Will 2013 be the year serious action against climate change begins in this country?
Though it is not widely known, or admitted, even by themselves, the Green party has backed off raising the issue of climate change.
It is not, that the reality of the danger has passed, far from it.
It is because they are seeking a political accommodation with the Labour party.
In exchange for cabinet positions in the next government the Greens are preparing to give away their opposition to government policies that contribute to climate change.
Coal has been identified as the number 1 causative factor in climate change by James Hansen, NASA’s chief climate scientist. Hansen says that if we are to have any chance of arresting runaway climate change, coal use must be seriously curtailed. Despite this fact, the Labour Party are fully committed to expanding the coal industry in this country.
In contrast, it is Green Party policy to oppose any new coal mines.
However, in practice the Greens are giving up their opposition to new coal mines.
It is Green Party policy to make New Zealand coal free by 2020. However without any clear strategy for proceeding from where we are now, to achieving this goal, the policy from Greens to make New Zealand “Coal Free”, can only be said to be, “Aspirational”. (In the John Key sense of the word).
I my opinion, as a concrete step to achieving a “Coal Free” New Zealand by 2020, the Green Party should give up their lobbying for cabinet positions, instead they should concentrate their efforts on lobbying the Labour Party to give up their support for new coal mines. This should be the number one condition for any coalition agreement with Labour.
Yes the glittering career path of some Green MPs may be affected, and yes this may even cost the Green Party some votes.
But what is more important?
Cabinet Positions, or concrete concessions to take action against climate change?
Of course, the MSM has difficulty grasping the way they are intertwined, and tend to focus more on the economy. The challenge for the Green Party is to get all 3 of their planks heard more and understood.
In the RNZ interview,/a> on the same day as the TV3 one, Metiria Turei said environment is one of their 3 intertwined central planks: economy, child poverty, environment.
karol
Unfortunately for the Greens, even the climate change denying, ACT Party have an equally vague environment policy plank.
According to our constitution, the ACT Party shall promote, develop and pursue policies and proposals which:
7. explore and implement practical and innovative ways to protect the natural environment;
act.org.nz/principles
To say that you care for the environment is to say nothing at all. For the Green Party to mention, (as an after thought) that the environment is one of their 3 “intertwined” planks, while refusing to specifically acknowledge climate change as the number one environmental problem facing us. Is in my opinion level with ACT’s likewise non-specific pledge to ” implement practical and innovative ways to protect the natural environment”. A very low threshold indeed. So low, they risk becoming a laughing stock.
James Hansen, NASA’s chief climate scientist. Hansen says that if we are to have any chance of arresting runaway climate change, coal use must be seriously curtailed.
That would be the same James Hanson who derided Germany for abandoning its new Nuclear programme following the Fukushima disaster!
Maybe have a look at the motivations (lobbying money flow) behind these people Jenny, then ask yourself if they are clean!
I guess that Nuclear catastrophies are seen as not so bad eh!
I guess that climate change isn’t the most serious issue facing the world then. Nuclear power -really bad. Catastrophic climate change – not so bad. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
The changes that occurred in our society over the past three decades have made the “kiwi dream” a sham. The huge widening of the gap between richer and poorer and the massive increase in emigration are the obvious and easily measured ones. More insidious is that far more members of each household are working longer hours and years in less secure and poorer paid employment. Kiwis are doing it hard, so hard that 800,000 did not vote.
This now requires an early and fundamental set of new policies for a new-deal society.
That 800,000 does not show up in the marketing strategist’s reports. They don’t come into the reckoning when the analysts are calculating whether the left vote of A+B+C will surpass the right vote of D+E. Nor do they articulate themselves well in “focus ” groups”.
No, the voice of the 800,000 can be heard through the supporters/members of the Labour Party. The upside to the Conference is that Labour has won the opportunity to brand itself at the most democratic Party with the constitution and structure to act as a grass-roots-up one.
We can win the next election only with the help of the 800,000. We have to be genuinely part of them to be their voice. When we have policies and leadership that makes us relevant to them, they will believe that we can make that fundamental change towards a new fair-deal society.
Election Cycles! An excuse for laziness and also a sense of entitlement. My turn to Rule! National ain’t going to hand power on a plate.
The Left Vote? Boll•cks. The Greens are not about the 800,000. That is Labour’s space and we must make them central to ALL of our policies, strategies and tactics.
2013 has to be a new start for Labour.
No more innocuous palp that ignores the 800,000 and alienates the active members.
”The Greens are not about the 800,000”, really???, if the previous 2 elections were to be used as a gauge Labour’s past and present policies have failed sensationally to move the 800,000,
My view is that voting every 3 years is a right and a DUTY, i see no valid reason why voting every 3 years should not be compulsory…
What, other than the obvious removal of the right to exercise free will you mean, whats left of it!
Sounds like you may believe voting makes a difference, in case you missed, it makes no difference in the greater scheme of things!
Perhaps it makes a little differnce to some along the journey, but the outcomes are the same, so why the hell would it be acceptable to force people to vote for their own demise!
Note: I can understand why people might see benefit in forced voting, deperation for change comes to mind, but FORCING, is not the answer!
for me Mana IS an alternative party to vote for as I agree with their kaupapa and values. Some say it is a waste – look at the polls and so on but they are wrong IMO. People make the difference, individuals working collectivelly.
Given your reply it would then be ‘pointless’ to be discussing politics and policy here on the Standard, because by your reasoning if voting changes nothing commenting on-line would change even less and we all should subscribe to ‘home and garden’ and discuss issues relevant to present and past issues of that…
Hi Marty – Its about having the choice to vote, or not – The question was nothing to do with voting/not, or who for.
I agree with your sentiment about people making the difference, working collectively etc. If there was a framework for change to better NZ, I would seriously consider putting my support/energy behind it, as I have said on here many times previously. Mana may or may not be that, too soon to tell for me, but some encouragement can be had from the movement so far.
B12 – Agree completely, the discussion around policy is mostly pointless, albeit interesting, as we see that the policies which further denegrate NZ are implemented/forced through etc anyway, against the best interests of NZ, and its peoples
.
That is why my comments around policy are limited to comments about addressing the *core issue*, which is the monetary supply/control by the NZ government/treasury, and audit/investigation into the *independence* of the RBNZ/OoDM.
Until the issue of monetary/debt control is addressed, policy discussions/directions are moot, and little good can come from even beneficial policy regardless, as it will always have the equivilant opposite policy to off-set any overall longer term positive benefit, hence continuing the negative trending in the NZ inc statistics! While policy is driven by monetary/debt position as under current conditions., without addressing monetary control, NZ will continue to slide at increasing velocity!
In any case my response was around your statement that you can *see no valid reason why voting every 3 years should not be compulsory* – Which I disagreed with!
From memory, Marty, the ‘donkey vote’ in Oz is around 2% and a further 1% don’t vote despite it being compulsory. Compulsory voting works well there so I see no problems bringing it in here.
The upside to the Conference is that Labour has won the opportunity to brand itself at the most democratic Party with the constitution and structure to act as a grass-roots-up one.
Watching it from the sidelines for a change, that was what impressed the hell out of me. It was rather overtaken in the media by whoever the silly arse in caucus decided to use it to take out Cunliffe in a tediously juvenile power play*. But it was definitely the best conference I have attended in terms of getting some work done.
* It was almost as stupid as the similar play in 2007/8 to try to take out NZF. That didn’t work either. Quite simply you cannot externally destroy constituencies or patterns of political thought in a MMP environment with dumbarse power plays. It simply doesn’t work because people will move their votes to counter such game plays. The only effective way to destroy political factions is for them to fall apart internally – Act being te most recent example.
Lynn, Chris Trotter’s latest post, The Lazarus Option says something similar.
“POLITICS IS ALMOST as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.” This pithy Churchillian aphorism should be framed and prominently displayed in every politician’s office. It wouldn’t hurt if one or two political journalists did the same. We might then, perhaps, read fewer political obituaries of Members of Parliament who, having suffered a temporary set-back, are declared officially, politically dead….
The wounds inflicted upon Mr Cunliffe by Mr Shearer and his allies are, therefore, readily survivable. The Parliamentary Press Gallery – so easily stampeded by Mr Shearer’s backers at the Labour Party Conference in November – are slowly and shame-facedly backing away from their earlier, supremely confident, assertions of an imminent Cunliffe-led leadership coup. But, if there was no “plot” to unseat Mr Shearer, then for what “crime” – exactly – was Mr Cunliffe demoted? The answer appears to be: “For refusing to rule out the possibility of a leadership challenge at some point in the future.”
But, as Mickysavage points out on the Year in review thread, it’s worth considering why such violent metaphors are used to describe politics.
Whilst musing over the last year in the last few days, that was the thing in the local political world that stood out for me as being the weirdess. This was in a remarkably politially weird year. A tactically well implemented play, it was so utterly inept at a strategic level.
All it really did for me was to highlight the lack of clear direction inside the Labour caucus, who instead seemed to be pissing about with such silly games. While literally at the same time that the party organisation was busy with the largest and most productive renewal I have ever seen. The political contrast between the two main parts of Labour could not have been starker.
Not to mention the contrast in the effective utilization of resources. The party organisation was literally doing this on a shoestring. Meanwhile the caucus with all of the support of parliamentary services appeared to be quite limited on what they could achieve in connecting to that massive constituency of unenrolled and enrolled non-voters lost to elections since 2005. That group have a pretty typical response when asked why they don’t vote any more – it is because they don’t see any real hope arising from the act of voting.
Not really. As I have mentioned a few times previously, I’m a political pragmatist who looks at the longer term rather than the short term. What I’m looking for are things that are likely to work efficiently to solve or at least alleviate current or future problems. Most of that is simply providing routes of opportunity for people and especially their kids to use. Providing services like mostly free adult education were extremely efficient providers. Creating motorways in an era of increasing fuel costs and falling road usage for the taxpayer support of contributors is not.
I want to see the tens of thousands of dollars I contribute to the commonweal to be used effectively. Frittering them away on trivialities like the Labour caucus appears to be doing just offends me. It also gives me little confidience that they will be more effective if on the treasury benches. So I’ll shift my vote to a partner that looks more effective.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was following those ‘revelations’, that David Shearer was asked if he planned to demote Cunliffe. He laughed it off and made reference to Cunliffe being far too valuable. His response struck me as being genuine and, at that point anyway, I have to wonder how much he had known of the covert ABC club activities. It almost seems to me that the publishing of the Garner article – together with a concentrated campaign by Cunliffe’s caucus enemies – is what convinced Shearer that Cunliffe was planning a coup.
The set-up of Cunliffe at the Conference (aided and abetted by an eager MSM) would have sealed the suspicion for him. If I’m right, then Shearer may have learned a very valuable political lesson. His actions in the coming 2 to 3 months will give us the answers we seek.
I’m not convinced that Shearer wasn’t part of the turn against Cunliffe as signaled by the Garner blog you linked to, Anne. The leak to Garner seems to have come right from the top. There’s this bit in the blog post:
Sources have told me Shearer was advised to demote him when he became Labour’s leader, but Shearer resisted and said he wanted to work with Cunliffe.
That hasn’t worked apparently – my sources tell me Shearer is deeply disappointed with Cunliffe and he feels let down. This relationship cannot last.
According to Shearer’s sources, the Labour leader no longer trusts Cunliffe. That view is shared by the majority of the caucus.
I’m not saying he wasn’t part of the turn against Cunliffe. I just wonder whether he was fully conversant with what was going on behind the scenes. It might have caused him to be a bit suspicious of the ABC club’s modus operandi – or at least some of those within it.
Sources have told me Shearer was advised to demote him when he became Labour’s leader, but Shearer resisted and said he wanted to work with Cunliffe.
Not quite correct.
Yes, he was encouraged to demote him when he became Labour’s leader, and he came within a hair-breadth of doing so. In other words, he had ‘fallen in behind’ what he was being told by Cunliffe’s caucus enemies. Commonsense did prevail in the end. We will have to wait and see if it prevails again.
You may be right, Anne, but, on the other hand your quote suggests that all along, Shearer has made his own decisions. There is a use of ruthless tactics that seem to have started under Shearer. He is after all someone who, with little parliamentary experience, backed himself to be leader. This suggests a certain amount of strength.
Team Shearer only turned against Cunliffe when he continued to get support from the membership, while Shearer continued to get criticised. The strategies became particularly ruthless when the membership voted for democratisation. The strategy against Cunliffe was to reinforce Shearer’s power, and, along the way, make him look decisive to the public, via the MSM.
Now that the opposition, including within the membership, still can’t be silenced, it looks like the ABC leaders are the ones to be sacrificed. There’s quite a ruthless pattern there, and, my trust having been dented by the above happenings, I am not convinced Shearer is that blameless.
I agree with your analysis. There is certainly an element of ruthlessness that I find abhorrent and I agree Shearer has been part of it. Don’t think for a moment
that it only started under Shearer. It has been there since the 1980s but Helen Clark kept it well under control.
The key word in that quote of Duncan Garner’s is resisted. Actually he didn’t resist. My understanding from what I heard at the time is: Shearer was all set to demote Cunliffe but at the last minute wiser counsel (and I don’t know who it was, or what was said) reached Shearer and he changed his mind.
It puts a slightly different complexion on Garner’s take of what happened, which (of course) came from the mallarfia and associates.
I can’t say more except to say my source for the above is likely to be more accurate than Garner’s sources.
My views on Shearer have changed a bit having looked at his CV and his involvement in being a consultant, researcher, and adviser of intelligence and military strategy. So, while he may be a novice in NZ’s parliament, he is a strategic thinker, and one prepared to suggest coercion in certain circumstances.
It looks to me that the most recent moves are in the form of a charm offensive re-the membership.
But, I still don’t know what Shearer’s political values are. That gives me pause. Especially as he might negotiate some policies with membership now, in order to get them onside for the election campaign. But, as Clark did on closing the gaps, he could be just as likely to change tack when a PM.
Trotter is absolutely onto it with his new blog posting of today. The early part of this year will be the very last chance for possibly years to come, for Labour – and especially it’s caucus – to sort itself out once and for all by February 2013.
Shearer has shown that he is not a smart, strong, competent leader by demoting Cunliffe the way he did, and by stripping him off all spokespersons’ responsibilities, banning him to the back bench.
Shearer panicked and made a stupid, in principal also undemocratic decision, out of fear for the media’s reporting, which was without real basis.
The very last chance for Shearer will be to get Cunliffe back into a top role through a re-shuffle, to engage him and to bind him into the team, so that he will improve team skills. Of course the other – less likely – chance chance will be, that Shearer will call a vote on leadership and any likely challenger anyway, to face the challenge.
As I do not at all expect that the not so confident, weak Shearer will feel safe and happy to go for that second last chance, only the last one can be hoped for.
All else will likely mean that Labour will continue to sit around 30 to 35 per cent support for years, given Shearers scandalous stuff up after the conference. Wasting economic knowledge, experience and talent Cunliffe has (besides of other areas) is completely irresponsible and idiotic.
But DS is enjoying the beach up north, taking it easy, surfing, playing guitar, grilling some chops and saussies, so prepare yourselves for more disappointments, as February is just a month away!
I dunno about red herrings. I’ve never seen why any age cutoff is not simply an arbitrary point between rationality (all capable people should vote) and absurdity (all 6-month-olds should vote).
Khandalla you have got to be one of the most on-message people I know. May you ever raise The Standard.
For me, contemplating the earth running my side of the lake this morning, there were two things that gave me hope last year.
The first was this site. It grew in strength and stature, and I met hundreds of simpatico voices. basic solidarity.
The second was the Asset Sales petitions. Just required me and many thousands to talk and talk and talk with many hundreds of people on a simple issue that most people agreed with.
Neither required any contact with caucus, or a single leader, or Parliament as a whole, or any faction, or constitutional rules, or anything like that, just needed volunteer time and basic commitment. Or polls or fictions or factions.
And both were the best outreach to the 800,000 non-vote that anyone mustered, anywhere. I can cope with doing more of those.
Sorry Ad but while the petition and marches have the feel good factor they haven’t stopped National’s plans to sell those assets.
The most effective way to kill the asset sales programme is to have a strong Opposition that makes it clear that they will consider reversing those sales. It will undermine the value imputed by the merchant bankers, the risk will be too high for investors and the costs of sale will be too high relative to the rewards. But you have to have an Opposition who believes in that approach and an Opposition leader able to communicate that astutely in economic terms. Unfortunately, Labour doesn’t have that so we must rely on the Greens for such messages/policies.
Yes, Benghazi, a simple statement by the leader of the opposition that the re-nationalisation of unique or monopoly class assets like the hydro-dams and electricity infrastructure will be a major red-flag highlight of he risk analysis by the Australian, US and Asian investment analysts.
The Labour Party had previously made a similar statement in respect of the ACC.
There is nothing wrong with someone bidding: the wrong is in the selling.
All potential buyers should be fully informed of the risks.
A clear statement by the major opposition party that any buy-back price will be market value capped at the sale price and CoF of 10% will be adequate.
Q.E.D.
I am not expecting a strong market-focussed signal of anything of Labour with Shearer leading and Robertson driving policy. Certainly no bold statements. Nor feom the Greens either on asset sales. So I expect the sales to continue and not a market murmur.
That was not, of course, my point.
I think Labour’s activist core are generally disheartened and want positive things to do, whatever the leadership does. So my inferred question was pointed only at why the hell anyone would continue in this godforsaken game when there is no detectable spine, soul, or heart in Labour.
Any MP I think who engaged on this site with any substance would harvest thousands of activists.
Disagree?
Ad I think that many on this site are disillusioned with Labour and, just as you have previously expressed yourself, are now looking closely at the Greens or others to see if there is a fit. Many are waiting till February to see if the trigger for a membership vote will happen. So in that sense they are hoping.
I think a February membership vote would be energising for the Party in a healthy cathartic way, drive good policy debate, and would give everyone the opportunity to unite around the membership’s choice of Leader. But I don’t see Shearer and his King/Mallard cohorts being prepared to open themselves to that or do anything except run their swords through any MPs not following their edicts.
What to do? If the members want a vote then they need to put real pressure on their relevant MPs and the Party hierachy.That means writing letters, copying those letters widely, even perhaps publishing them openly on this site, and an electronic petition for those members willing to publish their names? Do others have additional ideas?
It only takes 12 MPs to think that initiating the member vote is the best process to unite us all so Labour can win strongly in 2014. We are not asking MPs to select a Leader, we don’t even know at this stage who might put their name forward. Rather, we’re asking them to support the launch of the newly, democratic Labour Party. I’m a member of many varied organisations and my experience is that a healthy, robust organisation emerges following contested democratic elections, as opposed to back room deals done by a few office holders.
Isn’t this something more purposeful for disheartened members to strive for in the next 34 days till the first February caucus?
Only in the sense of watching a car-wreck in slow motion.
Its like whistle-blower legislation. Great for everyone else, and refreshing, but always ruinous for the whistleblower.
National should be politically dead now, and Labour mocking on their graves. Instead, belonging to Labour feels like belonging to the Cathloic church: you still go, but only out of the sense that those bastards running it do not touch my faith. And some of those bastards are evil.
I hope that communicates the level of disgust I have in them and their “renewal processes”.
My New Year wish? That I could block certain commentors. Wondering if anyone can modify the adblocking plugin in Firefox to do this or create one Troll blocker plugin specifically for the purpose?
Yea, sure….I could just scroll down. The thing is they tend to create strings of nasty responses back and forth using up my scrolling time and besides, I really don’t care what they think.
The below was a response by Auckland Council, about the $167m (loss) , stemming from the derivatives portfolio, bolds are my emphasis.
Firstly it needs to put into perspective against the scale of the Auckland region and Auckland Council.
· The Auckland region comprises 37% of National GDP and 34% of population.
· The role of Council is to provide infrastructure and other services to the region under the Local Government Act. As we plan to accommodate the large increase in population and the vision of making Auckland the most liveable city in the world we need to invest in infrastructure assets.
· Our approach to investing in infrastructure is to debt fund this investment and repay the debt back over the life of the asset.
· Council net assets at the Group level are currently $28.3 billion comprising assets of $35.7 billion and liabilities of $7.4 billion. Net Assets are expected to grow by $14.2 billion over the 10 year Long Term Plan period to June 2022 to $42.5 billion.
· Group revenue is currently $3.5 billion and forecast to grow to $5.12 billion p.a.
· Group finance costs are currently $268 million p.a. and forecast to grow to $745 million p.a.
A non-cash mark to market revaluation loss of $167 million on a derivatives portfolio of approximately $5 billion in size and borrowing requirement (including refinancing) over the next ten years of approximately $8.75 billion is not in the opinion of most finance professionals, either material or relevant.
Investors, credit rating agencies, auditors, advisors and banks are not concerned by this because of a number of factors that we have explained to them including;
· The forecast additional debt and associated interest expense needs to be managed in a prudent and conservative manner. Council has a Treasury Management Policy that outlines our approach to managing assets and liabilities. Furthermore, we have internal processes, procedures, governance and management controls to ensure our exposures are managed to best practice. Council receives external Treasury advice and engages with the major New Zealand banks. The government appointed auditor, Audit New Zealand has reviewed our approach to the use of derivatives and is very comfortable with the approach taken as it is in line with what other major organizations (both private sector and public sector) undertake.
· We believe that our Treasury team are resourced, experienced and capable of managing the exposures – the team were a finalist in the INFINZ awards for Excellence in Treasury in 2011 and our Treasurer was awarded the Kanga News Treasurer of the Year award in late 2011. Furthermore, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) in an unusual statement last week commented “In our view, Auckland Council’s own financial strength is evidenced by its strong treasury team and its approach to liquidity and debt management”. S&P rarely makes these types of public comments.
· Interest rate derivative products were first created in the 1980’s and it is true that some of these products have been used incorrectly, primarily for purposes they were not originally intended for – speculation. Auckland Council (and the predecessor councils) has always used these instruments only for hedging purposes (not for speculation) and within the parameters of its risk management policies. Council (like all other private and public sector borrowers) uses interest rate swaps primarily to lock in future borrowing rates and to provide certainty for forecasting purposes. This approach is prudent given the forecast borrowing programme of Council and its objective of maintaining a balanced operating budget annually. If interest rates were to rise and Council had not hedged its debt, the consequential increase in borrowing costs is considered to be riskier than the interest cost certainty that hedging gives, even if there is an “opportunity cost” should interest rates reduce.
Snap, micky. Just referred to the same post above in reply to Lynn.
This bit by Trotter is also spot on:
Mr Shearer seems to believe that having once been elected to the leadership of the Parliamentary Labour Party he is entitled to hold that position until he decides to relinquish it. In other words, Labour’s new constitutional procedures for confirming or changing the parliamentary leadership must now be set aside. Mr Shearer has signalled that any caucus member who even thinks (let alone suggests) that someone else might do a better job of leading the Opposition will be publicly disparaged and demoted.
Such authoritarian notions should be anathema to all political parties – especially social-democratic ones. …
The attitudes evinced by Mr Shearer and his backers have no place in such a democratic political organisation. They belong in princes’ courts: spawning courtiers not comrades; factionalism not solidarity.
karol – am relieved to see you back on track re Shearer, you had me worried for a bit! (I am sure you have looked up Cunliffe’s fantastic credentials, including Minister of Health). Labour members should be very, very worried by what could be descending upon them.
I don’t think I’ve changed my position that much. I just focus on the evidence available or that I am aware of at the time.
I’ve always said I think Cunliffe is very well qualified and skilled and should be on Labour’s front bench. I don’t know if he’d be a good caucus leader. But I also have many questions about Shearer and have continued to question what exactly his politics are. My biggest concern is not whether or not he has leadership abilities, but what his political views actually are.
News media or news massagers???, here’s the same news item viewed through the lens of 2 entirely different news organizations,
Early last week RadioNZ National broadcast a news item about a London fish seller who had made up a song he sang at the fish market in an attempt to sell fish,
As happens with these things, he got videoed, uploaded to Utube and the song immediately went viral, British immigration then took an interest in the fish seller and found He was not a legal immigrant and were going to deport Him,
A few days later TV1 News told the exact same story, except their fish seller had become such a celebrity after having His song go viral on Utube that He had given up selling fish so as to concentrate on His new music career,
One of the news organizations is obviously not telling the truth, there is no apparent reason why one of the news organizations would lie about such a minor story that has no direct bearing on anything that occurs in New Zealand,
Would ‘they’ lie to you???, you bet,continuously even when there is no ‘need’ just to condition you all to accept such lies as the truth…
RNZ, credible newspapers and online sources are Standard fare for this canines teeth to get stuck into. (I’ve negotiated an affordable rate and am going Unlimited from today, sooo, I’m gonna play
in the sand pit and throw some castles in the air) 🙂
He was on tv the other night, saying the jobless figures were his parties only bad mark.
Knowing that’s all bollocks, my mind wandered.
Is he still on holiday? Why did he dress in a suit and tie and pretend he was in an office?
If that is his office, given the ‘victory’ frame behind him, what a vain twat.
If that’s his holiday home, given the ‘victory’ frame behind him, what a vain twat.
Would have been less disingenuous and subliminal if he’d been there with his muffin top poking over his diplomatically protected speedos.
The tax on tobacco products also goes up today, Happy New years all you smokers from Slippery, the National Government, and how could we forget the Maori Party,(just because everyone else including their voters have),
2% of smokers will ‘give up’ using the product after such a price rise, 3 months after having given up use of the product an unmeasured but large % of that 2% will be back smoking as hard out as ever,(such is the nature of addiction),
98% of those using the product, unable to ‘give up’ such use will in the case of those with restricted low incomes have to ‘make savings’ elsewhere and as their ‘food budget’ is the only part of their income that has any discretionary spending in it then their ‘choice’ becomes one of an even ‘poorer diet’ or ‘the addiction’ and i would suggest you all find someone that is ‘addicted’ to anything and ask them given such a choice ‘addiction’ or ‘good food choices’ wins in such an equation,
Poor diet brought about by financial constraint will kill a lot more of the nations users of tobacco products one hell of a lot faster than the use of tobacco products will…
Well, it is the old assumption that everyone who smokes wants to give up.
But this link reckons a 4-7% success rate of cessation on any given attempt, so essentially the government’s predicting that half to a third of smokers will try to quit because of the tax hike.
The rest just put up with subsidisng the government’s economic incompetence while being treated like paedophilic lepers.
By Quitlines own admission from the first line of the Chairman’s report they reach fewer than 9% of the smoking population, i am sure you can then work out from Professor whats-his-faces figure of a 10% success rate the actual numbers of those who manage to quit what has been a product with addictive qualities as strong or stronger than Heroin,
What i cannot find figures for is the actual number of young people who despite all the INFORMATION still take up smoking and become the next generation of addicts, and, as i can find no figures for such i am going to suggest that (a), for every person that has quit a young person has become addicted, and (b), the Government knows this, chooses to be blind to it and refuses to collect and publish such data as to do so would reveal it’s taxation of tobacco products as a failure to incentivize people not to use tobacco products and simply a revenue grabbing exercise which takes the food off of the tables of those addicted,
There is only one means to stop the use of tobacco products and that is to register all those who are presently addicted to the product with their doctors as addicts and then ban anyone else from access to the product…
ASH do school surveys, for whatever they’re worth.
As for banning tobacco, piss off. I might go to hell early, but I’ll pick my own damned method, ta very much. Oh, and before you bring up passive smoking, I remind you that given there is pretty much nowhere outside my own home that I can smoke indoors, it’s now a bullshit factor. Play me a violin.
Shall i clarify the last paragraph of my previous comment???, there is only way to stop mass tobacco use into the future, that is to have all present users register as addicts with their doctors so as to allow them to continue their use and ban all those not registered at a cut-off date the purchase of the product,
Have we been on the turps a touch too much Mac, why would i bother mentioning passive smoking which seems to me as being an attempt to demonize those who smoke as a health initiative, and, if your memory can be stretched to a point past 5 minutes it has been me that has taken to (at times)picking holes in what the anti-smoking zealots and the media put out there as the gospel on smoking,
It is a FACT that the majority of us when our time comes to snuff it will in fact succumb to one form of cancer or another, something that mostly goes unmentioned by the anti-smoking zealots and at best considering that ‘averages’ can have wild fluctuations in-built in the ‘averaging’, those who have smoked will die of cancers at much the same rate as the rest of the population but averages would have that death on ‘average’ occur 5 years earlier than those who have never smoked…
Why stop tobacco use indeed, of course you mean why have i put up an alternative to the obvious FAILURE of the Governments supposed means of stopping tobacco use, simply to show the utter bullshit inherent in using the pricing mechanism as a means to stop the mass of those who smoke from doing so,
My favorite piece of shock horror from the anti-smoking zealots has to be the yearly deaths from lung cancer, 10% of lung cancer deaths every year are from smokers, betcha the other 90% of those who die of that particular cancer ever year wish now they had smoked like friggin chimneys…
Or the other ‘goody’ that was fashionable among the anti-smokers for a while, ‘tobacco is a product that kills half it’s users’,
Considering the numbers of those who do not and have never used the product who will die of one form of cancer or another the exact same thing could be said about ‘air’…
In Stuff this morning a short article ” Give Hekia Parata the sack’ Some good comments but one by ‘collhug’ was very interesting, mentioning the Charter School Scam and John Banks’ involvement but also this:
“NOVAPAY (fair & proper tender??????)
The Hon John Banks Family Trust has not held shares in Talent2 International Limited since 28 May 2012 when Talent2 moved to privatise the company and de-list from the Australian stock exchange. Mr Banks advised the Cabinet Office of the sale of his Family Trust’s shares on 29 May 2012.(press release J B )”
You have to begin to wonder, and this has been mentioned on the Standard befor, whether or not the abysmal cluster-f**k that National have made of Education hasn’t been a deliberate series of chaotic coincidence designed to destabilize the Education sector,
Setting up ‘charter schools’ in the minds of the nut jobs, the likes of Banks et al, possibly has at it’s heart not the actual building of schools, more than likely the thinking is that if ‘they’ can get schools to ‘fail’ to the point of having a Commissioner installed then ‘they’ could turn such schools into ‘charter schools’ having use of the buildings and the budgets by default…
Good point. All the government negativity about education is demoralising teachers. Principals have to spend more time supporting teachers because of it. All this time and energy could have otherwise been spent by teachers and principals enjoying their jobs.
Tension
-pulling together (no, not soggy biscuit)
-pressure in vapours
-Electro-motive force
-(state of barely suppressed e-motion; excitement, surprise, and a few less helpful ones too)
-strain-with resultant symptoms (psych.)
-strained relations between persons
-opposition between conflicting ideas or forces
Tensile
-stretching (not the foreskin or labia) foreward
Tensible
-capable of being stretched (or exaggerated in some sites’ case) 😉
Tension Rod-a structural member subjected to tensile stress only
Tense; present, Future, or, Living In The Past (which does have some great tracks though)
First the news,
-More fires
-Script subsidy increases
-Drugged drivers (the stories i could tell ;))
Pi’s Life
Parker Richard a clerical error. Product Placement; Camus L’Etranger and Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground (thats what i think). “Lord, Thank You for my Life.The carnivorous island that Day and Night took away. Day destroys the night, night divides the day. Which story do you prefer? mankind or island in your arms, country in your eyes. Kingdom.”wise men seek peace, history is war”
RNZ-analysts are still not optimistic looking over the cliff; may bunji back to where they lept from
sooner rather than later; ratifications from the Republicans is a Slow Train Coming (more than technicalities) Five days is forever, forever and a day, gotta go to work on Monday (scheming to change the world). I hear slander, libel, I hear words I never heard in the bible, just one step ahead of the shoeshines.Fishermans’ Blues (The Water Boys) wish I was a fisherman, sailed beyond the past, these chains will be loosened and fall away at last. We live in a wheel where everyone steals but when we rise it’s like Strawberry Fields. Camping New Zealand; Do not pass Go. Community Chest the Monopoly, divide the Duopoly. Time spent shopping around is money saved. Think I’m going to Katmandu, thats really really what I’m going to do, If I ever get out of here, thats what I’m gonna do. You tell one person and they tell one person, thats the Faberge organic connection.
RNZ-people emotionally motivated by “expectations” of tomorrow. Worry not.Each day has enough troubles of it’s own. Natural, healthy disgust is manipulated into social exclusion.Well, conservatism can be disgusting and some avoid it like the plague. He’s got Gary Cooper’s eyes, He’ll “believe” you, He’ll deceive you. Anything Could Happen by The Clean. They’re accounting to cheat 2 3 4 5…Just keeping things “neat” to be Alive.I’m lookin’ at you, you’re lookin at me. Bee a Stealthy Bomber. So you think you can tell, Heaven from Hell, Blue Skies from Pain, can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail, Cold Comfort from change. That was my Mistake, that was my miss Stake ache, that was my missed steak. As falls Wichita, so falls Wichita falls-Pat Metheny Group Falls Into You-Mazzy Star-Amen (Did ya get healed?) off Poetic Champions Compose. Let go into the mystery…just let yourself go.
On the Horizon research; one half of households believe their income will drop (some significantly) in 013. Hey There Mr Blue Sky, how’s that “bright future” coming along? The sun is eclipsed by the Moon; the Key is not to lie too soon. Rainman pisses on amerika. Takin’ The Bible “literally” need ya head read. Fall of the house of Ussher. Poe-faced the swinging pendulum. The Harder They Come the harder they fall, one and all. Nothin like the chase to sweet decline, no ones gettin’ out of here alive this time. It’s a shame we have to die so dear, what a way to go, but have no fear. False Evidence Appearing Real. The beginning of Wisdom…? In Isolation, where are the young men, away from these shores, where are the young men, economic casualties, playthings in fat cats paws, a weight on their shoulders. Minesheads revisited. Decline and Fall.
Warne out. Vineyard Choppers chop Pink Frost. They’re so scared. Alcohol Reform, as if anyone cared. Dead duck, Cold in the water. For Now. For Today, I remember your smile Schizophrenic uncle smothered by maternal infection. The Divided Self. History of The Bicameral Mind. A R D
Fairburn, burn baby burn. Seasons don’t Fear The Reaper, Nor’ do The Wind, The Son or The Rain (we can be like they are) Then the door was opened and the wind appeared. New Blood joins this earth and quickly they’re subdued through constant pained disgrace The Young Ones learn their rules.
New Year Dissolution; of Southland water catchments. Liar Liar, pants on fire. Babylons Burning.
The Ruts are well worn out. Side with amerika, side with amerika, Where The Streets Have No Name. L.A Confidential. Mr Bronze, Mr Green and Mr In-Between.
11.6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful ones are trapped by evil desires..
11.8 With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbour, but through knowledge the righteous escape.
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
Will 2013 be the year serious action against climate change begins in this country?
Though it is not widely known, or admitted, even by themselves, the Green party has backed off raising the issue of climate change.
It is not, that the reality of the danger has passed, far from it.
It is because they are seeking a political accommodation with the Labour party.
In exchange for cabinet positions in the next government the Greens are preparing to give away their opposition to government policies that contribute to climate change.
Russel Norman “wants the Minister of Finance job and his MPs to get a third of the seats in cabinet.” TV3 News
In her post commenting on the Green Party retrospective delivered by Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei, TS author Karol writes:
“I was particularly impressed with Turei’s focus on child poverty, and the need for a more fair and equal society.
“However, on the debit side. Turei did not once mention the urgent matter of climate change.
In my opinion, for an environmental party this is unacceptable. This is not an oversight, this is a deliberate and glaring omission.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Green-Party-continues-to-push-Government/tabid/370/articleID/280880/Default.aspx
Coal has been identified as the number 1 causative factor in climate change by James Hansen, NASA’s chief climate scientist. Hansen says that if we are to have any chance of arresting runaway climate change, coal use must be seriously curtailed. Despite this fact, the Labour Party are fully committed to expanding the coal industry in this country.
In contrast, it is Green Party policy to oppose any new coal mines.
However, in practice the Greens are giving up their opposition to new coal mines.
It is Green Party policy to make New Zealand coal free by 2020. However without any clear strategy for proceeding from where we are now, to achieving this goal, the policy from Greens to make New Zealand “Coal Free”, can only be said to be, “Aspirational”. (In the John Key sense of the word).
I my opinion, as a concrete step to achieving a “Coal Free” New Zealand by 2020, the Green Party should give up their lobbying for cabinet positions, instead they should concentrate their efforts on lobbying the Labour Party to give up their support for new coal mines. This should be the number one condition for any coalition agreement with Labour.
Yes the glittering career path of some Green MPs may be affected, and yes this may even cost the Green Party some votes.
But what is more important?
Cabinet Positions, or concrete concessions to take action against climate change?
2013 – Time for the Green Party to decide.
Yes, Information from TV3 news, the same people that brought you ‘the Cunliffe coup at Conference’,
When will you learn that 3 news is not speaking on behalf of the Green Party…
Yes, there’s always the possibility that TV3 edited out any reference to climate change or the environment.
In the RNZ interview,/a> on the same day as the TV3 one, Metiria Turei said environment is one of their 3 intertwined central planks: economy, child poverty, environment.
Of course, the MSM has difficulty grasping the way they are intertwined, and tend to focus more on the economy. The challenge for the Green Party is to get all 3 of their planks heard more and understood.
Unfortunately for the Greens, even the climate change denying, ACT Party have an equally vague environment policy plank.
To say that you care for the environment is to say nothing at all. For the Green Party to mention, (as an after thought) that the environment is one of their 3 “intertwined” planks, while refusing to specifically acknowledge climate change as the number one environmental problem facing us. Is in my opinion level with ACT’s likewise non-specific pledge to ” implement practical and innovative ways to protect the natural environment”. A very low threshold indeed. So low, they risk becoming a laughing stock.
All brought to you by, the obnoxious school boy Gower!
That would be the same James Hanson who derided Germany for abandoning its new Nuclear programme following the Fukushima disaster!
Maybe have a look at the motivations (lobbying money flow) behind these people Jenny, then ask yourself if they are clean!
I guess that Nuclear catastrophies are seen as not so bad eh!
I guess that climate change isn’t the most serious issue facing the world then. Nuclear power -really bad. Catastrophic climate change – not so bad. Thanks for clearing that up for us.
Ooooorrrrrr….. Nuclear disasters: bad.
Catastrophic climate change: bad
You: incredibly dense.
Morning Everyone. A fresh year to do with what we please.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?;
I don’t bloody think so. Let’s rip Key a new one this year.
My wish is for the Left to come together to start building momentum towards 2014. Time for us to stop looking inwards and start looking outwards.
Banksies fav tune?
Happy New Year to All?
The changes that occurred in our society over the past three decades have made the “kiwi dream” a sham. The huge widening of the gap between richer and poorer and the massive increase in emigration are the obvious and easily measured ones. More insidious is that far more members of each household are working longer hours and years in less secure and poorer paid employment. Kiwis are doing it hard, so hard that 800,000 did not vote.
This now requires an early and fundamental set of new policies for a new-deal society.
That 800,000 does not show up in the marketing strategist’s reports. They don’t come into the reckoning when the analysts are calculating whether the left vote of A+B+C will surpass the right vote of D+E. Nor do they articulate themselves well in “focus ” groups”.
No, the voice of the 800,000 can be heard through the supporters/members of the Labour Party. The upside to the Conference is that Labour has won the opportunity to brand itself at the most democratic Party with the constitution and structure to act as a grass-roots-up one.
We can win the next election only with the help of the 800,000. We have to be genuinely part of them to be their voice. When we have policies and leadership that makes us relevant to them, they will believe that we can make that fundamental change towards a new fair-deal society.
Election Cycles! An excuse for laziness and also a sense of entitlement. My turn to Rule! National ain’t going to hand power on a plate.
The Left Vote? Boll•cks. The Greens are not about the 800,000. That is Labour’s space and we must make them central to ALL of our policies, strategies and tactics.
2013 has to be a new start for Labour.
No more innocuous palp that ignores the 800,000 and alienates the active members.
”The Greens are not about the 800,000”, really???, if the previous 2 elections were to be used as a gauge Labour’s past and present policies have failed sensationally to move the 800,000,
My view is that voting every 3 years is a right and a DUTY, i see no valid reason why voting every 3 years should not be compulsory…
Good to see that compulsion default setting coming through. The party will be proud.
Is it not compulsory to be registered to vote???…
What, other than the obvious removal of the right to exercise free will you mean, whats left of it!
Sounds like you may believe voting makes a difference, in case you missed, it makes no difference in the greater scheme of things!
Perhaps it makes a little differnce to some along the journey, but the outcomes are the same, so why the hell would it be acceptable to force people to vote for their own demise!
Note: I can understand why people might see benefit in forced voting, deperation for change comes to mind, but FORCING, is not the answer!
do you vote muzza?
for me Mana IS an alternative party to vote for as I agree with their kaupapa and values. Some say it is a waste – look at the polls and so on but they are wrong IMO. People make the difference, individuals working collectivelly.
+1
If people don’t like a party then they can, and should, vote for another party.
Given your reply it would then be ‘pointless’ to be discussing politics and policy here on the Standard, because by your reasoning if voting changes nothing commenting on-line would change even less and we all should subscribe to ‘home and garden’ and discuss issues relevant to present and past issues of that…
Hi Marty – Its about having the choice to vote, or not – The question was nothing to do with voting/not, or who for.
I agree with your sentiment about people making the difference, working collectively etc. If there was a framework for change to better NZ, I would seriously consider putting my support/energy behind it, as I have said on here many times previously. Mana may or may not be that, too soon to tell for me, but some encouragement can be had from the movement so far.
B12 – Agree completely, the discussion around policy is mostly pointless, albeit interesting, as we see that the policies which further denegrate NZ are implemented/forced through etc anyway, against the best interests of NZ, and its peoples
.
That is why my comments around policy are limited to comments about addressing the *core issue*, which is the monetary supply/control by the NZ government/treasury, and audit/investigation into the *independence* of the RBNZ/OoDM.
Until the issue of monetary/debt control is addressed, policy discussions/directions are moot, and little good can come from even beneficial policy regardless, as it will always have the equivilant opposite policy to off-set any overall longer term positive benefit, hence continuing the negative trending in the NZ inc statistics!
While policy is driven by monetary/debt position as under current conditions., without addressing monetary control, NZ will continue to slide at increasing velocity!
In any case my response was around your statement that you can *see no valid reason why voting every 3 years should not be compulsory* – Which I disagreed with!
yep indeed muzza
the compulsion question is moot if people don’t think there is a party to vote for – it then becomes a rubbish collection of defaced voting papers.
From memory, Marty, the ‘donkey vote’ in Oz is around 2% and a further 1% don’t vote despite it being compulsory. Compulsory voting works well there so I see no problems bringing it in here.
It’s more like 3-8%;
http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/Informal_Voting/summary.htm
Watching it from the sidelines for a change, that was what impressed the hell out of me. It was rather overtaken in the media by whoever the silly arse in caucus decided to use it to take out Cunliffe in a tediously juvenile power play*. But it was definitely the best conference I have attended in terms of getting some work done.
* It was almost as stupid as the similar play in 2007/8 to try to take out NZF. That didn’t work either. Quite simply you cannot externally destroy constituencies or patterns of political thought in a MMP environment with dumbarse power plays. It simply doesn’t work because people will move their votes to counter such game plays. The only effective way to destroy political factions is for them to fall apart internally – Act being te most recent example.
Lynn, Chris Trotter’s latest post, The Lazarus Option says something similar.
But, as Mickysavage points out on the Year in review thread, it’s worth considering why such violent metaphors are used to describe politics.
I will go and have a read of it.
Whilst musing over the last year in the last few days, that was the thing in the local political world that stood out for me as being the weirdess. This was in a remarkably politially weird year. A tactically well implemented play, it was so utterly inept at a strategic level.
All it really did for me was to highlight the lack of clear direction inside the Labour caucus, who instead seemed to be pissing about with such silly games. While literally at the same time that the party organisation was busy with the largest and most productive renewal I have ever seen. The political contrast between the two main parts of Labour could not have been starker.
Not to mention the contrast in the effective utilization of resources. The party organisation was literally doing this on a shoestring. Meanwhile the caucus with all of the support of parliamentary services appeared to be quite limited on what they could achieve in connecting to that massive constituency of unenrolled and enrolled non-voters lost to elections since 2005. That group have a pretty typical response when asked why they don’t vote any more – it is because they don’t see any real hope arising from the act of voting.
LPrent, am I imagining things, or have your views moved to the left in the past few years since the beginning of The Standard?
Not really. As I have mentioned a few times previously, I’m a political pragmatist who looks at the longer term rather than the short term. What I’m looking for are things that are likely to work efficiently to solve or at least alleviate current or future problems. Most of that is simply providing routes of opportunity for people and especially their kids to use. Providing services like mostly free adult education were extremely efficient providers. Creating motorways in an era of increasing fuel costs and falling road usage for the taxpayer support of contributors is not.
I want to see the tens of thousands of dollars I contribute to the commonweal to be used effectively. Frittering them away on trivialities like the Labour caucus appears to be doing just offends me. It also gives me little confidience that they will be more effective if on the treasury benches. So I’ll shift my vote to a partner that looks more effective.
Perhaps this is an appropriate time to resurrect that Duncan Garner blog. The one which started the ball rolling…
http://www.3news.co.nz/Opinion-Why-does-Labour-hate-David-Cunliffe-so-much/tabid/1135/articleID/264472/Default.aspx
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was following those ‘revelations’, that David Shearer was asked if he planned to demote Cunliffe. He laughed it off and made reference to Cunliffe being far too valuable. His response struck me as being genuine and, at that point anyway, I have to wonder how much he had known of the covert ABC club activities. It almost seems to me that the publishing of the Garner article – together with a concentrated campaign by Cunliffe’s caucus enemies – is what convinced Shearer that Cunliffe was planning a coup.
The set-up of Cunliffe at the Conference (aided and abetted by an eager MSM) would have sealed the suspicion for him. If I’m right, then Shearer may have learned a very valuable political lesson. His actions in the coming 2 to 3 months will give us the answers we seek.
I’m not convinced that Shearer wasn’t part of the turn against Cunliffe as signaled by the Garner blog you linked to, Anne. The leak to Garner seems to have come right from the top. There’s this bit in the blog post:
Hi karol,
I’m not saying he wasn’t part of the turn against Cunliffe. I just wonder whether he was fully conversant with what was going on behind the scenes. It might have caused him to be a bit suspicious of the ABC club’s modus operandi – or at least some of those within it.
Not quite correct.
Yes, he was encouraged to demote him when he became Labour’s leader, and he came within a hair-breadth of doing so. In other words, he had ‘fallen in behind’ what he was being told by Cunliffe’s caucus enemies. Commonsense did prevail in the end. We will have to wait and see if it prevails again.
You may be right, Anne, but, on the other hand your quote suggests that all along, Shearer has made his own decisions. There is a use of ruthless tactics that seem to have started under Shearer. He is after all someone who, with little parliamentary experience, backed himself to be leader. This suggests a certain amount of strength.
Team Shearer only turned against Cunliffe when he continued to get support from the membership, while Shearer continued to get criticised. The strategies became particularly ruthless when the membership voted for democratisation. The strategy against Cunliffe was to reinforce Shearer’s power, and, along the way, make him look decisive to the public, via the MSM.
Now that the opposition, including within the membership, still can’t be silenced, it looks like the ABC leaders are the ones to be sacrificed. There’s quite a ruthless pattern there, and, my trust having been dented by the above happenings, I am not convinced Shearer is that blameless.
I agree with your analysis. There is certainly an element of ruthlessness that I find abhorrent and I agree Shearer has been part of it. Don’t think for a moment
that it only started under Shearer. It has been there since the 1980s but Helen Clark kept it well under control.
The key word in that quote of Duncan Garner’s is resisted. Actually he didn’t resist. My understanding from what I heard at the time is: Shearer was all set to demote Cunliffe but at the last minute wiser counsel (and I don’t know who it was, or what was said) reached Shearer and he changed his mind.
It puts a slightly different complexion on Garner’s take of what happened, which (of course) came from the mallarfia and associates.
I can’t say more except to say my source for the above is likely to be more accurate than Garner’s sources.
My views on Shearer have changed a bit having looked at his CV and his involvement in being a consultant, researcher, and adviser of intelligence and military strategy. So, while he may be a novice in NZ’s parliament, he is a strategic thinker, and one prepared to suggest coercion in certain circumstances.
It looks to me that the most recent moves are in the form of a charm offensive re-the membership.
But, I still don’t know what Shearer’s political values are. That gives me pause. Especially as he might negotiate some policies with membership now, in order to get them onside for the election campaign. But, as Clark did on closing the gaps, he could be just as likely to change tack when a PM.
Karol: I just read it!
Trotter is absolutely onto it with his new blog posting of today. The early part of this year will be the very last chance for possibly years to come, for Labour – and especially it’s caucus – to sort itself out once and for all by February 2013.
Shearer has shown that he is not a smart, strong, competent leader by demoting Cunliffe the way he did, and by stripping him off all spokespersons’ responsibilities, banning him to the back bench.
Shearer panicked and made a stupid, in principal also undemocratic decision, out of fear for the media’s reporting, which was without real basis.
The very last chance for Shearer will be to get Cunliffe back into a top role through a re-shuffle, to engage him and to bind him into the team, so that he will improve team skills. Of course the other – less likely – chance chance will be, that Shearer will call a vote on leadership and any likely challenger anyway, to face the challenge.
As I do not at all expect that the not so confident, weak Shearer will feel safe and happy to go for that second last chance, only the last one can be hoped for.
All else will likely mean that Labour will continue to sit around 30 to 35 per cent support for years, given Shearers scandalous stuff up after the conference. Wasting economic knowledge, experience and talent Cunliffe has (besides of other areas) is completely irresponsible and idiotic.
But DS is enjoying the beach up north, taking it easy, surfing, playing guitar, grilling some chops and saussies, so prepare yourselves for more disappointments, as February is just a month away!
Should we make voting in New Zealand like Australia – Compulsory,
and listen to the Greens to make the voting age 16 ?
Why should you discriminate against those intelligent 15/14/13/12/10…. year olds. They have rights too you know.
Are you seriously advocating for the voting age to go down to 15 then? Or are you just waving red herrings around?
I dunno about red herrings. I’ve never seen why any age cutoff is not simply an arbitrary point between rationality (all capable people should vote) and absurdity (all 6-month-olds should vote).
Khandalla you have got to be one of the most on-message people I know. May you ever raise The Standard.
For me, contemplating the earth running my side of the lake this morning, there were two things that gave me hope last year.
The first was this site. It grew in strength and stature, and I met hundreds of simpatico voices. basic solidarity.
The second was the Asset Sales petitions. Just required me and many thousands to talk and talk and talk with many hundreds of people on a simple issue that most people agreed with.
Neither required any contact with caucus, or a single leader, or Parliament as a whole, or any faction, or constitutional rules, or anything like that, just needed volunteer time and basic commitment. Or polls or fictions or factions.
And both were the best outreach to the 800,000 non-vote that anyone mustered, anywhere. I can cope with doing more of those.
They, not caucus, will me on this year.
Sorry Ad but while the petition and marches have the feel good factor they haven’t stopped National’s plans to sell those assets.
The most effective way to kill the asset sales programme is to have a strong Opposition that makes it clear that they will consider reversing those sales. It will undermine the value imputed by the merchant bankers, the risk will be too high for investors and the costs of sale will be too high relative to the rewards. But you have to have an Opposition who believes in that approach and an Opposition leader able to communicate that astutely in economic terms. Unfortunately, Labour doesn’t have that so we must rely on the Greens for such messages/policies.
Yes, Benghazi, a simple statement by the leader of the opposition that the re-nationalisation of unique or monopoly class assets like the hydro-dams and electricity infrastructure will be a major red-flag highlight of he risk analysis by the Australian, US and Asian investment analysts.
The Labour Party had previously made a similar statement in respect of the ACC.
There is nothing wrong with someone bidding: the wrong is in the selling.
All potential buyers should be fully informed of the risks.
A clear statement by the major opposition party that any buy-back price will be market value capped at the sale price and CoF of 10% will be adequate.
Q.E.D.
I am not expecting a strong market-focussed signal of anything of Labour with Shearer leading and Robertson driving policy. Certainly no bold statements. Nor feom the Greens either on asset sales. So I expect the sales to continue and not a market murmur.
That was not, of course, my point.
I think Labour’s activist core are generally disheartened and want positive things to do, whatever the leadership does. So my inferred question was pointed only at why the hell anyone would continue in this godforsaken game when there is no detectable spine, soul, or heart in Labour.
Any MP I think who engaged on this site with any substance would harvest thousands of activists.
Disagree?
Ad I think that many on this site are disillusioned with Labour and, just as you have previously expressed yourself, are now looking closely at the Greens or others to see if there is a fit. Many are waiting till February to see if the trigger for a membership vote will happen. So in that sense they are hoping.
I think a February membership vote would be energising for the Party in a healthy cathartic way, drive good policy debate, and would give everyone the opportunity to unite around the membership’s choice of Leader. But I don’t see Shearer and his King/Mallard cohorts being prepared to open themselves to that or do anything except run their swords through any MPs not following their edicts.
What to do? If the members want a vote then they need to put real pressure on their relevant MPs and the Party hierachy.That means writing letters, copying those letters widely, even perhaps publishing them openly on this site, and an electronic petition for those members willing to publish their names? Do others have additional ideas?
It only takes 12 MPs to think that initiating the member vote is the best process to unite us all so Labour can win strongly in 2014. We are not asking MPs to select a Leader, we don’t even know at this stage who might put their name forward. Rather, we’re asking them to support the launch of the newly, democratic Labour Party. I’m a member of many varied organisations and my experience is that a healthy, robust organisation emerges following contested democratic elections, as opposed to back room deals done by a few office holders.
Isn’t this something more purposeful for disheartened members to strive for in the next 34 days till the first February caucus?
I think you might find that the requirement is 40% of the Labour caucus which translates as 14 MPs.
Only in the sense of watching a car-wreck in slow motion.
Its like whistle-blower legislation. Great for everyone else, and refreshing, but always ruinous for the whistleblower.
National should be politically dead now, and Labour mocking on their graves. Instead, belonging to Labour feels like belonging to the Cathloic church: you still go, but only out of the sense that those bastards running it do not touch my faith. And some of those bastards are evil.
I hope that communicates the level of disgust I have in them and their “renewal processes”.
amen to all three of you-honourable mentions in despatches
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
My New Year wish? That I could block certain commentors. Wondering if anyone can modify the adblocking plugin in Firefox to do this or create one Troll blocker plugin specifically for the purpose?
Yea, sure….I could just scroll down. The thing is they tend to create strings of nasty responses back and forth using up my scrolling time and besides, I really don’t care what they think.
Firstly it needs to put into perspective against the scale of the Auckland region and Auckland Council.
· The Auckland region comprises 37% of National GDP and 34% of population.
· The role of Council is to provide infrastructure and other services to the region under the Local Government Act. As we plan to accommodate the large increase in population and the vision of making Auckland the most liveable city in the world we need to invest in infrastructure assets.
· Our approach to investing in infrastructure is to debt fund this investment and repay the debt back over the life of the asset.
· Council net assets at the Group level are currently $28.3 billion comprising assets of $35.7 billion and liabilities of $7.4 billion. Net Assets are expected to grow by $14.2 billion over the 10 year Long Term Plan period to June 2022 to $42.5 billion.
· Group revenue is currently $3.5 billion and forecast to grow to $5.12 billion p.a.
· Group finance costs are currently $268 million p.a. and forecast to grow to $745 million p.a.
A non-cash mark to market revaluation loss of $167 million on a derivatives portfolio of approximately $5 billion in size and borrowing requirement (including refinancing) over the next ten years of approximately $8.75 billion is not in the opinion of most finance professionals, either material or relevant.
Investors, credit rating agencies, auditors, advisors and banks are not concerned by this because of a number of factors that we have explained to them including;
· The forecast additional debt and associated interest expense needs to be managed in a prudent and conservative manner. Council has a Treasury Management Policy that outlines our approach to managing assets and liabilities. Furthermore, we have internal processes, procedures, governance and management controls to ensure our exposures are managed to best practice. Council receives external Treasury advice and engages with the major New Zealand banks. The government appointed auditor, Audit New Zealand has reviewed our approach to the use of derivatives and is very comfortable with the approach taken as it is in line with what other major organizations (both private sector and public sector) undertake.
· We believe that our Treasury team are resourced, experienced and capable of managing the exposures – the team were a finalist in the INFINZ awards for Excellence in Treasury in 2011 and our Treasurer was awarded the Kanga News Treasurer of the Year award in late 2011. Furthermore, credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) in an unusual statement last week commented “In our view, Auckland Council’s own financial strength is evidenced by its strong treasury team and its approach to liquidity and debt management”. S&P rarely makes these types of public comments.
· Interest rate derivative products were first created in the 1980’s and it is true that some of these products have been used incorrectly, primarily for purposes they were not originally intended for – speculation. Auckland Council (and the predecessor councils) has always used these instruments only for hedging purposes (not for speculation) and within the parameters of its risk management policies. Council (like all other private and public sector borrowers) uses interest rate swaps primarily to lock in future borrowing rates and to provide certainty for forecasting purposes. This approach is prudent given the forecast borrowing programme of Council and its objective of maintaining a balanced operating budget annually. If interest rates were to rise and Council had not hedged its debt, the consequential increase in borrowing costs is considered to be riskier than the interest cost certainty that hedging gives, even if there is an “opportunity cost” should interest rates reduce.
S&P make their comments on Auckland City’s finance because they know that any deficits are guaranteed by the Ratepayers = 34% of the population.
QED
That does not account for the *unusual* S&P statement, think about it!
And Chris Trotter poses an interesting question, why should David Shearer have the right to demand unflattering loyalty?
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/the-lazarus-option.html?m=1
Snap, micky. Just referred to the same post above in reply to Lynn.
This bit by Trotter is also spot on:
Thanks Karol. I meant to say “unfaltering” but my iPad decided to change it …
Seeing suicide nets at apple factories is enough to stop me from ever owning one of their products.
I know TA but they are so shiny and pretty …
And overpriced, Faulty and fragile. I’ll stick to an Android one for about 1/3rd of the price And way better Apps and updates. Thank you.
karol – am relieved to see you back on track re Shearer, you had me worried for a bit! (I am sure you have looked up Cunliffe’s fantastic credentials, including Minister of Health). Labour members should be very, very worried by what could be descending upon them.
I don’t think I’ve changed my position that much. I just focus on the evidence available or that I am aware of at the time.
I’ve always said I think Cunliffe is very well qualified and skilled and should be on Labour’s front bench. I don’t know if he’d be a good caucus leader. But I also have many questions about Shearer and have continued to question what exactly his politics are. My biggest concern is not whether or not he has leadership abilities, but what his political views actually are.
Gods, I’m starting off 2013 in complete air-punching agreement with Chris Trotter. I feel wrong.
I’ve always agreed with trotter on some, if not many things. It’s when he gets on to gender and ‘race’ or Maori politics that I disagree with him.
Thats okay, he will get back to his regular service soon.
at least you are not head full of air Medusa
News media or news massagers???, here’s the same news item viewed through the lens of 2 entirely different news organizations,
Early last week RadioNZ National broadcast a news item about a London fish seller who had made up a song he sang at the fish market in an attempt to sell fish,
As happens with these things, he got videoed, uploaded to Utube and the song immediately went viral, British immigration then took an interest in the fish seller and found He was not a legal immigrant and were going to deport Him,
A few days later TV1 News told the exact same story, except their fish seller had become such a celebrity after having His song go viral on Utube that He had given up selling fish so as to concentrate on His new music career,
One of the news organizations is obviously not telling the truth, there is no apparent reason why one of the news organizations would lie about such a minor story that has no direct bearing on anything that occurs in New Zealand,
Would ‘they’ lie to you???, you bet,continuously even when there is no ‘need’ just to condition you all to accept such lies as the truth…
And I see this morning’s NZ Herald editorial has bit of Shearer cheer-leading embedded in it, based on no evidence whatsoever.
What kind of evidence is actually available?
Not just massaging or lying, flat out making stuff up!
Reality TV, has of course played its part is assisting with the widening gap in peoples ability to disseminate fact from fiction!
People need to stop watching tv, reading the glossies, and the *news*, its all 100% designed to remove your ability to think!
RNZ, credible newspapers and online sources are Standard fare for this canines teeth to get stuck into. (I’ve negotiated an affordable rate and am going Unlimited from today, sooo, I’m gonna play
in the sand pit and throw some castles in the air) 🙂
-She sells sea shells on the sea shore
National’s Happy New Year to you all = prescriptions at the chemist’s will change from 3 dollars an item to 5 dollars an item from today,
Slippery’s New Years gift to one and all….
He was on tv the other night, saying the jobless figures were his parties only bad mark.
Knowing that’s all bollocks, my mind wandered.
Is he still on holiday? Why did he dress in a suit and tie and pretend he was in an office?
If that is his office, given the ‘victory’ frame behind him, what a vain twat.
If that’s his holiday home, given the ‘victory’ frame behind him, what a vain twat.
Would have been less disingenuous and subliminal if he’d been there with his muffin top poking over his diplomatically protected speedos.
The tax on tobacco products also goes up today, Happy New years all you smokers from Slippery, the National Government, and how could we forget the Maori Party,(just because everyone else including their voters have),
2% of smokers will ‘give up’ using the product after such a price rise, 3 months after having given up use of the product an unmeasured but large % of that 2% will be back smoking as hard out as ever,(such is the nature of addiction),
98% of those using the product, unable to ‘give up’ such use will in the case of those with restricted low incomes have to ‘make savings’ elsewhere and as their ‘food budget’ is the only part of their income that has any discretionary spending in it then their ‘choice’ becomes one of an even ‘poorer diet’ or ‘the addiction’ and i would suggest you all find someone that is ‘addicted’ to anything and ask them given such a choice ‘addiction’ or ‘good food choices’ wins in such an equation,
Poor diet brought about by financial constraint will kill a lot more of the nations users of tobacco products one hell of a lot faster than the use of tobacco products will…
“98% of those using the product, unable to ‘give up’ ”
Link please.
Well, it is the old assumption that everyone who smokes wants to give up.
But this link reckons a 4-7% success rate of cessation on any given attempt, so essentially the government’s predicting that half to a third of smokers will try to quit because of the tax hike.
The rest just put up with subsidisng the government’s economic incompetence while being treated like paedophilic lepers.
Here you go,
”Fewer than 10% of those who try manage to quit smoking”,
The Google = Number of quit smoking attempts key to success/ Scoop news.
http://www.scoop.co.nz>health
”Our service is reaching nearly 9% of the smoking population”.
Google = Quitline annual review 2011 (PDF)-Quitline New Zealand
http://www.quit.org.nz/file/quit-ar2011-lo-pdf
By Quitlines own admission from the first line of the Chairman’s report they reach fewer than 9% of the smoking population, i am sure you can then work out from Professor whats-his-faces figure of a 10% success rate the actual numbers of those who manage to quit what has been a product with addictive qualities as strong or stronger than Heroin,
What i cannot find figures for is the actual number of young people who despite all the INFORMATION still take up smoking and become the next generation of addicts, and, as i can find no figures for such i am going to suggest that (a), for every person that has quit a young person has become addicted, and (b), the Government knows this, chooses to be blind to it and refuses to collect and publish such data as to do so would reveal it’s taxation of tobacco products as a failure to incentivize people not to use tobacco products and simply a revenue grabbing exercise which takes the food off of the tables of those addicted,
There is only one means to stop the use of tobacco products and that is to register all those who are presently addicted to the product with their doctors as addicts and then ban anyone else from access to the product…
ASH do school surveys, for whatever they’re worth.
As for banning tobacco, piss off. I might go to hell early, but I’ll pick my own damned method, ta very much. Oh, and before you bring up passive smoking, I remind you that given there is pretty much nowhere outside my own home that I can smoke indoors, it’s now a bullshit factor. Play me a violin.
Shall i clarify the last paragraph of my previous comment???, there is only way to stop mass tobacco use into the future, that is to have all present users register as addicts with their doctors so as to allow them to continue their use and ban all those not registered at a cut-off date the purchase of the product,
Have we been on the turps a touch too much Mac, why would i bother mentioning passive smoking which seems to me as being an attempt to demonize those who smoke as a health initiative, and, if your memory can be stretched to a point past 5 minutes it has been me that has taken to (at times)picking holes in what the anti-smoking zealots and the media put out there as the gospel on smoking,
It is a FACT that the majority of us when our time comes to snuff it will in fact succumb to one form of cancer or another, something that mostly goes unmentioned by the anti-smoking zealots and at best considering that ‘averages’ can have wild fluctuations in-built in the ‘averaging’, those who have smoked will die of cancers at much the same rate as the rest of the population but averages would have that death on ‘average’ occur 5 years earlier than those who have never smoked…
Why stop tobacco use?
Why stop tobacco use indeed, of course you mean why have i put up an alternative to the obvious FAILURE of the Governments supposed means of stopping tobacco use, simply to show the utter bullshit inherent in using the pricing mechanism as a means to stop the mass of those who smoke from doing so,
My favorite piece of shock horror from the anti-smoking zealots has to be the yearly deaths from lung cancer, 10% of lung cancer deaths every year are from smokers, betcha the other 90% of those who die of that particular cancer ever year wish now they had smoked like friggin chimneys…
Or the other ‘goody’ that was fashionable among the anti-smokers for a while, ‘tobacco is a product that kills half it’s users’,
Considering the numbers of those who do not and have never used the product who will die of one form of cancer or another the exact same thing could be said about ‘air’…
Theoretically, the prices should only go up on NEW stock. Not on existing stock.
Both British American and Phillip Morris delivered the last of their stock on december 24. The next deliveries take place on the 4th January.
So prices shouldn’t rise as a result of the excise tax until January 4th at the earliest.
It’s all set out in legislation. New stock delivered after January 1 must have the increased excise tax applied.
Of course, it’s all just too difficult so just bump up the prices across the board on January 1 and make a little extra money in the meantime.
I knocked em off when Slippery announced the increase. And I feel so much better since I kicked the filthy, expensive, coffin nails.
Yay, more tax increases under National.
Is anyone keeping a list of all John Key’s rising levies, fees, duties, charges and taxes since 2008?
That would be way too depressing, the most recent tho include:
Fuel tax rises,
road user charges/registration for SUV’s.
Prescription charges,
Tobacco taxes,
Gotta keep the peasants paying for the hole blown in the Government revenue stream by giving the upper echelons of income earners tax cuts…
In Stuff this morning a short article ” Give Hekia Parata the sack’ Some good comments but one by ‘collhug’ was very interesting, mentioning the Charter School Scam and John Banks’ involvement but also this:
“NOVAPAY (fair & proper tender??????)
The Hon John Banks Family Trust has not held shares in Talent2 International Limited since 28 May 2012 when Talent2 moved to privatise the company and de-list from the Australian stock exchange. Mr Banks advised the Cabinet Office of the sale of his Family Trust’s shares on 29 May 2012.(press release J B )”
Link please? I can’t see it on the Stuff site anywhere.
It’s in the Readers Report section:- the relevant comment is by collhug
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/8125334/A-new-year-a-new-Education-Minister
Thanks, marsman.
You have to begin to wonder, and this has been mentioned on the Standard befor, whether or not the abysmal cluster-f**k that National have made of Education hasn’t been a deliberate series of chaotic coincidence designed to destabilize the Education sector,
Setting up ‘charter schools’ in the minds of the nut jobs, the likes of Banks et al, possibly has at it’s heart not the actual building of schools, more than likely the thinking is that if ‘they’ can get schools to ‘fail’ to the point of having a Commissioner installed then ‘they’ could turn such schools into ‘charter schools’ having use of the buildings and the budgets by default…
Good point. All the government negativity about education is demoralising teachers. Principals have to spend more time supporting teachers because of it. All this time and energy could have otherwise been spent by teachers and principals enjoying their jobs.
This’ll tickle a few.
http://player
http://stevecutts.wordpress.com/
Kim Hill is interviewing Steven Keen again this coming Saturday morning.
In the meantime there’s lot to be had from his latest lecture on econophysics:
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/11/16/energy-production-and-entropy/
Exegesis
Tension
-pulling together (no, not soggy biscuit)
-pressure in vapours
-Electro-motive force
-(state of barely suppressed e-motion; excitement, surprise, and a few less helpful ones too)
-strain-with resultant symptoms (psych.)
-strained relations between persons
-opposition between conflicting ideas or forces
Tensile
-stretching (not the foreskin or labia) foreward
Tensible
-capable of being stretched (or exaggerated in some sites’ case) 😉
Tension Rod-a structural member subjected to tensile stress only
Tense; present, Future, or, Living In The Past (which does have some great tracks though)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_in_the_Past_%28album%29
-Jef free
(off for a vee, then some more waffle in the iron)
Minister says she can live on the dole. Currently she earns $6321 AUD a week, c/w the dole $246.
http://www.news.com.au/national/i-could-live-on-the-dole-says-families-minister-jenny-macklin/story-fndo4dzn-1226546184170
AWW Shucks, and here was me anticipating nightmares (self-doubt is an Achilles Last Stand)
-Pegasus (In Flight)
First the news,
-More fires
-Script subsidy increases
-Drugged drivers (the stories i could tell ;))
Pi’s Life
Parker Richard a clerical error. Product Placement; Camus L’Etranger and Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground (thats what i think). “Lord, Thank You for my Life.The carnivorous island that Day and Night took away. Day destroys the night, night divides the day. Which story do you prefer? mankind or island in your arms, country in your eyes. Kingdom.”wise men seek peace, history is war”
RNZ-analysts are still not optimistic looking over the cliff; may bunji back to where they lept from
sooner rather than later; ratifications from the Republicans is a Slow Train Coming (more than technicalities) Five days is forever, forever and a day, gotta go to work on Monday (scheming to change the world). I hear slander, libel, I hear words I never heard in the bible, just one step ahead of the shoeshines.Fishermans’ Blues (The Water Boys) wish I was a fisherman, sailed beyond the past, these chains will be loosened and fall away at last. We live in a wheel where everyone steals but when we rise it’s like Strawberry Fields. Camping New Zealand; Do not pass Go. Community Chest the Monopoly, divide the Duopoly. Time spent shopping around is money saved. Think I’m going to Katmandu, thats really really what I’m going to do, If I ever get out of here, thats what I’m gonna do. You tell one person and they tell one person, thats the Faberge organic connection.
RNZ-people emotionally motivated by “expectations” of tomorrow. Worry not.Each day has enough troubles of it’s own. Natural, healthy disgust is manipulated into social exclusion.Well, conservatism can be disgusting and some avoid it like the plague. He’s got Gary Cooper’s eyes, He’ll “believe” you, He’ll deceive you. Anything Could Happen by The Clean. They’re accounting to cheat 2 3 4 5…Just keeping things “neat” to be Alive.I’m lookin’ at you, you’re lookin at me. Bee a Stealthy Bomber. So you think you can tell, Heaven from Hell, Blue Skies from Pain, can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail, Cold Comfort from change. That was my Mistake, that was my miss Stake ache, that was my missed steak. As falls Wichita, so falls Wichita falls-Pat Metheny Group Falls Into You-Mazzy Star-Amen (Did ya get healed?) off Poetic Champions Compose. Let go into the mystery…just let yourself go.
On the Horizon research; one half of households believe their income will drop (some significantly) in 013. Hey There Mr Blue Sky, how’s that “bright future” coming along? The sun is eclipsed by the Moon; the Key is not to lie too soon. Rainman pisses on amerika. Takin’ The Bible “literally” need ya head read. Fall of the house of Ussher. Poe-faced the swinging pendulum. The Harder They Come the harder they fall, one and all. Nothin like the chase to sweet decline, no ones gettin’ out of here alive this time. It’s a shame we have to die so dear, what a way to go, but have no fear. False Evidence Appearing Real. The beginning of Wisdom…? In Isolation, where are the young men, away from these shores, where are the young men, economic casualties, playthings in fat cats paws, a weight on their shoulders. Minesheads revisited. Decline and Fall.
Warne out. Vineyard Choppers chop Pink Frost. They’re so scared. Alcohol Reform, as if anyone cared. Dead duck, Cold in the water. For Now. For Today, I remember your smile Schizophrenic uncle smothered by maternal infection. The Divided Self. History of The Bicameral Mind. A R D
Fairburn, burn baby burn. Seasons don’t Fear The Reaper, Nor’ do The Wind, The Son or The Rain (we can be like they are) Then the door was opened and the wind appeared. New Blood joins this earth and quickly they’re subdued through constant pained disgrace The Young Ones learn their rules.
New Year Dissolution; of Southland water catchments. Liar Liar, pants on fire. Babylons Burning.
The Ruts are well worn out. Side with amerika, side with amerika, Where The Streets Have No Name. L.A Confidential. Mr Bronze, Mr Green and Mr In-Between.
11.6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful ones are trapped by evil desires..
11.8 With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbour, but through knowledge the righteous escape.