Stop trade agreements that limit rights of citizens to know where their food is coming from and how it is processed!!
“‘Chinese chicken’ will soon have a whole new meaning, as the US Department of Agriculture [USDA] recently gave the green-light to four chicken processing plants in China, allowing chicken raised and slaughtered in the US to be exported to China for processing, and then shipped back to the US and sold on grocery shelves here.”
Due to the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL) and it’s subsequent repeal in the Dec., 2015, omnibus bill, the imported processed poultry will not require a country-of-origin label. Additionally, US inspectors will not be on site at processing plants in China before it is shipped to the United States for human consumption.
In 2006 the Bush White House approved the USDA request to certify Chinese facilities for the processing of US-raised poultry. Once processed, these chickens would be shipped back to the US market for sale. Severe health problems arising from the way food is processed in China resulted in Congress defunding this certification program.
China “appealed to the World Trade Organization, which ruled in 2009 that Congress’s treatment of the country was unfair. Funding was restored and the process of approval began again. A series of USDA audits followed, all of which found China unfit to process U.S. poultry. Then, in 2013, without further inspection, the agency granted four Chinese plants certification.”
Fran O’Sullivan pimps for large corporates and forced trade agreements for the 2nd week running.
‘After TPP – fine-tuning to get full value’
Notice the assumption, the TPP is a done deal. By writing that, O’Sullivan is trying to persuade the ever diminishing band of Herald readers that it’s all over. My, some people would sell their country away for a few pieces of silver.
Does the fine tuning include making rushed changes to our domestic laws soon after Feb 4 while the US just sits on this agreement for years. This is a foreign corporate takeover as far as I can tell.
Yes, heard it.
People like Brash do not care about ordinary New Zealanders.
From the Hollow Men wikipedia article.
‘The book describes Brash’s rise to power in the New Zealand National Party as being assisted by an “informal network of people from the right of New Zealand politics”, including a number of ACT members, and alleges the funding of the National Party in the 2005 election was mainly from prominent New Zealand businessmen through blind trusts.’
Seems like people who do not care about democracy or NZ wanted Brash to become PM. When that failed, they put their money behind Key.
Rosemary McD mentioned this on Saturday, and there didn’t seem much I could add then. Last year I had been working on a timeline of the SDHB Compass foodoutsourcing/ Board sacking/ Comissioneer installing story, but it was getting way too long and involved for a post, so was discontinued. Besides, it just angried up the blood way too much.:
A Dunedin woman says she had better food growing up in a Nazi-occupied country than the ‘‘disgusting” meals on wheels trucked from Auckland and Tauranga…
The Otago Daily Times reported on Saturday that fears have emerged about the viability of the volunteer delivery system run by Age Concern Otago, because of cancellations and shrinking delivery runs…
Aileen Baker (89), of Dunedin, said she was likely to cancel the ‘‘dreadful” meals. Her neighbour received St Barnabas Trust meals on wheels, which were excellent but more expensive than the health board service…
The meals were not supposed to be reheated, but Mrs Baker was doing so anyway, as she was used to eating a portion later in the day. Anne Marie Parsons (74), of Dunedin, said she had no choice but to continue with the meals, as at $5 a day they were cheaper than alternatives.
Age Concern executive officer Susan Davidson said the organisation had noticed the runs had become smaller, but did not have a full understanding of the situation yet.
“Overall, the runs do seem to be smaller,” she said.
Cancellations are handled by the health board, and Age Concern did not know how many people had ditched the service…
“If the meals are not satisfactory and people choose to leave that service in droves, it will affect us. It will affect our ability to organise the volunteer delivery of meals on wheels.”
The health board is staying tight-lipped about the number of cancellations in the past couple of weeks, and did not respond to a question on the subject yesterday.
The trial run for Compass/ Medirest meals on Wheels was at Christmas, and didn’t go well – so these issues can hardly be a surprise:
Diana Graham said she was ‘‘absolutely shocked” when she saw what her friend, whom she did not want to name, was given.
‘‘If this is what we can expect in the future from this new Compass Group which has taken over, I really fear for the health and wellbeing of our sick and elderly in our community.
‘‘These people must be making a huge profit at the expense of our sick and elderly,” she said.
The meagre meal her friend was given consisted of tiny bits of potato, two very small bits of broccoli and diced bits of pumpkin, a ‘‘minute sliver of white sauce” and two and a-half paper-thin slices of dry turkey, with gravy too salty for her friend to eat…
The Christmas Day meal was the first frozen meal trucked down from Auckland.
‘‘They are back to normal being made by the kitchen at the moment.”
Thanks Pasupial and Rosemary. I have to say the rage factor is very high for me on this one too. The sheer incompetence that tells elderly people what time of day to eat and gives them measly portions and basically treats them like stock units. Wheels on Meals bought to you by Federated Farmers.
Fuck you National and Act parties (yes all of you) and voters, and fuck you Jonathon Coleman, and fuck you Peter Dunn.
Here are the Health Portfolio contacts if anyone wants to talk to the responsible people,
Hi pasupial, I have kept half an eye on this issue thru last year.
What peeves the most ( blood boiling indeed), is the well renumerated looking to trim fat from their budget, by having the most vulnerable bear the brunt of the boards penny pinching.
Why o why can’t these decisions be viewed from a wider lens?
Eg social cost, carbon footprint, nutritional value.
It reminds me of toll buying their locos from China because they were25% cheaper. Ironically another recent kick in the teeth for Dunedin workers.
Here’s my coverage of that meeting where the majority of the elected board (bar two) voted to accept the Compass contract – after the public were excluded:
The reasoning seemed to be that if they didn’t, then the board would be sacked and a commissioner appointed who would do it anyway. So what happened? They voted for the outsourcing and were soon sacked leaving the new commissioner’s hands clean. The term of democratic hiatus was supposed to be just until the next local elections, then late last year it turned out that the commissioner hadn’t even assembled her staff yet, so it had to be extended to 2019.
This required legislation in parliament, and what was the local Labour MP’s response to this ECaning of the SDHB?
The Labour Party voted for the Bill, but it was opposed by New Zealand First and the Green Party.
The Government is taking the unprecedented step of removing the embattled health board from the 2016 local body elections and extending the commissioner regime until 2019, despite earlier promising the next election would go ahead as usual…
Dunedin North MP David Clark told the Otago Daily Times Labour believed the commissioner’s good work might be lost if a health board election was held next year.
Dunedin North MP David Clark said he did not have a ”crystal ball” and did not know what, if anything, Labour – if elected in 2017 – would do to change the arrangements at the Southern DHB.
Dr Clark said the Government had become incredibly protective about information pertaining to the Southern board, so it was hard to know what was going on.
Really? The idea of talking to his constituents is obviously too much for Clark to contemplate. Fuck that shithead!! The only good thing I have to say about him is that he isn’t Michael Woodhouse.
The only board member who remains democratically accountable is Richard Thomson, who is still a city councillor while acting as deputy commissioner. As he voted for the compass plan at that closed meeting, I suspect that he will lose his place in next year’s council election. I sure as hell won’t be putting him very high up the list!
So he’ll only have the $900/ day he gets in his new job (the commissioner gets $1400/ day).
when do we stop playing by their rules, and start doing stuff for ourselves.
a fight can’t be won by fighting against someone who writes the rules and judges the outcomes.
is there an option of a local group starting up a local food supply initiative, with food from community gardens, donated food and labour?
harvesting, preperation, cooking and drop off by volunteers/community groups.
scouts, rotary, schools, retired folk.
start small and sure, maybe have a small premium to start with and grow the service.
i know there is lots of knowledge and experience sitting in retirement villages and council flats just waiting to be organized/utilized.
+100 to you Gsays. No you’re not naive. Neither are you an effete anti-social like The Gauche Man Key. Your comments mark our community being taken away from us. In favour of a small percentage of already fabulously wealthy people distinguished by their narcissism, sociopathy, and greed. Key to a tee. We will come up with answers !
“Dunedin North MP David Clark said he did not have a ”crystal ball” ”
Or any balls at all?
You know…this shit has to stop, but won’t unless Labour pulls whatever from out its collective aft crevasse and totally refuses to back…in fact kick up mega shit…when National pulls anti democratic stunts like this.
Free Tertiary for Three Years is all very well…but it is the bedrock that is being undermined….
If miracles happen and they ever get to the government benches there will be nothing solid left for them to build on.
Hi draco, I am teeing up an exit interview with my rural cafe owner boss.
The main bug bear is low staffing levels.
Now I all too well know, the perils of being overstaffed- cruise mode, some one else will do.it …
When wages are 40% of yr income you have to be careful.
Surely one of these business minded execs could see the wider good of investing in their communities. The pay off isn’t: on this years balance sheet, it occurs on someone elses or on yours in years down the line.
I do this with my meagre income even easier with someone else’s money.
Norway has announced that the armament of its police officers, which began in 2014, will cease “as soon as possible” after it was no longer deemed necessary.
A raised terror threat level saw officers ordered to carry firearms at all times in November 2014, but the measure was described as temporary….
…The Police Directorate announced plans to end the armament on 13 November 2015, but it was extended after the Paris terror attacks hit that same evening.
Police have announced once again that the armament will cease, with the Police Directorate saying that “there are no longer grounds to continue”.
“Since Lynton Crosby OBE started showing off about his “dead cat” news management methods, we can now see dead cats coming a mile off, like smallpox-infected pigs catapulted over the walls of a besieged medieval citadel, and a political gaff one might once have forgiven as a thoughtless slip of the tongue, we now realise is in fact a cynically scripted media misdirection strategy.
In short, if Cameron said “bunch of migrants” by accident, he is a dick, but if he said it on purpose, in order to draw the eye, dead-cat-style, away from the Google atrocity, which he did, then he is a bastard, which is worse.
Increasingly, the once proud visionary dreamer of the “big society” is like those sleazy guys they warn you about on posters at railway stations, who call your attention to an imaginary problem while pick-pocketing your wallet and grabbing your genitals. David Cameron is the Cologne New Year’s Eve of British politics. “
i heard on the ozzy segment on rnz, just before the 9.00am news, an item about immunisation and child care centres.
i dont want to open an immunisation debate.
to me this is wrong.
i see many parallels with mid central health’s policy of not having sugary drinks in the vending machines. instead you can have your sweet soda laced with an accumulative neuro-toxin.
it is disgraceful the hospital holding hands with coke all in the name of a few $ more.
how about getting rid of all the vending machines and having chilled water dispenser instead?
Could this possibly go up as a Guest Post if that’s o.k.? It has some points of connection with Andrew Little’s comments on the Future of Work in his State of the Nation Speech and presents a different point of view.
Politics is Pointless …
That’s the answer. So, what’s the question?
It’s the Economy, Stupid – this is the political equivalent of a black hole that all political discourse gets sucked into.
Almost everything political is put in an economic framework and discussed in economic terms. Our ‘wellbeing’ is described in economic terms, in metrics, data tables and stats dutifully compiled by Treasury. Quality of life that cannot be easily measured or indexed is often ignored. For example, elderly or disabled people living in dignity, dying with dignity (cf. euthanasia debate) are put into the too-hard basket. Economic indicators such as CPI, GDP or Government surplus, for example, get a special status that they don’t deserve and this detracts from dealing with real and pressing issues.
At the same time it is becoming more obvious that all is not well in and with our political system. Democracy is in dire straits according to some. But we have little idea what to do about it, on how to ‘fix’ it. Some political parties are almost tearing themselves apart (AKA ‘soul-searching’) in an attempt to reconquer lost political ground and regain some traction in the polls. Voter turn-out is at an all-time low and still declining. People just want to get on with their lives, which is somewhat ironic given that through politics it is decided what we can and cannot do.
This delicate and dire situation is further threatened by rapid changes in the nature of labour. While productivity is going up the shrinking labour market combined with growing labour force will force wages down. It must be neo-liberal Nirvana when work-seekers compete ferociously with each other for fewer jobs at ever-decreasing pay – a Darwinian struggle for ‘life’ and survival of the fittest. This is literally a race to the bottom.
We are slowly running out of secure well-paid full-time employment in the traditional sense because we may have passed peak-employment some time ago – the precariat is growing. But we are so used to the current situation and conditioned by the economic thinking of our time that we haven’t got a clue what to do.
Our current plight and the ongoing conflict between liberty and equality will not be resolved by clinging to dogmatic orthodoxy or through (new) Schools of Economic Thought and/or economic theories. Neither will a solution be found on the left or right sides of the political divide. I believe that we need a new and different approach.
What might this look like? Well, it seems that our behaviour is conditioned to a large degree, i.e. it depends on and is influenced by many factors but foremost by cultural and societal forces and we, in turn, collectively exert these influences on the members of our society, i.e. on ourselves! So, if we could integrate our own internal conflicting personality traits and resolve swings between empathy and cooperation, or group solidarity, on the one hand, and selfishness and competition, or individualism, on the other, we may find a way forward out of the current quagmire. According to primatologist Frans de Waal it all depends on the environmental context which of the two traits dominates. But we can and do influence our environment!
If/when we know what we want, how we want to live our lives in a truly meaningful manner guided by purpose, besides and alongside working for a living or trying to find work, we will (have to) see this mirrored in politics. After all, politics exists for us, because of us and through us and parties need to align with us, not the other way round. Most of all, the Government of the day needs to reflect and represent the ‘will of the people’, and most definitely not the other way round.
So, now you know what the question is, as well as the answer.
Some good news then, we’re going to have a fisiani-free summer 😀 May I suggest we make the most of it? Instead of filling the void with another RWer with a man-crush on FJK, how about we start talking to each other about the things that really matter? Or what we want to have happen in the world?
Make the capital Invercargill. That way we have employment substitutes for the folks out of work when the smelter is shut down, and we can sell the Manapouri power to north islanders for huge profit.
@PR
Perfect! With transport policy tested at the Highlands race track, food safety sampled at one of the orchards, and tourism strategy explored out on the lake. What a winner!
As a north islander I’d vote for that, you can have your barren rock and your racist undertones. Hell I’m white and they treated me with a vague sort of racism when I lived there for time. “Pig Islander” ring a bell
No wonder Herald readers might think the TPPA isn’t a disaster for NZ.
It allows propagandists to write pieces without any challenge.
Neither article has the damning quote marks the Herald uses when it says this is an opinion we disagree with.
I wonder if the insurance company paid the claim that Andrew Little signed off in the story he told in his speech? It sounds like there was so much gross negligence in that episode that I’m sure the insurance company would have framed the insurance claim form to be put on display.
The screeching noise coming from Audrey’s column was from her agony for having to write even mild approval.
“Never mind,” she was heard to mutter.”I’ll put the knife in and twist next time!”
Why is Cruz so weak? Can’t he find the money to have a simple neg ad! How stupid Trump would look in Office whinging and whining, Pocking fun at world leaders, etc.
Ain’t it obvious the guy is there to lose big, just to draw out the rep party into the public arena, for some eleventh hour selection at the come.
Hi draco, I am teeing up an exit interview with my rural cafe owner boss.
The main bug bear is low staffing levels.
Now I all too well know, the perils of being overstaffed- cruise mode, some one else will do.it …
When wages are 40% of yr income you have to be careful.
Surely one of these business minded execs could see the wider good of investing in their communities. The pay off isn’t: on this years balance sheet, it occurs on someone elses or on yours in years down the line.
I do this with my meagre income even easier with someone else’s money.
Duncan Garner on the TPPA in his NewShub column says “We won’t get rich buying and selling to each other”
Ffs this is one of the most basic errors silly eggs make… perhaps best explained by asking “how then has the world itself got richer? By trading with f$#king Mars or Venus?”
People who think the only way to get wealth is by bringing in from the outside… sheesh, fails at the outset.
Based on your logic, China has no need to trade with the world. There are over 1B of them happily trading with each other, all of them are equally getting richer together!
Try some reading comprehension . Vto’s post does not imply that vto considers internal trade to be the only way to trade, only that external trade is not the only path to wealth.
realistically for an educated, innovative nation of 4.5 million stuck at the bottom of the Pacific, international trade is pretty much the only path to wealth.
That is correct Indiana, and there are many many many similar examples of past societies on the planet which achieved extraordinary wealth with little to no dealings or trade with other societies on the planet at the time.
You might even want to look at the contribution such external dealings contributed to earlier US wealth.. you know, virtually zip..
This idea that we can only get wealth by bringing it in from outside is just loopy banana-head thinking believed by true believers and other extremists. And poorly thinking opinionists like Duncan Garner
I have a friend that designs and sells specialist steel framed building systems best suited to extreme climate conditions.
He employs 130 staff, is a major contributor to technical advances within his industry and runs a very successful business.
Over 95% of his sales are international, NZ simply does not have either the population or extreme weather conditions that his product is designed for.
Sheesh VTO, simple examples like this are everywhere.
I’m sure if the rest of the world did not exist your very talented friend would be contributing very successfully to the only 4.5million people on the planet here in NZ. And that we would not be living under a rock.
But do please answer the question – if the only way to wealth is to bring in money from outside the system, then how has the world got wealthier? Where has the money come from? Mars? Or Venus? Does the moon have a secret bank perhaps?
You believers need to open your eyes to some basic assumptions in your bible.
Yeah these opinionists are like politicians – get people liking them by talking about fishing and boats then morph that popularity into a qualification for informed comment…..
We were having a conversation yesterday about disability and it was discussed how the Ministry of Health has contracted out the supports for disabled people to various providers.
On the surface it is a happy clappy article about sudden disability, institutionalisation and ultimate liberation to community living with the assistance of the contracted provider tasked with the job of providing Needs Assessment and Service Coordination for those with disabilities.
However, the employee of this business credited with enabling this move from residential care to community living is quoted as saying…
“”When I found Cathy in this environment, at 38, it just broke my heart really.”
Disability Support Link can help with home care, supported independent living, rehabilitation and respite.
“It took several months before we could get her into a community home,” Walters said.
“She had to be able to stay overnight on her own and to be able to look after her personal needs.””
Now lets stop right there….”…and to be able to look after her personal needs.”
Wrong. Bollocks. Total misrepresentation.
You do NOT have to be able to look after your own personal care needs to be able to live in the community as opposed to living in a residential care facility.
That’s why there are Home and Community Support Services providers…to assist those with disabilities with personal care needs.
The victim of a “horrendous” Dunedin dog attack is set to be evicted from her cottage as she remains unable to work, struggling to pay rent.
The woman sustained injuries to much of her body when three Irish wolfhounds attacked her in Walter St about 6.30am on December 2 last year.
The most serious injury was to her right leg.
“My leg will never be the same again … the deep wounds are still healing and raw.”
Before the attack, the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, worked two part-time jobs, delivering newspapers and doing cleaning jobs, to supplement her benefit, but the injuries left her unable to work.
She declined ACC compensation for lost income because every dollar ACC gave would reduce her benefit by a dollar – making her financially no better off.
————————————————————————————————————————-
New Zealand, not so compassionate, and WINZ and ACC missing in action. And for what its worth, personally i would like the dog owner charged with providing for this women to the tune of lost wages. She would not be where it not for his dogs – and yeah I know stuff happens, but having three irish wolfhounds by yourself does not seem safe to me in the first place, unless i were partnered up to controll and maintain the dogs.
“Tim Leissner, chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia’s operations, has taken a “personal leave” amidst corruption scandals associated with Malaysia’s state-owned 1MDB fund, with which Goldman worked closely.
President of Goldman’s Singapore operations since 2006 and chairman of its Southeast Asia operations since 2014, Leissner oversaw the bank’s operations in Malaysia, where it became the top international bank with a 20.3 percent market share since 2010.
Leissner was seen as a “key player” in cultivating the bank’s very profitable relationships with Kuala’ Lumpur’s banking and government elite, including Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Financial Times reports….
…and in New Zealand…where NZ KiwiRail is being run down
bookmark that link.
Another nactoid will probably recycle the same bullshit tomorrow, and pretend to be equally surprised that they’re not the first one to mention it 🙂
Why why why did Jordan Williams get a platform on the Panel this afternoon?
Why does someone representing the viewpoints of the ACT Party get so many opportunities to propagate their extreme viewpoints?
Please explain Mr Mora.
Please explain Mr Griffin.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is about standing with the (multimillionaire and establishment) leader. Bernie Sanders’s campaign is about the grassroots rising up together, with Bernie: it’s not about me, but about *us*.
As the Iowa caucus looms with Bernie and Hillary tied….go Bernie!
God I hope so. Of course if Bernie did make it he wouldn’t be long for this Earth. The one world government of multi-billionaires would swing into action.
Euthanasia submissions close tonight. if you make a submission by email or through the website, it must be sent through by midnight (ie before.)
Please send any submissions on the petition of Hon Maryan Street to Health@parliament.govt.nz
and from chienfou
There’s a prospect of appearing before the committee to speak to your submission. I’d encourage anyone who possibly can to volunteer. It adds a lot of weight to the democratic process, especially if it’s not just the same old Wellington hacks turning up.
Ms Seales took legal action for the right to die with dignity in a case that played out as the curtain fell on her life. She died hours after the High Court ruled it was a debate that needed to be had by Parliament and not the courts.
Lecretia Seales’ husband Matt Vickers after her death and the judge’s decision
Parliament picked up on that challenge, with its health select committee launching an inquiry in response to a petition calling for a law change to permit medically assisted dying in the event of terminal illness or other specific circumstances.
Her husband Matt Vickers said it would be a tragedy if the chance to have a debate on the topic was wasted.
Lecretia and Matt’s blog – http://lecretia.org/ Lecretia’s Choice
Lecretia Seales believed ill people enduring intolerable suffering with no hope of recovery should have the choice to request assistance to end their lives.
And Compass’s response – “Last week Compass issued a statement saying it welcomed feedback and would make changes if there were “genuine problems”. ” What alot of bullshit !
For those who don’t know, these “pick up artists” think things like: women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, rape is sometimes okay (like, on private property), a woman’s value depends on her beauty and fertility while a mans value depends on his resources, intellect and character…
And a bunch of other self serving BS.
The “pick up” tips they advocate border on illegal. Some of it instructs guys to physically force women to do as they wish, sexually. Which is sexual assault. Illegal.
So… with the NZ police all up in arms about groups that promote terrorising the public… I wonder if they’ve got these guys under surveillance?
Yeah. Right.
It’s just NZ women at risk here. I suspect the NZ police don’t give a shit actually.
Hmmm. 12,000 global likes and he reckons he has handlers/contacts in 44 locations, including Dunedin.
I wonder if they’ll lurk in their anoraks in front of the Dunedin town hall, or do they mean down the Harrop St side, or in the Octagon?
I suspect that the role of the contact is to immediately collect a large amount of money from the sad, frustrated dicks for a skype session where they’re told that they’re lions, not timid little rats.
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I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
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 ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
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. ...
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. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Māori representation brings a perspective that encompasses not only the interests of Māori communities but also a broader, holistic approach to environmental stewardship and community well-being, principles deeply embedded in Te Ao Māori (the Māori ...
This week in Auckland, a group of young people took over the microphone at a ministerial press conference, to explain why they oppose the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. One young woman said, ‘We’re here because we love Aotearoa New Zealand. We want to raise our children in an environment that’s thriving, ...
The summer was wonderful. Evie was wonderful, too; finally a teenager, finally worthy of long, hot days. She shaved her legs for the first time and bought cut-off shorts from the op-shop that made them look long. She got a Warehouse singlet so tight on her new shape that her ...
When Thomas James was on his solo camp as part of Outward Bound, the keen outdoorsman didn’t find it too challenging, as others often do. In what might just be the perfect illustration of his character, he saw it as a great opportunity to solve a few problems. “I thought, ...
From the unstable and drippy to the hi-tech and pretty, here’s our ranking of all the tunnels you can drive through in this country. The first tunnel seems to have been built in 2200BC in Babylonia, kicking off a global phenomenon for digging holes in order to get places more ...
Lucinda Bennett on the art of being greedy but resourceful. This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. When I picture the market, it is always this time of year. Crisp air, dripping nose, counting coins with cold fingers. Sunlight pale, filtered through specks of dew still ...
Zoë Colling’s favourite piece in the ‘That’s So Last Century’ collection is a lubrication chart for a sewing machine from the ’60s. It’s about the size of a postcard, and carefully maintained. “I like it that this piece of ephemera highlights that manual and technical side of the skill involved ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
COMMENTARY:By Eugene Doyle Helen Clark, how I miss you. The former New Zealand Prime Minister — the safest pair of hands this country has had in living memory — gave a masterclass on the importance of maintaining an independent foreign policy when she spoke at an AUKUS symposium held ...
The government's released the list of organisations provided with information on how to apply - just hours before public submissions on the bill close. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Milton Speer, Visiting Fellow, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney Before climate change really got going, eastern Australia’s flash floods tended to concentrate on our coastal regions, east of the Great Dividing Range. But that’s changing. Now ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Finkel, Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, La Trobe University Sia Duff / South Australian Museum In February, the South Australian Museum “re-imagined” itself. In the face of rising costs and inadequate government funds, CEO David Gaimster, who took the reins last June, declared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Pearce, Professor, School of Allied Heath, Human Services & Sport, La Trobe University, La Trobe University This week, Collingwood AFL player Nathan Murphy announced his retirement, brought on by his concussion history and ongoing issues. The 24-year-old’s seemingly sudden retirement, ...
The Mental Health Foundation provides support and resources for those facing the loss of their job, so it’s wrong in the very week the Government adds another 1000 jobs to its tally of cuts, that this is happening. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Howard, Senior Lecturer, Discipline of English and Writing, University of Sydney Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company Decay, terror, revulsion. These are three of the central themes of Thomas Bernhard’s rarely performed play The President. The Austrian is one of the greatest ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says threats by ministers Shane Jones and David Seymour to reform or close down the Waitangi Tribunal were “ill-considered”, as legal experts say the ministers may have breached Cabinet Manual conventions. “I think those comments are ill-considered and we expect all ministers to actually exercise good ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ye In (Jane) Hwang, Postdoctoral Research Associate at School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock You’d be hard pressed to find any aspect of daily life that doesn’t require some form of digital literacy. We need only to look back ten ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Newton, Professor of Exercise Medicine, Edith Cowan University Pexels/RDNE stock project You’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore and you know regular health checks are important. So you go to your GP. During the appointment they measure your waist. ...
A new poem by Evangeline Riddiford Graham. Mitochondrial Problem I. It was long drive to Kansas for the man and his dog but you have to understand he said She doesn’t fly. Which calls to mind not carsick shitting barking or whining but a dog who chooses not to as ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)Hot off the press, this debut ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Wajnryb McDonald, PhD candidate in Criminology, University of Sydney Less than 24 hours after Ashlee Good was murdered in Bondi Junction, her family released a statement requesting the media take down photographs they had reproduced of Ashlee and her family without ...
Chief executive Shaun Robinson said it has not had any government funding cut, but government-funded contracts have not kept pace with rising costs. ...
The Ministry of Health has delayed the release of its evidence brief on the safety, reversibility and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for puberty blockers. While we wait, Julia de Bres speaks to those with firsthand experience. Best practice gender-affirming healthcare is based on trans people’s self-determination and agency. The ...
Barcelona’s city streets have gone from traffic-clogged to pedestrian-friendly. How? Superblocks. Ellen Rykers explains. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week I read a great interview with renowned urbanist Janette Sadik-Khan by The Spinoff’s Wellington editor Joel MacManus: “You can reimagine streets, ...
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Stop trade agreements that limit rights of citizens to know where their food is coming from and how it is processed!!
“‘Chinese chicken’ will soon have a whole new meaning, as the US Department of Agriculture [USDA] recently gave the green-light to four chicken processing plants in China, allowing chicken raised and slaughtered in the US to be exported to China for processing, and then shipped back to the US and sold on grocery shelves here.”
Due to the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against the Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL) and it’s subsequent repeal in the Dec., 2015, omnibus bill, the imported processed poultry will not require a country-of-origin label. Additionally, US inspectors will not be on site at processing plants in China before it is shipped to the United States for human consumption.
FULL ARTICLE: http://bit.ly/1WUZMGy
______________________
2009 WTO RULING OVERRIDES CONGRESS
In 2006 the Bush White House approved the USDA request to certify Chinese facilities for the processing of US-raised poultry. Once processed, these chickens would be shipped back to the US market for sale. Severe health problems arising from the way food is processed in China resulted in Congress defunding this certification program.
China “appealed to the World Trade Organization, which ruled in 2009 that Congress’s treatment of the country was unfair. Funding was restored and the process of approval began again. A series of USDA audits followed, all of which found China unfit to process U.S. poultry. Then, in 2013, without further inspection, the agency granted four Chinese plants certification.”
FULL ARTICLE: http://bit.ly/1SqbxkG
_____________________
And then there’s the carbon footprint to take into account!
Fran O’Sullivan pimps for large corporates and forced trade agreements for the 2nd week running.
‘After TPP – fine-tuning to get full value’
Notice the assumption, the TPP is a done deal. By writing that, O’Sullivan is trying to persuade the ever diminishing band of Herald readers that it’s all over. My, some people would sell their country away for a few pieces of silver.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11582661
Maybe she needed to come and listen to Lori Wallach. It is not a done deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8taG38o_bo
Does the fine tuning include making rushed changes to our domestic laws soon after Feb 4 while the US just sits on this agreement for years. This is a foreign corporate takeover as far as I can tell.
‘This is a foreign corporate takeover as far as I can tell.’
Yes and it’s obvious by who supports it.
Key. Merrill Lynch henchman.
Brash. Ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand
The Hollow Men.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hollow_Men_(book)
Hear for yourselves Don Brash being his usual self, up against a graciously determined Jeanette Fitzsimons…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/201787485/don-brash-and-jeanette-fitzsimons-politics-2016
I believe it is very important to remind ourselves who the enemy is.
Yes, heard it.
People like Brash do not care about ordinary New Zealanders.
From the Hollow Men wikipedia article.
‘The book describes Brash’s rise to power in the New Zealand National Party as being assisted by an “informal network of people from the right of New Zealand politics”, including a number of ACT members, and alleges the funding of the National Party in the 2005 election was mainly from prominent New Zealand businessmen through blind trusts.’
Seems like people who do not care about democracy or NZ wanted Brash to become PM. When that failed, they put their money behind Key.
“I believe it is very important to remind ourselves who the enemy is.”
wise words indeed
the Hollow Men, as Paul mentions below, are still here, still dong their thing, for themselves. We know and we don’t forget.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8taG38o_bo
encore for Wayne
We all need to remember that is not a free trade agreement.
It’s a forced trade agreement.
Rosemary McD mentioned this on Saturday, and there didn’t seem much I could add then. Last year I had been working on a timeline of the SDHB Compass foodoutsourcing/ Board sacking/ Comissioneer installing story, but it was getting way too long and involved for a post, so was discontinued. Besides, it just angried up the blood way too much.:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30012016/#comment-1126040
However there is an update in today’s ODT:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/371588/better-meals-under-nazis-87-year-old-says
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/371407/absolutely-yuck-meals-upset-elderly
The trial run for Compass/ Medirest meals on Wheels was at Christmas, and didn’t go well – so these issues can hardly be a surprise:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/368472/compass-dinner-panned
Compass is to food what Serco is to ‘security’.
Well worth a google cruise….I’m having computer problems else would have put up some links yesterday.
? If over 50% of the consumers think the Compass food is inedible should the 15 year contract be cancelled.?
Links for Compass Group linked; Listeria, employee exploitation, horsemeat in school meals & bribery:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/possible-listeria-exposure-in-ontario-jails-1.702077
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/22/i-am-a-cook-in-the-us-senate-but-i-still-need-food-stamps-to-feed-my-children?CMP=share_btn_tw
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-21476736
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/oct/16/money.internationalnews
R McD’s comparison of Compass to Serco is apt.
COMPASS – specialists in bribery, listeria and horse meat.
joe90 4.4
20 March 2015 at 10:22 am
Bribery, listeria and horse meat, things go better with Compass.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/oct/16/money.internationalnews
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/possible-listeria-exposure-in-ontario-jails-1.702077
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21476736
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-20032015/#comment-988733
my Mother gave up on ‘Meals on Wheels’…she now has scrambled eggs on toast for lunch
( mind you the people who delivered ‘Meals on Wheels’ were lovely…and I am sure the cooks were too and did their best)
Thanks Pasupial and Rosemary. I have to say the rage factor is very high for me on this one too. The sheer incompetence that tells elderly people what time of day to eat and gives them measly portions and basically treats them like stock units. Wheels on Meals bought to you by Federated Farmers.
Fuck you National and Act parties (yes all of you) and voters, and fuck you Jonathon Coleman, and fuck you Peter Dunn.
Here are the Health Portfolio contacts if anyone wants to talk to the responsible people,
http://www.beehive.govt.nz/portfolio/health
Credit where credit is due, when the nats fuck something up, they fuck it up good and proper.
I suppose a pensioner could commit a crime if they want a decent meal – I think prison food is still made on site…
Hi pasupial, I have kept half an eye on this issue thru last year.
What peeves the most ( blood boiling indeed), is the well renumerated looking to trim fat from their budget, by having the most vulnerable bear the brunt of the boards penny pinching.
Why o why can’t these decisions be viewed from a wider lens?
Eg social cost, carbon footprint, nutritional value.
It reminds me of toll buying their locos from China because they were25% cheaper. Ironically another recent kick in the teeth for Dunedin workers.
gsays
Here’s my coverage of that meeting where the majority of the elected board (bar two) voted to accept the Compass contract – after the public were excluded:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07052015/#comment-1011080
The reasoning seemed to be that if they didn’t, then the board would be sacked and a commissioner appointed who would do it anyway. So what happened? They voted for the outsourcing and were soon sacked leaving the new commissioner’s hands clean. The term of democratic hiatus was supposed to be just until the next local elections, then late last year it turned out that the commissioner hadn’t even assembled her staff yet, so it had to be extended to 2019.
This required legislation in parliament, and what was the local Labour MP’s response to this ECaning of the SDHB?
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/366244/sdhb-bill-passes-its-first-reading
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/365764/no-dhb-election-2016
Really? The idea of talking to his constituents is obviously too much for Clark to contemplate. Fuck that shithead!! The only good thing I have to say about him is that he isn’t Michael Woodhouse.
The only board member who remains democratically accountable is Richard Thomson, who is still a city councillor while acting as deputy commissioner. As he voted for the compass plan at that closed meeting, I suspect that he will lose his place in next year’s council election. I sure as hell won’t be putting him very high up the list!
So he’ll only have the $900/ day he gets in his new job (the commissioner gets $1400/ day).
call me naive..
when do we stop playing by their rules, and start doing stuff for ourselves.
a fight can’t be won by fighting against someone who writes the rules and judges the outcomes.
is there an option of a local group starting up a local food supply initiative, with food from community gardens, donated food and labour?
harvesting, preperation, cooking and drop off by volunteers/community groups.
scouts, rotary, schools, retired folk.
start small and sure, maybe have a small premium to start with and grow the service.
i know there is lots of knowledge and experience sitting in retirement villages and council flats just waiting to be organized/utilized.
keep up your good work in keeping us updated.
+100 to you Gsays. No you’re not naive. Neither are you an effete anti-social like The Gauche Man Key. Your comments mark our community being taken away from us. In favour of a small percentage of already fabulously wealthy people distinguished by their narcissism, sociopathy, and greed. Key to a tee. We will come up with answers !
“Dunedin North MP David Clark said he did not have a ”crystal ball” ”
Or any balls at all?
You know…this shit has to stop, but won’t unless Labour pulls whatever from out its collective aft crevasse and totally refuses to back…in fact kick up mega shit…when National pulls anti democratic stunts like this.
Free Tertiary for Three Years is all very well…but it is the bedrock that is being undermined….
If miracles happen and they ever get to the government benches there will be nothing solid left for them to build on.
THIS is what we need to hear from Labour.
Thanks for the links….
Because then the profits, a dead-weight loss, would have to be decreased.
Hi draco, I am teeing up an exit interview with my rural cafe owner boss.
The main bug bear is low staffing levels.
Now I all too well know, the perils of being overstaffed- cruise mode, some one else will do.it …
When wages are 40% of yr income you have to be careful.
Surely one of these business minded execs could see the wider good of investing in their communities. The pay off isn’t: on this years balance sheet, it occurs on someone elses or on yours in years down the line.
I do this with my meagre income even easier with someone else’s money.
oops, poor grammer and punctuation, typed above on my phone at the river.
Good graphic comic explaining “Free Trade” and the TPPA (pg 24 onwards) over on filmsforaction.org.
Thank you for this, it made me late but was a good way to start the day.
Strange world in Norwegian politics, where “temporary” means … temporary.
Norway to disarm its police force after officers ordered to carry guns for just one year’
Great news for those of us who oppose the lockwood tea towel:
“John Key’s hopes of changing the flag have been dealt a blow with a poll showing 61% of voters want to keep the flag we’ve got.
The Newshub/Reid Research poll shows only 30% want to change to the Kyle Lockwood Silver Fern design. The other 9% either didn’t know or didn’t care about changing the flag.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/poll-shows-most-kiwis-opposed-to-changing-nzs-flag-2016020103#axzz3yqtgPwjt
**Keep the NZ flag** and get rid of Key.
Turnout will be interesting. I bet there are a lot of people motivated to make sure they vote specifically to prevent the teatowel.
Mike Hosking has a great interview with Andrew Little re the tertiary policy. Well answered Andrew. Good questions too from Hosking.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=157449
Yes, that was weird….
Hosking actually listened and did not speak over Little
Little also was very well briefed it appeared.
Holy shit a Polly that talks clearly and concisely, no evasiveness or spin , never triggered my bullshit detector once ,
I liked this…. from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/31/google-tax-osborne-cameron-spaghetti-westerns
“Since Lynton Crosby OBE started showing off about his “dead cat” news management methods, we can now see dead cats coming a mile off, like smallpox-infected pigs catapulted over the walls of a besieged medieval citadel, and a political gaff one might once have forgiven as a thoughtless slip of the tongue, we now realise is in fact a cynically scripted media misdirection strategy.
In short, if Cameron said “bunch of migrants” by accident, he is a dick, but if he said it on purpose, in order to draw the eye, dead-cat-style, away from the Google atrocity, which he did, then he is a bastard, which is worse.
Increasingly, the once proud visionary dreamer of the “big society” is like those sleazy guys they warn you about on posters at railway stations, who call your attention to an imaginary problem while pick-pocketing your wallet and grabbing your genitals. David Cameron is the Cologne New Year’s Eve of British politics. “
i heard on the ozzy segment on rnz, just before the 9.00am news, an item about immunisation and child care centres.
i dont want to open an immunisation debate.
to me this is wrong.
i see many parallels with mid central health’s policy of not having sugary drinks in the vending machines. instead you can have your sweet soda laced with an accumulative neuro-toxin.
it is disgraceful the hospital holding hands with coke all in the name of a few $ more.
how about getting rid of all the vending machines and having chilled water dispenser instead?
Could this possibly go up as a Guest Post if that’s o.k.? It has some points of connection with Andrew Little’s comments on the Future of Work in his State of the Nation Speech and presents a different point of view.
Politics is Pointless …
That’s the answer. So, what’s the question?
It’s the Economy, Stupid – this is the political equivalent of a black hole that all political discourse gets sucked into.
Almost everything political is put in an economic framework and discussed in economic terms. Our ‘wellbeing’ is described in economic terms, in metrics, data tables and stats dutifully compiled by Treasury. Quality of life that cannot be easily measured or indexed is often ignored. For example, elderly or disabled people living in dignity, dying with dignity (cf. euthanasia debate) are put into the too-hard basket. Economic indicators such as CPI, GDP or Government surplus, for example, get a special status that they don’t deserve and this detracts from dealing with real and pressing issues.
At the same time it is becoming more obvious that all is not well in and with our political system. Democracy is in dire straits according to some. But we have little idea what to do about it, on how to ‘fix’ it. Some political parties are almost tearing themselves apart (AKA ‘soul-searching’) in an attempt to reconquer lost political ground and regain some traction in the polls. Voter turn-out is at an all-time low and still declining. People just want to get on with their lives, which is somewhat ironic given that through politics it is decided what we can and cannot do.
This delicate and dire situation is further threatened by rapid changes in the nature of labour. While productivity is going up the shrinking labour market combined with growing labour force will force wages down. It must be neo-liberal Nirvana when work-seekers compete ferociously with each other for fewer jobs at ever-decreasing pay – a Darwinian struggle for ‘life’ and survival of the fittest. This is literally a race to the bottom.
We are slowly running out of secure well-paid full-time employment in the traditional sense because we may have passed peak-employment some time ago – the precariat is growing. But we are so used to the current situation and conditioned by the economic thinking of our time that we haven’t got a clue what to do.
Our current plight and the ongoing conflict between liberty and equality will not be resolved by clinging to dogmatic orthodoxy or through (new) Schools of Economic Thought and/or economic theories. Neither will a solution be found on the left or right sides of the political divide. I believe that we need a new and different approach.
What might this look like? Well, it seems that our behaviour is conditioned to a large degree, i.e. it depends on and is influenced by many factors but foremost by cultural and societal forces and we, in turn, collectively exert these influences on the members of our society, i.e. on ourselves! So, if we could integrate our own internal conflicting personality traits and resolve swings between empathy and cooperation, or group solidarity, on the one hand, and selfishness and competition, or individualism, on the other, we may find a way forward out of the current quagmire. According to primatologist Frans de Waal it all depends on the environmental context which of the two traits dominates. But we can and do influence our environment!
If/when we know what we want, how we want to live our lives in a truly meaningful manner guided by purpose, besides and alongside working for a living or trying to find work, we will (have to) see this mirrored in politics. After all, politics exists for us, because of us and through us and parties need to align with us, not the other way round. Most of all, the Government of the day needs to reflect and represent the ‘will of the people’, and most definitely not the other way round.
So, now you know what the question is, as well as the answer.
If you want to follow NZ politics on Facebook, there’s a new list which brings all the different pages together at http://bit.ly/NZpolitics
The list has MPs, media, interest groups etc. Completely cross-partisan.
It’s easy to miss updates in your timeline because of the Facebook algorithm, so the list is a way to make Facebook politics a bit easier.
Labour caucus on the TPP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbNaRE0gbXg
Odd, people were claiming just yesterday that the caucus was completely unified behind Andrew Little.
lol that really says so much about your motivations – real scraping the bottom of the barrel – why bother?
This bloke blogged his Conspira-sea Cruise. Hilarious.
http://violentmetaphors.com/2016/01/26/a-skeptic-on-the-conspira-sea-cruise-day-1/
http://violentmetaphors.com/
Some good news then, we’re going to have a fisiani-free summer 😀 May I suggest we make the most of it? Instead of filling the void with another RWer with a man-crush on FJK, how about we start talking to each other about the things that really matter? Or what we want to have happen in the world?
🙂
“Or what we want to have happen in the world?”
Anyone for a South Island Independence Party? 🙂
independent of what/whom?
Only if the headquarters are based in Cromwell
That’s an odd choice.
Yeah true Cromwells so nice why would you want to ruin it…Dunedin it is then
yeah, nah.
Make the capital Invercargill. That way we have employment substitutes for the folks out of work when the smelter is shut down, and we can sell the Manapouri power to north islanders for huge profit.
I have a soft spot for Invers. Some local bright spark has even been stealing the lockwood tea towel from Queen’s Park.
I like it
@PR
Perfect! With transport policy tested at the Highlands race track, food safety sampled at one of the orchards, and tourism strategy explored out on the lake. What a winner!
I knew the left and right could work together
Tempting cogito, but I’m not sure how the left/right balance would work out.
I’m sure theres enough consensus that the South Island is superior to the North between the left and the right to smooth things over
Too many Aucklanders living here now.
They can stay as long as they pledge allegiance to the South Island (or Richie)
Yeah but they might not play by the Mainland rules and so your point about the left/right divide being smoothed over probably won’t work.
“They can stay as long as they pledge allegiance to the South Island (or Richie)”
….and join the local pipe band!
I’m ok with that
As a north islander I’d vote for that, you can have your barren rock and your racist undertones. Hell I’m white and they treated me with a vague sort of racism when I lived there for time. “Pig Islander” ring a bell
Pig Islander, I’ve not heard that before, what does it mean?
I agree about the racism. Kāi Tahu’s recolonisation of Te Waipounamu will eventually sort that out 😉
Indeed it does – anyone born in the South Island.
LOL. You should have rolled your “r”s and not complained about the porridge!
No wonder so many New Zealanders don’t know about the TPPA or the state of the global economy. The corporate media wants them to talk about this
Christchurch cafe trims its coffee menu – and maybe some customers
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11582804
No wonder Herald readers might think the TPPA isn’t a disaster for NZ.
It allows propagandists to write pieces without any challenge.
Neither article has the damning quote marks the Herald uses when it says this is an opinion we disagree with.
Stephen Jacobi: What Labour’s not seeing in TPP deal
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11582655
Charles Finny: TPP deserves praise from Maori, not condemnation
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11582657
Maybe you can enlighten us where these two opinions are wrong Paul,
@Reddelusion 11.34am re Paul’s 16 comment, this might help :
http://www.bryangould.com/a-second-bite-at-the-cherry/
A clear history and explanation as to how we have been beguiled in to thinking the TPP is a ‘trade’ agreement.
Waste of time trying to enlighten you deluded Red.
Here we go
Have a read on what the experts think.
Jacobi is not an expert, rather a publicist.
https://tppascratchspace.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/complete-public-citizen.pdf
https://tpplegal.wordpress.com/nzlf-expert-paper-series/
Jacobi is a National PR Agent – Academic
I wonder if the insurance company paid the claim that Andrew Little signed off in the story he told in his speech? It sounds like there was so much gross negligence in that episode that I’m sure the insurance company would have framed the insurance claim form to be put on display.
His story was about as believable as Rufus Paynter
Yea, nah, nah,
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/295415/six-iwi-refuse-to-perform-tpp-powhiri
Silly but their call, not sure anyone will really care
A pretty good non-violent protest sabine.
Audrey Young has written a mildly pro-Labour article.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11582692
The screeching noise coming from Audrey’s column was from her agony for having to write even mild approval.
“Never mind,” she was heard to mutter.”I’ll put the knife in and twist next time!”
Why is Cruz so weak? Can’t he find the money to have a simple neg ad! How stupid Trump would look in Office whinging and whining, Pocking fun at world leaders, etc.
Ain’t it obvious the guy is there to lose big, just to draw out the rep party into the public arena, for some eleventh hour selection at the come.
Hi draco, I am teeing up an exit interview with my rural cafe owner boss.
The main bug bear is low staffing levels.
Now I all too well know, the perils of being overstaffed- cruise mode, some one else will do.it …
When wages are 40% of yr income you have to be careful.
Surely one of these business minded execs could see the wider good of investing in their communities. The pay off isn’t: on this years balance sheet, it occurs on someone elses or on yours in years down the line.
I do this with my meagre income even easier with someone else’s money.
Duncan Garner on the TPPA in his NewShub column says “We won’t get rich buying and selling to each other”
Ffs this is one of the most basic errors silly eggs make… perhaps best explained by asking “how then has the world itself got richer? By trading with f$#king Mars or Venus?”
People who think the only way to get wealth is by bringing in from the outside… sheesh, fails at the outset.
Bloody useless Duncan Garner
http://www.newshub.co.nz/opinion/opinion-tpp-or-die—-why-we-need-it-2016013120#ixzz3ysTIhKlQ
Based on your logic, China has no need to trade with the world. There are over 1B of them happily trading with each other, all of them are equally getting richer together!
Try some reading comprehension . Vto’s post does not imply that vto considers internal trade to be the only way to trade, only that external trade is not the only path to wealth.
realistically for an educated, innovative nation of 4.5 million stuck at the bottom of the Pacific, international trade is pretty much the only path to wealth.
I see that the point has been missed.
That is correct Indiana, and there are many many many similar examples of past societies on the planet which achieved extraordinary wealth with little to no dealings or trade with other societies on the planet at the time.
You might even want to look at the contribution such external dealings contributed to earlier US wealth.. you know, virtually zip..
This idea that we can only get wealth by bringing it in from outside is just loopy banana-head thinking believed by true believers and other extremists. And poorly thinking opinionists like Duncan Garner
I have a friend that designs and sells specialist steel framed building systems best suited to extreme climate conditions.
He employs 130 staff, is a major contributor to technical advances within his industry and runs a very successful business.
Over 95% of his sales are international, NZ simply does not have either the population or extreme weather conditions that his product is designed for.
Sheesh VTO, simple examples like this are everywhere.
Sure. But you miss the point.
I’m sure if the rest of the world did not exist your very talented friend would be contributing very successfully to the only 4.5million people on the planet here in NZ. And that we would not be living under a rock.
But do please answer the question – if the only way to wealth is to bring in money from outside the system, then how has the world got wealthier? Where has the money come from? Mars? Or Venus? Does the moon have a secret bank perhaps?
You believers need to open your eyes to some basic assumptions in your bible.
Garner is a dreadful journalist.
Where did he learn his trade?
Stop it VTO…..Garner’s a bumptious fellow and a ‘star’. Is that not enough for you ? Do not question Te Wahanui !
Yeah these opinionists are like politicians – get people liking them by talking about fishing and boats then morph that popularity into a qualification for informed comment…..
…. suppose it gets them the audiences
nothing else matters in their worlds
it is what pays them
We were having a conversation yesterday about disability and it was discussed how the Ministry of Health has contracted out the supports for disabled people to various providers.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-31012016/#comment-1126446
Further conversation was had about the “piss-poor” service from some of these providers.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-31012016/#comment-1126504
Almost on cue, this article appears in the local rag…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/76437205/hamilton-woman-who-had-stroke-at-38-said-her-life-is-much-better-than-before
On the surface it is a happy clappy article about sudden disability, institutionalisation and ultimate liberation to community living with the assistance of the contracted provider tasked with the job of providing Needs Assessment and Service Coordination for those with disabilities.
However, the employee of this business credited with enabling this move from residential care to community living is quoted as saying…
“”When I found Cathy in this environment, at 38, it just broke my heart really.”
Disability Support Link can help with home care, supported independent living, rehabilitation and respite.
“It took several months before we could get her into a community home,” Walters said.
“She had to be able to stay overnight on her own and to be able to look after her personal needs.””
Now lets stop right there….”…and to be able to look after her personal needs.”
Wrong. Bollocks. Total misrepresentation.
You do NOT have to be able to look after your own personal care needs to be able to live in the community as opposed to living in a residential care facility.
That’s why there are Home and Community Support Services providers…to assist those with disabilities with personal care needs.
See what we have to put up with?
Eviction notice worsens dog attack victim’s woe
By Shawn McAvinue
6:08 AM Monday Feb 1, 2016
The victim of a “horrendous” Dunedin dog attack is set to be evicted from her cottage as she remains unable to work, struggling to pay rent.
The woman sustained injuries to much of her body when three Irish wolfhounds attacked her in Walter St about 6.30am on December 2 last year.
The most serious injury was to her right leg.
“My leg will never be the same again … the deep wounds are still healing and raw.”
Before the attack, the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, worked two part-time jobs, delivering newspapers and doing cleaning jobs, to supplement her benefit, but the injuries left her unable to work.
She declined ACC compensation for lost income because every dollar ACC gave would reduce her benefit by a dollar – making her financially no better off.
————————————————————————————————————————-
New Zealand, not so compassionate, and WINZ and ACC missing in action. And for what its worth, personally i would like the dog owner charged with providing for this women to the tune of lost wages. She would not be where it not for his dogs – and yeah I know stuff happens, but having three irish wolfhounds by yourself does not seem safe to me in the first place, unless i were partnered up to controll and maintain the dogs.
‘Goldman Sachs executive takes ‘personal leave’ amid Malaysian fund corruption probes’
https://www.rt.com/business/330665-goldman-leissner-malaysia-corruption/
“Tim Leissner, chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia’s operations, has taken a “personal leave” amidst corruption scandals associated with Malaysia’s state-owned 1MDB fund, with which Goldman worked closely.
President of Goldman’s Singapore operations since 2006 and chairman of its Southeast Asia operations since 2014, Leissner oversaw the bank’s operations in Malaysia, where it became the top international bank with a 20.3 percent market share since 2010.
Leissner was seen as a “key player” in cultivating the bank’s very profitable relationships with Kuala’ Lumpur’s banking and government elite, including Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Financial Times reports….
…and in New Zealand…where NZ KiwiRail is being run down
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/treasury-hires-goldman-sachs-run-ruler-over-kiwibank-bd-136461
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11262662
http://www.goldmansachs.com/what-we-do/investing-and-lending/direct-private-investing/equity-folder/gs-infrastructure-partners.html
http://jacobi.co.nz/open-letter-to-andrew-little-leader-labour-party-on-tpp/
Not sure if this has been posted but food for thought
Are you too incompetent to use the search function much?
bookmark that link.
Another nactoid will probably recycle the same bullshit tomorrow, and pretend to be equally surprised that they’re not the first one to mention it 🙂
Why why why did Jordan Williams get a platform on the Panel this afternoon?
Why does someone representing the viewpoints of the ACT Party get so many opportunities to propagate their extreme viewpoints?
Please explain Mr Mora.
Please explain Mr Griffin.
Mora also regularly has on David Farrar…
Jordan Williams in this instance was invited for his ‘expert’ opinion. The panellists were two others.
Interesting contrast between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns…
Clinton’s hashtag/slogan: #StandWithHillary #ImWithHer
Sanders hashtag/slogan: #NotMeUs
Hillary Clinton’s campaign is about standing with the (multimillionaire and establishment) leader. Bernie Sanders’s campaign is about the grassroots rising up together, with Bernie: it’s not about me, but about *us*.
As the Iowa caucus looms with Bernie and Hillary tied….go Bernie!
God I hope so. Of course if Bernie did make it he wouldn’t be long for this Earth. The one world government of multi-billionaires would swing into action.
Euthanasia submissions close tonight.
if you make a submission by email or through the website, it must be sent through by midnight (ie before.)
Please send any submissions on the petition of Hon Maryan Street to Health@parliament.govt.nz
Just to recap – another way of submitting:
This link put up by a commenter on RADIONZ comment channel RNZ Talk –
Frithogar
Make submissions here – note there is a verification process at the bottom of the page
The closing date is February 1
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/make-submission/0SCHE_SCF_51DBHOH_PET63268_1/petition-of-hon-maryan-street-and-8974-others
and from chienfou
There’s a prospect of appearing before the committee to speak to your submission. I’d encourage anyone who possibly can to volunteer. It adds a lot of weight to the democratic process, especially if it’s not just the same old Wellington hacks turning up.
RADIONZ broadcast Matt Vickers asking people to come forward and take up Lecretia’s plea.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/294319/have-your-say-on-euthanasia,-urges-lecretia%27s-husband
Lecretia and Matt’s blog – http://lecretia.org/
Lecretia’s Choice
Lecretia Seales believed ill people enduring intolerable suffering with no hope of recovery should have the choice to request assistance to end their lives.
Scoop reporting the Lecretia Seales tragedy and the initiative taken by her and her husband.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=76594
Another of The Gauche Man Key’s Higher Standards – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11582779
It’s unabashed “Let them eat cake !”
And Compass’s response – “Last week Compass issued a statement saying it welcomed feedback and would make changes if there were “genuine problems”. ” What alot of bullshit !
Holy shit – NZers get free dental care in the UK. We don’t even get that in our own country.
But we should.
I’ve never seen or heard any reasoning why dental and visual health is excluded from governmental health assistance for adults in New Zealand.
So… this is planned for 6th February.
I figured they’d find their way to NZ eventually.
For those who don’t know, these “pick up artists” think things like: women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, rape is sometimes okay (like, on private property), a woman’s value depends on her beauty and fertility while a mans value depends on his resources, intellect and character…
And a bunch of other self serving BS.
The “pick up” tips they advocate border on illegal. Some of it instructs guys to physically force women to do as they wish, sexually. Which is sexual assault. Illegal.
So… with the NZ police all up in arms about groups that promote terrorising the public… I wonder if they’ve got these guys under surveillance?
Yeah. Right.
It’s just NZ women at risk here. I suspect the NZ police don’t give a shit actually.
Hmmm. 12,000 global likes and he reckons he has handlers/contacts in 44 locations, including Dunedin.
I wonder if they’ll lurk in their anoraks in front of the Dunedin town hall, or do they mean down the Harrop St side, or in the Octagon?
I suspect that the role of the contact is to immediately collect a large amount of money from the sad, frustrated dicks for a skype session where they’re told that they’re lions, not timid little rats.
The Aussie Unity Flag:
http://www.flagforaustralia.org/
Now that is a pretty stunning flag. Makes that lockwood piece of sh*t look even worse than it did already.