatalities, but appear to be a negligible risk to road users.
https://teara.govt.nz/files/d-8801-enz.pdf
So by crossing the centreline to keep away from cliffs, it certainly appears that you are choosing to create a very real hazard to yourself and other road users, in response to an imaginary threat.
not only what the others said, but the extra few metres will not give you time to dodge a darn thing. And where will you dodge to? Over the bank? Roads are often nowhere near the bottom of steep gullies, usually halfway up the darn hillside.
Sad to say that the police have been politicised.
Look at the Hager raids as one example of this.
And the Barclay shambles as a second exemplar of police conduct.
Roast Busters, TeaPot tapes etc we sort of only hear about the prominent ones.
Hagers book indicated the potential for alot more in exposing the behaviour of Collins which IMO should’ve triggered an inquiry into her activity across many portfolios.
Don’t forget Darren Hughes – or does that not count as he was labour.
That does not count as his case was reviewed by the Crown Solicitors’ Office
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5116263/No-charges-against-former-Labour-MP-Darren-Hughes
Perhaps you mean Dr. Richard Worth?
Well spotted Jeremy. But no doubt james will come back with some lie or half truth.
He can’t stand being proven the lying, spinner, gutter sycophant he so often is.
This shows that under certain circumstances there is no backbone by the police to bring certain corporates to justice. It seems it is much easier to accuse and charge an ordinary person with average means than people who are well connected.
Remember the extraordinary involvement of police and management in TV presentation to the media, it was similar to a tag team, when the viewer is uncertain what the job of the police should be. Corruption in places is rife, always attempting to protect the corporation instead of siding with the innocent. Remember the planted cartridge, the disgraceful blame game in the Erebus disaster, or the very poor investigation in the Bain murders.
Anyone who thought anything as terrible as being held to account, being tried and going to jail might occur to professionals who are men of reputation and pillars of the establishment needed only look at at Pike River to know nothing was going to happen here.
If you want concerted outrage against a great injustice, you won’t find it in thundering newspaper editorials or middle aged white male shick jocks quaking in anger demanding justice for the 144 dead of the CTV building and Pike River.
However, true outrage still exists if you can can spitefully twist the truth and the target is a smart 32 year female lawyer from a refugee family.
+1000% How fucking true Sanctuary.
Some people are above the law.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11870607
Yes Ed,
Money talks = truth walks.
And we have another classic example right here, fresh as……… Nigel Murray.
Seems the true extent of his theft may never be known and his enabler Bob Simcock finally fell on his sword when the SFO put their beak in.
Both these middle aged, privileged males should be in the dock facing charges of fraud/theft and being the accomplice of same.
Link is to a RNZ article of the latest as of 30/11/17 in this sorry saga
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/345079/murray-may-have-spent-more-than-officially-recorded-audit-nz
Big corporations pass on the cost of externalities.
Socialism for the rich.
Don’t forget National ‘realigned’ the SFO in a similar manner to the way it sorted out the commerce commission and anybody getting in the way of corporate cowboy antics.
She’s just giving the accepted spin to the reality that they neither have the resources or will to form a posse and chase the cowboys down as the evidence is available without a whistle blower.
Cashless
Make it so that most financial crime will be detected automatically by computer.
I don’t agree with this decision by the NZPolice not to prosecute the designers of the CTV Building.
I perfectly understand why they went for internal legal and then Crown Law advice.
But they should publish all the advice.
If the Police had had an urge for justice, and Crown Law’s Deputy Solicitor was being more cautious, then Police should have insisted that the advice be escalated to the Solicitor General.
With a new government and Minister, I think the Solicitor General should also have had a chat with the Attourney General as Minister.
It should have gone to trial, at which Defence would put up a line that “It wasn’t just us, it was a systemic failure.”
At that point the judge could make a judgement on both the people, and the whole system.
This is not right, not just.
A key point that mostly gets lost but would probably form a large part of the defence: the CTV building had already experienced its design event in the 2010 earthquake, and despite its serious design flaws it met its performance requirement that any occupants would have been able to safely leave.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/7332804/CTV-building-damaged-by-earlier-quakes
It’s beyond me how to fairly apportion culpability between those who produced a seriously flawed design, those who approved the seriously flawed design, and those who allowed the re-occupation of a seriously flawed building after an extreme event that would be expected to produce serious structural damage.
Approval of a flawed building: Why hasn’t Alan Reay been taken to court for his part in the poor design and construction of the CTV building? He failed to do his job properly and unlawfully threatened the local council in order to have the building signed off as fit and proper.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CTV_Building
I agree Reay was seriously deficient in his lax oversight and rubberstamp approval of the work done by his firm. But he still has a pretty good defense that the building met the performance standard required of it in the 2010 quake.
And there are many other culpable parties. Yes, Reay appears to have applied inappropriate pressure to get approval of that building. But council officials are expected to wear big-boy pants – they also behaved inappropriately in caving to the pressure.
The approval process for re-occupation also appears to have been culpably flawed. ISTR reports that building occupants were uncomfortable with how much more building movement there seemed to be post-2010-quake than pre-quake.
Given how much other culpability seems to floating around this disaster, and how any of the many parties involved could plausibly have prevented the disaster by doing their jobs properly, the near exclusive focus on Reay really bothers me. Because if Reay is the sole scapegoat, then all those other failings won’t get addressed.
I agree it’s beyond me as well.
What gets me is that it should also be “beyond” the Deputy Solicitor General.
The best person in the country to make that call, including those calls about the layers of accountability , is a High Court Judge.
The families deserve their day in court to hold the system accountable.
Granted the designers aren’t like Whittle.
But those families deserve their day.
“I think the Solicitor General should also have had a chat with the Attourney General as Minister.”
Are you seriously suggesting that an MP, acting with the title of Attorney General but still just an MP, should have any say at all in deciding who should, or should not, face trial?
We have enough such countries in the world already. I don’t want NZ to become another one.
You want us to become like Turkey? Like Venezuela? Like The Philippines? Like Syria? No thanks.
Has anyone checked other buildings designed by those responsible for the CTV building ? I’ve heard rumours of a former commercial building in Auckland alledgedly designed by the CTV designers. This commercial building has recently been converted into very expensive apartments – most sold and waiting for sign off.
Geez Louise, I see Steve Bannon minime David Farrar is STILL banging on about Golriz.
The right have turned that non-story into their own little Benghazi.
Oh well, they can wallow about in irrelevance I suppose.
Looks like Shaw’s apology yesterday has lanced it.
The Greens are, again, fucking lucky to have him.
The experts – the people who really know, are saying quite clearly that Golriz has done absolutely nothing wrong. What are your credentials.
H2 has clearly been brought in.
She is trying the lines of the last Labour Government.
“Nothing to see here”. “Time to move on”.
“Nothing to see here”. “Time to move on”.
You didn’t hear those lines used repeatedly and regularly during Key’s time as PM, Alwyn?
You must be as deaf as a post and unable to lip-read to boot!
What apology? The bit I saw has Shaw saying he made a mistake in his speech. That was only one of the many things thrown at Golriz and the Greens this week on the issue.
@Sanctuary
I have a theory about this issue-I think the Nats are really pissed off they didn’t carry out this nasty vicious hatchet job on Golriz before the election and so are sounding more bitter and twisted than ever.
They realise that this could have (unfairly) cost the Greens a percentage point or more and changed the election result…..epic fail Mr. Farrar.
Let’s open a discussion on the appalling behavior of Dr Nigel Murray and the path that led to his appointment.
He was appointed by Bob Murray who was, in turn, appointed by that smarmiest of National Cabinet Ministers’ one Tony Ryall, who on his retirement from his portfolio as Minister of Health, claimed to have left the department in wonderful shape and with morale on a high. I wonder how the good folk of Dunedin felt about that claim.
Murray was granted the post at the Waikato DHB in spite of grave concerns expressed by both Labour’s Shadow Minister of Health at the time, the wonderful Annette King who herself had been a superb Minister of Health, and the local MP Sue Maroney.
Below is a quote from the NZ Herald of 15th July 2014.
“Labour urged the DHB to hold off confirming Dr Murray’s Waikato appointment until this latest report had been released. It declined,” she said.
“I also sought information from the Ministry of Health and from Health Minister Tony Ryall as to the process around the appointment, but was given the brush-off.”
The “latest report” referred to the damming assessment of the performance of a Canadian Health Authority which had been in the charge of Murray.
This whole rotten episodes reeks of political cronyism. Sue Maroney has instigated the process for an official inquiry into the whole sordid affair.
This should be yet one more incident to expose the tawdriness of nine years of National misgovernment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11951081
The interim chief executive at Waikato District Health Board has welcomed a formal complaint to the Serious Fraud
Derek Wright told Newstalk ZB host Mike Hosking this morning he was not concerned about the complaint
He said there were no red flags over Murray, who resigned in October amid an expenses scandal and after spending $218,000 of taxpayers money in his three years in the job.
HUH
No red flags
Wot about the Canadian report then?
The problems we are getting because of the government’s welcome to private enterprise to come in and buy up the provision of services at a profit is going to compound.
I was thinking about the latest revelations around Waikato DHB.
Just having a new government which has some clues and wishes to be a government for the people, not business and not redcarpeting foreign business, is not enough to stop an insidious bleeding of NZ opportunities and provision of acceptable self-sufficiency and standards for us all.
1 Dec 2017
Purchase of HealthTap criticised, no value for money – Audit NZ
by Natalie Akoorie
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11951201
State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes announced today he has formally requested the Auditor-General conduct an inquiry into the Waikato District Health Board’s SmartHealth product and the procurement process from HealthTap…..
The news comes as the two-year contract with HealthTap, the American company that powers the DHB’s controversial SmartHealth app, has been revealed to have cost taxpayers almost $15 million….
Waikato DHB has kept the cost of HealthTap, which together with the cost to launch SmartHealth totals $18.8m, a closely guarded secret, citing commercial sensitivity and contract negotiations as reasons….
Auditors said the procurement raised a number of concerns including that:
• It should have been conducted through an open tendering process and that the US$10m trial was an amount well over any threshold for open tendering;…
Murray went on to champion the product, spending more than $45,000 flying internationally and domestically to learn about and promote SmartHealth, an app that uses smartphones and iPads to conduct online appointments between doctors and patients.
The app has flopped, not attracting the targeted number of users despite targets being lowered, and is now being independently reviewed ahead of the end of the trial.
health crime
30 Nov 2017
Neither Audit NZ or Waikato DHB have spoken to Nigel Murray
From Checkpoint, 5:25 pm on 30 November 2017
Listen duration 3′ :35″
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018623712/neither-audit-nz-or-waikato-dhb-have-spoken-to-nigel-murray
Audit NZ says it’s been unable to establish the true extent of former Waikato DHB boss Nigel Murray’s excessive travel costs because of holes in the paper trail.
(I thought that holey punchcard technology had been replaced with better technology? Hanging chads anyone?)
I think there is an in-group with a secret handshake called the PPPP (Past Peter Principle Phoenixes.)
money health
29 Nov 2017
Senior doctors welcome DHB chair’s resignation
From Morning Report, 8:11 am on 29 November 2017
Listen duration 3′ :41″
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018623443/senior-doctors-welcome-dhb-chair-s-resignation
The executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Ian Powell, says the resignation of the Waikato DHB Chairman Bob Simcock follows a period of destabilisation at the DHB. He tells us there’s been a “complete denial of responsibility all the way through the process” and there are still “some urchins that need to move on”.
And the neolibs still in the Departments will probably go on running down our national health while putting little injections of cash into new smart methods of delivering health better and cheaper. They will try and save money by running things down so that we are reliant on these new ideas. to fill the gaps that occur. (Think Pharmac swopping over contraceptive pills and running out – just what people don’t need. )
It seems that it it is cowboy territory out there, and good systems might be dirtied by those which don’t stand up to clear-eyed scrutiny for service to the people who need it most.
Here is a story about clever new tech.
Navilluso Medical is led by 2014 New Zealander of the year Lance O’Sullivan who also developed iMoko, a virtual medical service to help vulnerable children.
Dr O’Sullivan said he constantly heard about patients not having access to doctors in isolated locations.
“These people aren’t coming in with trivial problems, it just goes to show we need to redesign how we allow people to get access to health.”
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/345034/virtual-medical-clinic-gets-funding-boost
I like Lance O’Sullivan but we shouldn’t be dependent on him and others like the Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust, POBox 20409, Bishopdale, Christchurch 8543 – (donations will be welcome). There is a desperate need for good basic health care, which surely can be identified easily as it has been talked about for ages. Let’s do this and the new systems can fine-tune the effects.
Also http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/335802/virtual-medical-centre-seen-as-model-for-the-future
Grant Robertson is saying we will be waiting another 2 weeks for the half year fiscal update, which includes the latest Treasury forecasts.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1712/S00001/robertson-achieving-shared-prosperity.htm
Excuse me if I was underwhelmed by this first major statement by our Minister of Finance.
This guy is supposed to be at the ideological core of gaining and redistributing wealth for this country. Not a note of anything connected like that.
Could someone please tell me what this guy’s plan is, beyond anodyne abstract nouns about”fairness”?
Goodness, such impatience.
I really wish that the David Parker has been given the Finance port folio. Grant is a superb MP and has the capability to be a fantastic Minister. I just don’t think that should be in Finance.
I am far from convinced that he has the knowledge or skills to be able to effect real change in the economy.
“I really wish that the David Parker has been given the Finance port folio. Grant is a superb MP and has the capability to be a fantastic Minister. I just don’t think that should be in Finance.
I am far from convinced that he has the knowledge or skills to be able to effect real change in the economy.”
Tend to agree with this
If he told you, then people would just attack him for everything he plans to back track on.
He’s gonna run surpluses!!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/345153/robertson-unveils-govt-s-plan-for-the-economy
This highlights to me that Grant Robertson is little more than a Mandarin following the prescribed way of economic thinking of the day, while underscoring why nothing fundamental is going to change with this Government. Running surpluses is not going to fix this country. However, it will ingratiate him with the economic apparatchiks in Treasury and high-finance.
Oh, it’s far better (worse!) than just running a surplus (which might be okay if the economy was humming and needed ‘cooling’).
He’s saying (in the links you provided) that the economy will likely dip, meaning less government revenue coming in while trying to produce a surplus. And that’s austerity.
Indeed. Announcing the running of surpluses while also forecasting an economic dip is just… dumb. It’s like no thinking has been applied and he’s just reading a script that someone has prepared for him. Robertson should NOT be Minister of Finance.
The only loop hole could be if they expanded the tax take from the rich to compensate, but that seems unlikely.
Over the last few decades we’ve been trained to believe that a government runs like a business and that it should have ‘profits’ which it can then divvy out like dividends as tax cuts.
This is, of course, a load of bollocks but it helps to maintain the status quo of the rich getting richer at everyone else’s expense.
Straight from Theresa May’s copy book, unfortunately.
Yes Bill I couldn’t help noticing that – it’s the cliche background for austerity measures. Hasn’t anyone noticed this or are we all bums in the air in NZ, with our heads in the sand?
I wonder what comfy chair Robertson has got his eye on after Labour loses in an election or two. He’s got that fatcat look of complacency and certainty.
Whatever chair someone else is sitting in. That’s his nature.
We’re also being drip fed details of the tax working group which is slightly annoying. I would rather they make one big announcement on that.
@Ad give the man a chance….let’s see what he comes up with and judge it in 2020 not a month out from being elected.
For instance, Labour are still coming to terms with Joyce’s $32 billion health/defence spending hole.
9 fucking years to prepare.
No excuses.
Well, I’ll punt the “guys plan” is basically to mollify some abstract sense of “middle class” by introducing kiwi-build for middle class first time house buyers.
And that’s it.
Oh. And some ‘nice to have stuff’ around parental leave etc.
A fair shot at the kiwi dream then – at least for those occupying some position in society that’s deemed as “deserving”.
He claims he’s not pursuing “business as usual” which is a bit like the guy throwing punches making claims to pacifism. When this austerity ends badly (and austerity is the only name for an economic policy that seeks surpluses during times of economic slow-down), the National Party will sway back in as the “natural” government of capitalism.
I wouldn’t put money on NZ Labour achieving a second term.
GROPERS
No. 14: Judge Roy Moore
Some republicans have been leaping through incredibly convoluted hoops in their attempts to justify supporting Judge Roy Moore in the special Senate election in Alabama, in light of the revelations from at least five women claiming that Moore groped or sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers and he was in his thirties.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8053790/roy-moore-twitter-breitbart-editor-defends-ringo-starr-youre-sixteen
What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the Union
To help you along
What’s going wrong?
“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile; No. 11 Dr Morgan Fahey; No.12 Prince Harry; No. 13 Bill (“I feel your pain”) Clinton
Why don’t you go back into history and bring in John Kennedy.
Then we could be told about his little pals “Fiddle” and “Faddle”
Be assured, alwyn, the Kennedy clan is on the roster. In fact, No. 6 in the series, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was married to JFK’s niece—before she discovered he’d been JFKing around on her.
So farmers are into land speculation and making money that way and not productive agriculture as we might have been believing all this time. That would appear to be the National Party view through spokesperson on all things, Steven Joyce.
Opposition finance spokesperson Steven Joyce told Morning Report that farm buyers will be in favour of the change, but sellers may not be.”The changes could soften the farm sales market which is not necessarily a good thing,” Mr Joyce said.
Yep! National stands for looking after those who have – but those who have not; see things differently – Young farmers for instance welcomed the move saying stable farm prices would help to enable those seeking to buy their first farm.
I’m a bit sceptical about David Parker’s analysis though. He was of the opinion that overseas buyers only effected a small increase on the market. Having sold some rural land in the past 7 years, in my experience the price offered from overseas purchasers was always a significant margin over and above what NZ buyers could offer. Furthermore they were invariably “clean” offers – ie cash and not subject to finance, or the sale of another property.
Malcolm Turnbull and his gang could intimidate the previous N.Z. government, but Jimmy Barnes is having none of their nonsense….
Rock legend Jimmy Barnes has again taken aim at the Liberal government, demanding they stop using his name and songs to spruik their “shitty policies”.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and energy minister Josh Frydenberg went to the Bluescope steelworks in Port Kembla, south of Wollongong, on Monday to talk about energy policy, industry and jobs.
“More than 30 years ago Jimmy Barnes came to Port Kembla to make the film clip for Working Class Man. Today the Prime Minister has come to Port Kembla to create jobs for Australia’s working class men and women,” Frydenberg said proudly.
He was referencing Barnes’ famous hit and iconic video clip, which was filmed at the NSW steelmaking facility.
Early on Tuesday morning, Barnes fired back on Twitter.
Barnes is outspoken and unabashedly political on Twitter, sharing lots of support for progressive causes. He was a loud supporter of marriage equality during the recent postal survey, as well as criticising Australia’s current asylum seeker policy as it relates to offshore detention.
Read more…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/11/27/jimmy-barnes-tells-shitty-liberals-not-to-use-his-music_a_23289666/
So here you have it:
So much for Key’s claim he acted on the principle of being “too intrusive”. The programme was cancelled because they suspected Snowden had the details.
What we can deduce is: had Snowden not done what he did… the GCSB and it’s off-shore mates would be conducting mass surveillance of NZ citizens and we would not know it.
GCSB minister Andrew Little on mass surveillance and our spies obeying the law.
Anne, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve just reposted your excellent contribution over on David Farrar’s blog….
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/general_debate_1_december_2017.html/comment-page-1#comment-2089816
Hilarious Morrissey. That should stir a few Righties. 😀
It certainly did, Anne! I recommend you click on the links below, especially the second one, and follow the angry snarling, the aneurisms and the gnashings of teeth. They’re hurt, and VERY angry….
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/general_debate_1_december_2017.html/comment-page-1#comment-2089816
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/the_speargun_beatup.html/comment-page-1#comment-2090312
“the GCSB and it’s off-shore mates would be conducting mass surveillance of NZ citizens and we would not know it.”
swap out “would be” and “would not” for “probably are” (or just “are”) and “don’t”.
(And I’m more than happy to wear a tin foil hat, it seems to keep me awake)
No mikes, I don’t believe they are. Certainly Andrew Little is quite sure they are not conducting mass surveillance and he is an astute and highly intelligent politician. Add to that his sharp, experienced lawyer mind, I doubt anyone would try to pull the wool over his eyes.
Parker and Jones should induce Xero to syay NZX listed.
Worth it.
I see they have breach my privacy rights here in Auckland many thanks for more Mana boys I see even the boys in Auckland like there fireworks to and all there idiot lying contracted liars they tried a move with a old work m8 but no my sense of smell is to good for those idiots. Got the bot hopefully it will be over by Monday Kia Kaha
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FRAUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is what it looks like when the right wing lose, they cheat.
Many thanks to OUR new coalition Government for increasing our spending on research and development and having a 10 year plan to target 2% of GDP spent on research and development . Also increasing OUR border security to keep out invasive species which would wreck our primary sector of $38 billion ka pai.
I think that we should investigate the feasibility into industrial scale worm farming so instead of pouring nitrogen on our farm which degrades our topsoil we could pour worm casting on our farms this will reduce waste to the landfill and increase our topsoil this will reduce OUR imports cost ECT subsidizing second hand electric cars will reduce our export spend immensely .kIa kaha