The nats privatisation plans are getting more and more difficult. It was conceded yesterday that unless the legislation specifically prevents this happening a partially privatised SOE could sell individual power stations to overseas interests. Eventually they could all be sold. Being a company the directors need to act in the best commercial interests of all shareholders. If the price was right the power stations could all go.
To stop this the matter will need to be addressed in the proposed legislation. And if they do this then the price will take a hit.
Add Maori’s urgent application to the Waitangi Tribunal concerning the use of water and a professional investor is going to significantly discount any offer made. As far as I am concerned they should be allowed to. After all water and the rivers are taonga that Maori retain tino rangatiratanga over.
There must be a point where the sale process is not worth it. I wonder if we are there yet.
lprent – what is up with the Microsoft cloud/ Plunket banner ad on the home page?
Given that Shonkey and the Nats have already signalled their intention to roll out cloud hosting of govt services and information this ad is pretty wack -using Plunket and the kid to promote microsoft and this type of tech as cuddly or safe kind of glosses over how radical and experimental the move to host govt on the cloud really is.
It should never even go to tender – but can we assume from this that there will be a competitive open tender process? – I for one would dearly like a piece of the Nats IT splurge – Google and Microsoft must be drooling at the though of all the money one of them is about get out of NZ. And silly us, we are paying them while at the same time handing over our soverignty.
With the promise of lower costs, increased efficiencies, and new ways to meet organisational priorities, there is a lot of excitement about cloud computing. This is particularly true for government organisations that see ways to leverage the cloud to reduce costs, improve transparency, advance collaboration, better focus on critical needs, and increase citizen services.
Sound familiar? Ole Shonkey has been parroting the PR of the cloud pushers almost word for word. Their sales pitch obviously won him over, I wonder what his kickback is for regurgitating their spin.
I tend to pretty much ignore the ads except for the odd time. For instance the campaign against MMP banners ads last year, where I added the campaign for MMP logos to our logo.
Cheers Lynn – I am doing my best to ignore it but still find it galling. I was hoping that you might have some comment or might like to post perhaps on the ‘cloud’ and its pros and cons – this is your field after all and I would be most interested in your thoughts.
Cloud is a label covering a multitude of types of systems. This site uses two “cloud” sites for warm backup servers (one is meant to be hot – but needs more time to work on than I have now). One is configured as a VPS, but is easily scaleable. The other is a on demand system.
There isn’t anything much different to the remotely hosted dedicated servers, VPS, and web servers I have been using since 1997. All the usual security issues and problems with slow international links and latencies to code around. Hopefully if the government does it here, then they will do it over the local nets to one of the local clouds.
But you pretty much have security problems as soon as you allow any remote access to any system that doesn’t involve a physical access control with people looking over biometrics. Doesn’t matter that much if it is a terminal to a mainframe or a server on the public nets. You still have to put in a lot of connectivity security against man in the middle and stolen access codes. Systems based on the public systems is usually somewhat better these days – a lot more eyes looking for and fixing holes.
trouble is that means it’s the zealots who end up on the front lines, with no qualms at all about lobbing WP into housing projects or shooting children.
Another difficult moral challenge in an overwhelmingly shitty situation.
The Israeli soldiers who commit atrocities are carrying out government orders. If a soldier shoots a Palestinian child and/or demolishes a Palestinian home, it’s not any more acceptable if that soldier does it with a heavy heart and feels guilty.
The problem is the Israeli government, not the poor soldiers who are forced to carry out its crimes.
What “moral challenge” is there? You either participate in these atrocities, or you protest against them, as thousands of young Israelis do every year by refusing to join up.
it’s more how they interpret their orders, and what they choose to interpret as a “threat” that warrants lethal force, and so on.
No, that’s not right. While some Israeli soldiers are undoubtedly cruel, the fact is they are there because the Israeli government has sent them there. It wasn’t a few “bad eggs” who made the decision to destroy Gaza’s electricity supply, bomb its hospitals and schools and cut off its water. It wasn’t a few soldiers making a faulty interpretation of their orders that resulted in white phosphorus, cluster bombs and napalm being used on the civilians of Gaza and Lebanon.
Good to see you back, Morrissey – and in fine form with dear old Grumpers.
Did you see Norman Finkelstein’s recent demolition of the Palmer report ? – ‘Torpedoing the Law: How the Palmer Report Justified Israel’s Naval Blockade of Gaza’. “A careful analysis of the POI report shows that it is probably the most mendacious and debased document ever issued under the aegis of the United Nations.”
Still, should be useful for Geoff’s career earnings. I wonder if Chen and Palmer will diversify into strategic hasbara PR for the Israeli government ?
Yes, I have indeed read and listened to Finkelstein damning Palmer.
Don’t forget, though, it’s the Palmer-Uribe report. The real driver of the report was no doubt the notorious ex-President of Colombia (and notorious violator of human rights) Signor Uribe. Norman Finkelstein noted that the dice were loaded as soon as Uribe was named as the “investigator”.
I’m sure Palmer contributed little or even nothing of substance, other than sign his name to it.
I wonder if Chen and Palmer will diversify into strategic hasbara PR for the Israeli government?
They already have. For free. I believe Lenin had the right term for people like Palmer: useful idiots.
Fair enough, McFlock. I am not trying to say you are wrong. You’re not. It’s just a question of where the primary responsibility lies. As flawed as some of the Israeli soldiers might be, the primary responsibility for them being in the Occupied Territories lies not with them, but with the Israeli regime.
Why does the word communism automatically alert the moderators? Every time I use it my comments are sucked away. Is there an alternative? How about… “that state of social organisation preceeded by socialism”. Too wordy?
The word communism can only be used legitimately, no? Unlike Nazi, which always seems a little over the top in anything but a historical context. And commie can be humourous. We even have those “In Soviet Russia…” jokes on youtube. Can anyone remember any funny Nazi’s?
[It used to be a common “flag” for RWNJ trolls during the last government. But that use does seem to have faded now. Lynn – time to review this? — r0b]
[lprent: Yep. Along with a number of other words and phrases. I’ll have a review of them in the next couple of weeks when the warm weather and my current project crunch let up. The most effective way is to scan the archives of moderated comments to see what they are being used for now. ]
Are you crazy? Hitler had a silly moustache and farted a lot, goering had fabulous blue uniforms and silly batons but was so fat that none of the planes in his airforce were big enough to get him off the ground, goebbels had a congenital malformation and constantly talked about being in the master race…
Aside from the entire planned deaths of millions (and just winging the deaths of millions more) thing, the entire crew seemed to be characters taken from the unreleased comedy classic “Carry On Up the Thousand Year Reich”.
“…The demise of the Occupy camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral was long overdue.
That is not to say it should never have been there at all.
The protest that the police dismantled late on Monday night was loud, scruffy and angry.
And embedded in its sometimes incoherent messages was a core feeling of dissatisfaction which spoke to many struggling to make sense of the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s.
A world in which the richest few grow ever richer –
– while everyone else feels the squeeze cannot possibly be justified –
– and Occupy can take credit for providing a focus for a much wider concern…”
Yeah that story from The Independent is a bit sad, not just for the person who wrote it being a typical “don’t look too hard” journalist, but that the occupiers themselves haven’t thought through what St. Paul’s represents well enough and shouted it out in the media. The Church and versions of capitalism go hand in hand and have for thousands of years. It’s the very forms of oppression that Occupy protest against. Christianity seems to me to be the basis of the style of capitalism most of the western world experience: In the old testament it it regards “earthly treasures” as evidence of god’s blessing and mental illness as evidence of sin. It trades in an “eye for an eye” style of adversarial thinking with all the attendant hypocrisies. Then in the New Testament, apparently many years later, once the Church and religious heirachies are cemented, it seeks to both mentally and materially disarm the people and asks them to remain poor and to “give to caesar what is caesar’s” and not fight back. Even on Christ’s last night alive, the man who fought back against the soldiers was chided by Christ and the soldiers ear healed. Many communities have experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed by corporate interests. The Church would suggest they just lay down and turn philosophical.
So which book do we take as rule? Just discard one over the other as it suits? The Church has done nothing to address this contradiction in it’s one major text and teachings. There is no denying that Christianity is a good way into the exercise of thinking morally if you have no alternative and many have had their circumstances improved by christian intervention. But like capitalism, it’s down sides are many and brutal. That Occupy chose St. Paul’s was a good decision and cannot be devalued on the basis that the church did or continues to do some good stuff somewhere, once. One hundred odd days is nothing compared to eras of christian oppression.
Well yes I agree that any movement, especially American, that stands up and says “Down with religion!” isn’t likely to gain any traction. But that is not what I argue and the overuse of political expediency as soon as things get hard for fledgling organisations is usually the death of them. The Alternet.com story you link to falls prey to the same thinking they award the conservatives within religion:
“Those who worship the gods of selfishness may proclaim themselves to be saved by Jesus, but they do not follow his teachings. As politics and religion continue to influence each other in America, progressives need to realize how completely conservatives have distorted the religion they claim to believe in. And we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about our own values using the familiar language of Christ — a language the vast majority of our fellow Americans already understand.”
Picking and choosing Christ’s words and saying you’re a christian, even a progressive Christian, would be very post-modern, but your Bible would tell you you were a hypocrite – bit of problem. Progressive Churches are popular here in Auckland. My brother attends one and the influence of that on our relationship has all but ended our connection. As far as I understand it, they have reduced christianity to a kind of new-age pop music based sub-culture that mistakes emotion for the truth and contagion emotion as the prescence of a spirit. Nothing wrong with that, if it spins your wheels, but it isn’t very christian as far as a biblical definition goes and not at all intelligent – the kind of intelligent you need to be to be effectively politically progressive. In order to get the progressive church ideas to work, it requires a level of cognitive dissonance to step around the psychological contradictions and it still embraces a big part of the selfishness intertwined with free market capitalism. This problem is not isolated to progressive churches, of course.
I cannot see how Occupy can embrace christianity, officially, if they were to form some sort of “government” or socially influencial body and maintain their own direction. The two philosophies in contact would cause continued rifts. They are less damned if they don’t than if they do. In the very least you’d need a mediatory body between them and stuff like that is just too damn hard to make work in real life. Freedom of religion, but not power in conjunction with the state.
You are looking at religion (conservative and progressive) in its most tedious forms. Andrew Little, an atheist himself, used a Christian quote in his maiden speech: “What gaineth a man who gains the world but loses his soul.” Then there’s “whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.” The literature of Dickens, who used the deeper Christian values to challenge the complacent Victorians. Religious concepts continue to permeate our culture and come up poignantly in such things as popular songs, as in “Won’t you help to sing/ this song of freedom/’cause all I ever have/redemption song. Not to mention Mickey Savage, who described Labour’s reforms as “Christianity in Action.”
One thing I am more and more confident about: we have more chance of gaining ground on the left by putting forward a deeper moral vision than the one the right employs, than by hoping that the sciences will ultimately “prove” we are right.
Christianity seems to me to be the basis of the style of capitalism most of the western world experience:
Well, that shows that you know little or nothing about it! The Book of Acts is afaik the first depiction of socialism in practice, and word to the wise, the Old Testament may have supported the idea that material wealth was a sign of good favour, but it has been superceded by, let’s see, what is it called, oh yes, the New Testament (the clue being in the name.)
Do you seriously think that Jesus should have said “Oh good one, yeah, have at it with your sword, violence is always the answer”. As if.
That there is going to be disagreements on interpretations of christianity is exactly the point. Three of here us disagreeing and now you casting unsupported insults. So how will that help government? Religion is a private practice, in his own words (should you believe them) god existed before the world, before the earth, before religion, before the church and will after those things are gone. Vicky, you are picking and choosing. You deny the entire old testament to suit your taste. In some circles that would be blasphemy. The christian god said he was the same now as he ever was and never changes, yet he eagerly gave orders to his people to slaughter anyone that got in his way, no niceties, no mercy. Now you say god is a liar, that he’s changed and didn’t mean it, because the new testament exists and Jesus was a socialist. Jesus himself could only turn a blind eye to homosexuality, where his father openly condemned it; how will you include gays in your religiously progressive new world? Just ignore that part too? This is where the dissonance starts, don’t demand that the entire population of the world join in. And Olwyn above you calls deference to the old as “tedious”. This is the kind of myopic understanding of christianity that starts wars. How is the state going to be better off with you or anyone else defining who is wrong or right based on your narrow version of morality. Who must be hated because they do or think this or that? And how will you include immigrants, with their own religions and perspectives to your progressive cause? As I said, it is not politically intelligent. It is a minefield for developing political movements and must be avoided.
. Now you say god is a liar, that he’s changed and didn’t mean it, because the new testament exists
No, I don’t say God is a liar. I say that peoples’ understanding of God changed, and Jesus came among other things, to explain how God is, and bring about that change.
and Jesus was a socialist.
Yes.
Jesus himself could only turn a blind eye to homosexuality, where his father openly condemned it; how will you include gays in your religiously progressive new world?
I don’t know of any gays who want to be included! All gays I know, hate religion with a purple passion. From my own point of view, gays are almost infinitely less important than they think they are!
don’t demand that the entire population of the world join in.
When have I ever done that? I don’t recall demanding that anyone ‘join in’.
And how will you include immigrants, with their own religions and perspectives to your progressive cause?
I am an ESOL teacher – I teach immigrants, a surprising number of whom are Christians. (Not surprising to me, but hey, I am certain it would amaze you! 🙂 ) As for the Muslims, they are not all keffiyeh wearing terrorists, (and I am sure that amazes you as well) and hold differing views on political/social subjects, as is true of any population.
Your hatred is simply tedious.
Damn – I’ve had three guys in my roof doing the Govt funded Pink Batts instalation and it all went quite about an hour ago. I crept down the passage and all I could hear was snoring.
Damn – I’ve had three guys in my roof doing the Govt funded Pink Batts instalation and it all went quite about an hour ago. I crept down the passage and all I could hear was snoring.
It is despicable that National and their apologists are trying to gain political ground and public support for the Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill over such an issue, especially when it’s ultimately the Ministers responsibility to ensure such failings do not occur.
Television New Zealand journalists working on the Fair Go programme have been told not to produce stories which would upset their advertisers, Parliament has heard.
Time, methinks, to go to a non-commercial public broadcaster as it’s obvious that any commercial operation is, by its very nature, compromised.
That the House conduct an urgent inquiry into the decisions regarding prosecutions relating to the Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009.
Petition number: 2011/5
Presented by: Phil Twyford
Date presented: 29 February 2012
Referred to: Commerce Committee
Which MPs from which political parties are going to put their hands up and say that they DON’T agree with ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’?
Which MPs from which political parties are going to put their hands up and say that they DON’T agree ‘that the House should conduct an urgent inquiry into prosecutions relating to the Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009’?
Especially when to date four ‘regulatory bodies’ – the former (useless) Securities Commission, the new Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the NZ Police – have refused to charge the now Minister of Regulatory Reform, the (new) ACT Party Leader and MP (but for how long?) for Epsom?
“She’s tough. She’s been there. She’s been a solo mum. She’s had it hard. She’s come out the other end. Labour hates her. And she hates them more”
This is seriously bad writing by Garner, he really gives no real balance at all. CL is correct, its a bloody rah rah for Bennett.
If she becomes leader, I will have to stand against her myself in Waitakere. West Auckland will not know whats hit it. I might just stand for the fun of it.
Ghastly writing, just Bennett back up propaganda. Equally ghastly is the thought of Garner’s possible “crush” on her blooming into something more enduring and becoming three of them.Ugh, ugh and poor little ugh!
Has anybody heard if she is going to be investigated by the Human Right Commision about flouting privacy laws or has My Leader managed to get that one shut down.Also, seeing as she had to GO ON THE BENEFIT because she was so tired how in the hell does she think that any other single working mother is goingto manage what she “wonder woman” could not do. I would also like the complete story about her hardship days. Who looked after her child. Did she get support from her parents? There is a lot she is not saying.Was she living on her own with noone to support her when she came home exhausted! Or did she live with mummy and daddy. Maybe Duncan knows. It would make a great TV story As he said, she came out the other end. Whose I wonder?
Award-winning filmmakers Tom and Sumner Burstyn from Cloud South Films are reaching out to concerned Kiwi citizens to help fund their next documentary with the working title Fracking Whakatutu.
Thats interesting, I loved their film this way of life.. Utterly beautiful. Apparently started as a documentary about horse whisperers and became this fascinating film about modern NZ culture.
This Way of Life was a very nice film. It will be interesting to see how they will apply their obvious artistic camera skills and if they can gain access to get footage from fracking sites. I hear the industry is pretty secretive, with good reason I might add.
This Way of Life was excellent and I expect they’ll do a good job on this one. There was a confrontation scene at the end of the doco which showed the filmmakers aren’t cowards like our so many of revered celebrity journalists.
LIAR WATCH No. 2
grumpy The Standard, March 1, 2012
1.) “I go by the simple process of believing that Islamic Radicals are bad bastards and anyone who stands up to them are [sic] good bastards. Sort of the opposite of your opinion.”
2.) “I try to be objective.”
– – – – – – – – – ——- – – – – – – – ——– – – – – – –
If you enjoyed this, you might like to see….
I note that “grumpy” has compounded his foolishness by launching into a drooling rage against Noam Chomsky, and cited a notorious right wing site to “refute” him.
I note also that for some reason I am unable to reply to his muddled message….
(Lin, could you explain why there is no “Reply” option on his messages? It has the effect of giving our far right wing friend an entirely spurious last word.)
[lprent: With a threaded messages system there has to be a limit on how nested the programmers allow it to get. Otherwise you eventually wind up with replies that are indented so far to the right that they are splashed against the right boundary as a column of single or hyphenated words.
WordPress has a maximum of 10 ? reply levels deep. We use their maximum. When you hit it, then there is no reply button.
As someone said below, walk up the parent comments until you find a reply button and use that. Or start a new thread. ]
You really are foolish, my friend. If you’re going to substitute random Google results for argument, you couldn’t have blundered on to a less credible source than Arthur Schlesinger. Not that it matters to you, but in case anyone serious is reading this, Schlesinger was the official house myth-maker of the Kennedy clan, and a supporter of everything that JFK did, including the terror campaign against Cuba and the start of the destruction of South Vietnam.
Chomsky was merely the most distinguished of the many intellectuals who showed him up for what he was. Not that this will mean anything to you, of course. I’m sure you don’t even know who Arthur Schlesinger was, and are only familiar with him through stumbling on his dyspeptic and absurd spleen-vent via your Google-searching.
Anti semitic, holocaust denier, nazi sympathiser etc. etc.
Your absurd and fanciful list of accusations against Chomsky is not your own, of course. You don’t know enough to even slander him.
It only makes you look dishonest—and even more foolish.
Seems to depend on you [sic] political viewpoint, either he’s the messiah or a devious lying prick.
You’re seeking to trivialize and turn everything into a joke. That’s because you’re out of your depth. Please read one of the books on that site. If you want to continue ignoring Chomsky, feel free, but you should read one of the others. As it is, you’re lamentably ill-informed. Are you Leighton Smith?
Undoubtably, though, the doyen of the Left.
Again, you have little or no comprehension of what you are writing. Chomsky is perhaps even more critical of the Leftist establishment than he is of the pseudo-scholars of the rabid right, who you unwittingly quote with relish.
Do you ever think for yourself?
That’s rich coming from someone who has inadvertently cited a discredited old Kennedy apparatchik and (even funnier) a lunatic site from the furthest reaches of the braindead right.
Are you mad?
Schlesinger opposed the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Iraq war and was a columnist for that well known right wing media organization – The Huffington Post.
He was also foolish enough to let himself be tricked into writing for Norman Podhoretz’s barmy Commentary magazine, from which you (unwittingly) took that ridiculous and mendacious quote.
Has anyone read Gordon McLauchlan’s book The Pasionless People lately? Some of the points in the 1976 book about our doughiness seem to either be still applicable or be applying again.
“Here in a beautiful, benign and uncrowded country…we suffer…from depression and…angst… Unhappiness has become such an epidemic that our smugness, once unassailable, is wearing thin.”
We look to see ourselves and find ‘a group of people who have nurtured in isolation from the rest of the world a Victorian, lower-middle class, Calvinist, village mentality…There is no passion to give us a dream of the good life, a vision of love and beauty, a sense of a variety of lifestyles, of alternative viewpoints and philosophies through which we may fulfil ourselves in different ways.”
…New Zealanders have no moral or social philosophy…Right now, influence within our society is factionalized, compacted into pressure groups which exert their power almost exclusively for selfish needs without any sense of a total community.”
Has anyone read Gordon McLauchlan’s book The Pasionless People lately? Some of the points in the 1976 book about our doughiness seem to either be still applicable or be applying again.
It’s an awesome book! I read it some time in the 1980s.
Peter Dunne said in a letter to the Ohariu anti asset sales meeting tonight that he had pledged support for the policy, and that it would be “dishonorable” to renege on his promise. I think it would be more dishonorable to support policies that were not in the best interests of NZ people.
I think the right needs to start putting its money where its mouth is and start circulating a petition for a Citizens Initiated Referendum to ban unions and collective bargaining. Surely this is doable, with many rich pricks with money burning holes in their pocket. If a bunch of god bothering child beaters can do it, then the biggest and richest business barons will have no problems doing it, Im sure Farrar, Slater and Cactus, can mobilise volunteers.
I am being deadly serious here. I have even thought up possible questions:
Should workers be barred from forming and joining trade unions?
Should collective bargaining between workers and their employers be outlawed?
I’m willing to help circulate the petition too, if need be.
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Take Me Home: Bowalley Road, North Otago. The long gravel road after which Chris Trotter’s blog is named. Near the road’s end is the farm where he spent the first nine years of his life.ONE OF THE JOYS of blogging is the instant feedback you get. Certainly, there are the trolls who ...
Steven Levitt, famous for his Freakanomics, shows that being an economist is not just mouthing supply and demand.Brian Easton writes – Anyone can call themselves an ‘economist’. Many do, despite having no qualifications in economics and hardly any formal training; they often make elementary errors. That is the ...
Today is New Zealand’s first King’s Birthday since 1951. It’s not Charlie’s actual birthday, any more than Queen’s Birthday was Liz’s, but it’s a public holiday nonetheless. Until the creation of Matariki, the monarch’s observed birthday marked the start of a black hole in New Zealand’s holiday calendar, stretching ...
All things change. Nations, sporting teams, individuals. All have a time of ascent, and, in time, of decline. Their time on the stage, in the spotlight - however brightly they shone, gone. A new generation in their place.We see it on this day, in what still sounds strange, King’s Birthday. ...
Hi,A few days ago I screwed up my back. Rather, I inflamed an old injury — agitating a naughty protruding disc on my spine so it pinched a nerve, turning my lower back into a swarm of confused electrical signals. As a bonus feature, my entire right leg felt like ...
Seymour smirked at his reflection.Hi he said.Hi Hi Hi Hi the different reflections from the mirrored surfaces around the bathroom responded. Those days are over he thought, no more having to knock on every bloody door in Epsom - everybody knows my name now.The theme tune to Cheers ran through ...
Last Sunday, we looked out across the seas to, of all places, the USA for inspiration and hope. We're going back again today to visit Joe Biden.But first, an octopus. Arguably this creature with more neurons in its arms than head qualifies as this planet’s first intelligent being.Arguably it also qualifies ...
When I left academia in 2011 I was forced to stop two book projects that were in the works. Without institutional support and resourcing it is impossible to conduct in-depth academic research that requires field research in foreign countries and … Continue reading → ...
Buzz from the Beehive Defence Minister Andrew Little, addressing big-wigs from around the world in Singapore, was oh-so-diplomatically disinclined to identify some countries as goodies or baddies in his government’s defence thinking. In his Speech To The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2023, he did say New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment ...
This week’s hoon included Wellington City Councillor Tamatha Paulon the politics ofLets Get Wellington Movingand the great battle for the Thorndon Quay cycle way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: The week’s news in Aotearoa’s political economy I covered via The Kākā for subscribers included:The Labour Government’s ...
Morning all,I’ve been taking a look at some of the new features Substack have released and I’m keen to find out how you access newsletters. Some of the features are only available on certain platforms.Whether you use a mobile device like a phone or tablet, or a PC or laptop. ...
Hello! This is the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the week.Here’s what you may have missed.Last Sunday’s column had a genuinely inspiring story about political leaders getting huge things done in the face of culture wars and conservative resistance. Readers told me this should ...
Steven Levitt, famous for his Freakanomics, shows that being an economist is not just mouthing supply and demand.Anyone can call themselves an ‘economist’. Many do, despite having no qualifications in economics and hardly any formal training; they often make elementary errors. That is the result of a conscious decision of ...
Over the years, we've published several calls for help with translations but most of them were rather generalized in nature like last year's blog post published in February 2022. This time around, we are asking for help with a quite specific task, namely to update existing translations for the rebuttals included ...
1. By what name is this work of art known?a. The Drowning Dog, Francisco Goyab.The Temptation of St Anthony, Hieronymus Boschc.Saturn Devouring His Son Peter, Paul Rubensd.Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown Waves To A Stuff Journalist Through A Window, Stuff Photographer Ricky Wilson2. Who was in the news ...
An effective campaign against the RMA reforms will be a nightmare for Hipkins.Graham Adams writes – After a Budget that failed to excite voters and a lacklustre party conference where his senior colleagues faintly praised him for his proletarian taste in food, the very last thing Chris Hipkins ...
Buzz from the BeehiveEducation Minister Jan Tinetti brings news of a book of rules for school board members at the same time as her own grasp of Parliament’s rule book has been brought into question. Tinetti has announced a compulsory code of conduct to “ensure school board members are ...
Photo by Branden Tate on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour from midday (my apologies for the late start today), including:the Government’s vague promise of sharing the costs of cyclone rebuilding and buy-backs ...
Last night was a big night for our most celebrated radio presenter.Mike Hosking was named the Sir Paul Holmes Broadcaster of the Year - for the third straight year - as well as Best Talk Presenter (breakfast/drive) at the New Zealand Radio awards. Do you feel proud Aotearoa?In the presenter category ...
Speak of the devil. The Australian website Crikey has just launched an investigative series about the notorious lobbying firm Crosby Textor, or C/T as it now prefers to be called. It transpires that two clients of C/T’s American subsidiary will benefit greatly from the AUKUS defence pact between the US, ...
Aotearoa’s failure to deal with the escalating pace of human-induced climate change was starkly on display yesterday. Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: Our planet is now warming and generating extreme climate events faster than our politicians, voters and institutions can agree to reduce the costs and share the burden of those events ...
It’s Friday and we’ve got a long weekend ahead of us. Here’s our latest roundup of stories that caught our eye this week. The Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt reviewed National’s new housing policy. On Tuesday Matt looked at some of the highlights from Auckland Transport’s ...
The facts are bald and simple; India is now the most populous country in the world and the fifth largest economy and is on track to becoming the fourth. Despite that, New Zealand’s relationship with India could best be described as in its infancy, even though New Zealand has ...
Open access notables Multiple studies indicate changes in the properties of Antarctic bottom water (AABW) over the past half century. These changes involve density and hence will affect both local and distant circulation of the oceans, not least overturning effects that are vital for marine biology but also climate and ...
Completed reads for May: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift Journey to the Centre of the Earth, by Jules Verne Round the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne The Secret of the Island, by Jules Verne From the Earth ...
Ben Roberts-Smith is apparently "Australia’s most decorated living soldier", having won a Victoria Cross for killing people in Afghanistan. But today, after a stupendous self-own defamation case, he's also been proven to be a war criminal who committed multiple murders: Ben Roberts-Smith VC, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, has ...
Hey Uncle Dave, My house got wrecked in the summer floods. Do you know if the government’s got any plans to help me, or are they too busy making bilingual road signs?Noah InsuranceYou picked a good day to ask, Noah, the Govt has just announced there’ll be an offer of ...
The government has looked at imposing a tax on nitrogen fertiliser, used heavily in NZ agriculture, but yesterday Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor conceded he had not convinced farming leaders to go ahead with it. ACT”s Mark Cameron claimed credit in Parliament for “killing” the plan. Both Federated ...
Are women the new Māori?Since Christopher Luxon has been leader National have shown they’re prepared to throw Māori under a bus. Be it not wanting them to have a seat at the table on water management, referring to the Treaty as a “little experiment”, or the monocultural candidate selection polices ...
Are women the new Māori?Since Christopher Luxon has been leader National have shown they’re prepared to throw Māori under a bus. Be it not wanting them to have a seat at the table on water management, referring to the Treaty as a “little experiment”, or the monocultural candidate selection polices ...
Buzz from the Beehive An email from Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta had yet to be posted on the government’s official website, when Point of Order made its morning check on our ministers and what they are (officially) up to. She was providing us with an account – a ...
Multiple reviews are examining options to address a $25M to $40M funding hole in its operating budget and a reported $300M, 70,000 hour maintenance backlog for huts, tracks and visitor assets.Thomas Cranmer writes – Following Friday’s revelation that Budget 2023has left the Department of Conservation ...
Property values fell a further 0.7% in May from April across Aotearoa, but Core Logic sees evidence in the data “the current downturn is winding up.” Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: There are fresh signs this morning the housing market-with-bits-tacked-on economy is brightening up going into winter, and just ...
This is a cross post by Malcom McCracken at Better things are possible. It was from between when National signalled their change in housing policy but before they announced it but highlights why the Medium Density Residential Standards are important. Yesterday, the leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, ...
Do the global climate models (GCMs) we use for describing future climate change really capture the change and variations in the region that we want to study? There are widely used tools for evaluating global climate models, such as the ESMValTool, but they don’t provide the answers that I ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). The world is getting hotter and the headlines are scary. So does climate change mean the world is about to pass ...
Politik (paywalled) reports that He waka eke noa, the farmers' scam to have the rest of us subsidise their emissions forever, so they can keep on destroying the planet, is dead: Reality appears to be about to shatter Jacinda Ardern's dream that New Zealand could lead the world in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two ministerial press statements today draw attention to the Government’s incorporation of mātauranga Māori in its science policies and programmes. One of these announced the launch of the national space policy, which will oblige our space boffins to bring indigenous knowledge into their considerations. The ...
The Stations of the Cross, as all of us know from our devout and Godly ways, is a series of fourteen stations that depict the final hours in the story of Christ our Lord - appearing before Pilate, shouldering the wooden cross, whistling the Monty Python tune, so on and ...
The Stations of the Cross, as all of us know from our devout and Godly ways, is a series of fourteen stations that depict the final hours in the story of Christ our Lord - appearing before Pilate, shouldering the wooden cross, whistling the Monty Python tune, so on and ...
The Green Party are today launching a campaign asking for people to submit their stories of subpar, substandard and downright awful experiences of renting in Aotearoa. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the draft report of the Independent Electoral Review and challenging all political parties to commit to implementing its final recommendations after the 2023 general election. ...
Today, Te Pāti Māori announce Takuta Ferris will contest the Te Tai Tonga seat at this year’s General Election. “Takura ran for the Te Tai Tonga seat for Te Pāti Māori in 2020. It takes tremendous courage and commitment to put your hand up for another round in the ring ...
Focussed immigration has always been essential to our future, but New Zealanders need to be aware of the immediate dire situation our government is putting us in with a predicted record of one hundred thousand new immigrants moving to New Zealand in this year alone. That means we will have ...
Today, President of Te Pāti Māori, John Tamihere has confirmed that Heather Te-Au Skipworth will stand for Te Pāti Māori in the Tukituki electorate this election. ...
During New Zealand First coalition negotiations our policy was to train and resource 1800 new frontline police. We secured this coalition policy win to ensure our streets had a police force that could tackle crime - after years of neglect. Remember those previous nine years of neglect saw a ‘tag ...
Katie Kenny from Stuff published an article today with a lazy attempt at so-called ‘fact checking’ my recent comments on the World Health Organisation’s concerning new regulations being developed. What is most surprising is that throughout this entire ‘fact checking’ process, Kenny never once rang me asking for my side ...
The National Party has released another confused and rushed policy that will only further worsen the inequality that is driven by unaffordable housing. ...
Welcome to sunny and calm Wellington, which I know those of you who are visiting would of course expect to be the case. It’s been a busy week since we put forward the 2023 Budget. Labour MPs have been out across the motu giving the good oil on the Budget. ...
Kia orana, Talofa lava, Mālo e lelei, Taloha ni, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Noa’ia e mauri, Ni sa bula vinaka, Kia ora, Tena Koutou Katoa. Labour Party President Jill Day, Prime Minister Hipkins, Party faithful, delegates and comrades, whānau and friends, it’s a privilege to be here today. I begin my ...
One of my kaumātua up North stood before the Waitangi Tribunal and said: ‘He aha kē ahau, te tangata kore hara i mua i te Atua, e tu nei kia whakawaatia e koe, te tangata tāhae, te tangata hara, te tangata kore tikanga?Ko koe kē te tika, kia tū ...
New Zealanders will be highly concerned that the World Health Organisation proposes to effectively take control of independent decision making away from sovereign countries and place control with the Director General. W.H.O International Health Regulations on future outbreaks of disease aim to give the Director General extraordinary and wide-sweeping powers. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take responsibility for reducing inflation by taxing wealth instead of leaving RBNZ to continue hiking the Official Cash Rate. ...
The Green Party has released its list of candidates for the 2023 election. With a mix of familiar faces, fresh new talent, and strong tangata whenua voices, this exceptional group of candidates are ready to set the direction of the next Government. ...
Thank you for your invitation to be here, after yesterday's budget, and for the opportunity to talk with you. In the economic and social turmoil following the arrival of COVID 19 in New Zealand many concerns emerged. How would we keep our economy going and maintain our exports which are ...
The Māori Budget this year continues our proud track record of investing in whānau wellbeing, access to whare, and whakapapa, all of which support our Government’s plan to address the cost of living. ...
At the heart of Budget 2023 is a cost of living package, designed to ease the pressure on New Zealanders in the face of global inflation and the challenges of rebuilding from extreme weather events. It provides practical cost of living relief across some of the core expenses facing Kiwis ...
A proposed temporary law change would enable rural Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti landowners dealing with masses of cyclone and flood debris to burn mixed waste so they can replant and return their land to productivity, Environment Minister David Parker said today. The proposed short-term law change would ensure that any ...
Legislation introduced in Parliament today will ensure New Zealand’s emergency management system learns the lessons of recent and previous responses to natural disasters, including severe weather events and other emergencies. The Emergency Management Bill replaces the two decades old Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002. “The strength of our emergency ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka met in Wellington this morning, reaffirming the strength and spirit of New Zealand and Fiji’s relationship, as outlined in the Duavata Relationship Statement of Partnership. “New Zealand and Fiji are connected by a kinship forged in Pacific culture, identity and interests, ...
Primary teachers have agreed to the Government’s pay offer which will see the top base salary step rise to $100,000 by December next year. The settlement will also see a number of improvements to primary teachers’ conditions, including more than double the classroom release time they currently have to ...
Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan has announced the construction plan for the bridge on State Highway 25A that will reconnect the Coromandel peninsula, bringing more certainty to the region’s recovery efforts. “The Government is committed to reconnecting Coromandel communities quickly, and this plan to repair the damage along the highway ...
Tena koutou katoa and welcome to Parliament. It is a great pleasure for me to host you here today, for the second New Zealand Seafood Sustainability Awards. The awards started in 2020 and officially, are to be held every two years. But as with so many things, COVID got in the ...
Representation for women on public sector boards and committees is the highest it’s ever been with wāhine now making up 53.1 percent of public board and committee members,” Minister for Women Jan Tinetti said. Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women’s 2022 stocktake of public sector boards and committees shows for the ...
A new law enabling sole parents on a benefit to receive child support payments for their tamariki was passed in Parliament today. “This change is estimated to lift as many as 14,000 children out of poverty and give families a median of $20 extra a week,” said Social Development and ...
Crack down on disposable vapes No new vape shops near schools or marae Restricted descriptions for product flavours The Government is taking action to reduce the number of young people taking up vaping, Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Too many young people are vaping, which is why we’re ...
Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will visit New Zealand this week, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Prime Minister Rabuka officially visited New Zealand in 1998, over 25 years ago, and we look forward to welcoming him here once again,” Chris Hipkins said. “New Zealand and Fiji have a long ...
The King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours List 2023 includes sporting stars and administrators who reflect the best of New Zealand’s sporting community. Sir Wayne Smith has been knighted for services to rugby. Sir Wayne was Assistant Coach of the All Blacks at the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cups and ...
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa taki tini ‘My success is not mine alone, but that of the people” The King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours list 2023 celebrates Māori from all walks of life, reflecting the achievements of those who have made a significant contribution to ...
The strength and diversity of service in New Zealand is a standout feature of today’s King’s Birthday and Coronation Honours list, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said. “Each of today’s 182 recipients has contributed individually to our country. Viewed collectively, their efforts reflect an overwhelming commitment to service.” Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Defence Ministers of New Zealand and Japan have signed a statement of intent for closer defence cooperation between the two Pacific regional partners. Andrew Little and H. E. Yasukazu Hamada met to sign the ‘Statement of Intent on Defence Cooperation in Maritime Security, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief and ...
New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment identified climate change and geostrategic competition as the two greatest security challenges to our place in the South Pacific. To the first issue, partners engaging and re-engaging with Pacific Island Countries are finding that climate change is a security and existential threat in our ...
The government is continuing to support rangatahi in providing more funding into Maori Trades training and new He Poutama Rangatahi programmes across Aotearoa. “We’re backing 30 new by Māori for Māori Kaupapa employment and training programmes, which will help iwi into sustainable employment or progress within their chosen careers” says ...
Murihiku Marae was officially reopened today, setting a gold standard in sustainable building practices as well as social outcomes for the people of Waihōpai Invercargill, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan says. “The marae has been a central hub for this community since the 1980’s. With the support of $9.65 million ...
The first major public housing development in Whangārei for decades has reached completion, with 37 new homes opened in the suburb of Maunu today. The project on Tapatahi Crescent and Puriri Park Road, consists of 15 one-bedroom, 4 two-bedroom, 7 three-bedroom, 8 four-bedroom and 3 five-bedroom homes, as well as ...
Trade and Export Growth Minister Damen O’Connor will depart tomorrow for London to represent New Zealand at the Commonwealth Trade Ministers’ Meeting and then to Paris to vice-chair the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting. “My travel to the United Kingdom is well-timed, with the United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (UK FTA) ...
The Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill would: boost New Zealand’s fuel supply resilience and economic security enable the minimum stockholding obligation regulations to be adapted as the energy and transport environment evolves. “Last November, I announced a six-point plan to improve the resiliency of our fuel supply from ...
The Government is making sure those on low incomes will no longer have to wait five weeks to get the minimum weekly rate of ACC, and improving the data collected to make the system fairer, Minister for ACC Peeni Henare said today. The Accident Compensation (Access Reporting and Other Matters) ...
A compulsory code of conduct will ensure school board members are crystal clear on their responsibilities and expected standard of behaviour, Minister of Education Jan Tinetti said. It’s the first time a compulsory code of conduct has been published for state and state-integrated school boards and comes into effect on ...
Tena koutou katoa and thank you, Mayor Nadine Taylor, for your welcome to Marlborough. Thanks also Doug Saunders-Loder and all of you for inviting me to your annual conference. As you might know, I’m quite new to this job – and I’m particularly pleased that the first organisation I’m giving a ...
The Government will enter into a funding arrangement with councils in cyclone and flood affected regions to support them to offer a voluntary buyout for owners of Category 3 designated residential properties. It will also co-fund work needed to protect Category 2 designated properties. “From the beginning of this process ...
The Government has announced changes to strengthen requirements in venues with pokie (gambling) machines will come into effect from 15 June. “Pokies are one of the most harmful forms of gambling. They can have a detrimental impact on individuals, their friends, whānau and communities,” Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds said. ...
The total Police workforce is now the largest it has ever been. Police constabulary stands at 10,700 officers – an increase of 21% since 2017 Māori officers have increased 40%, Pasifika 83%, Asian 157%, Women 61% Every district has got more Police under this Government The Government has delivered on ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta met with Korea President Yoon, as well as Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna, during her recent visit to Korea. “It was an honour to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the first Korea – Pacific Leaders’ Summit. We discussed Pacific ambitions under the ...
The Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive has supported more than $2 billion of New Zealand business innovation – an increase of around $1 billion in less than nine months. "Research and innovation are essential in helping us meet the biggest challenges and seize opportunities facing New Zealand. It’s fantastic ...
The next ‘giant leap’ in New Zealand’s space journey has been taken today with the launch of the National Space Policy, Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds announced. “Our space sector is growing rapidly. Each year New Zealand is becoming a more and more attractive place for launches, manufacturing space-related technology ...
A new Year 7-13 designated character wharekura will be built in Pāpāmoa, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The wharekura will focus on science, mathematics and creative technologies while connecting ākonga to the whakapapa of the area. The decision follows an application by the Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore ...
Protecting the environment by establishing a stronger, more consistent system for freedom camping Supporting councils to better manage freedom camping in their region and reduce the financial and social impacts on communities Ensuring that self-contained vehicle owners have time to prepare for the new system The Self-Contained Motor Vehicle ...
A new law passed last night could see up to 25 percent of Family Court judges’ workload freed up in order to reduce delays, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan said. The Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill will establish a new role known as the Family Court Associate. The ...
New Zealand businesses will begin reaping the rewards of our gold-standard free trade agreement with the United Kingdom (UK FTA) from today. “The New Zealand UK FTA enters into force from today, and is one of the seven new or upgraded Free Trade Agreements negotiated by Labour to date,” Prime ...
The Government will reform outdated surrogacy laws to improve the experiences of children, surrogates, and the growing number of families formed through surrogacy, by adopting Labour MP Tāmati Coffey’s Member’s Bill as a Government Bill, Minister Kiri Allan has announced. “Surrogacy has become an established method of forming a family ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little departs for Singapore tomorrow to attend the 20th annual Shangri-La Dialogue for Defence Ministers from the Indo-Pacific region. “Shangri-La brings together many countries to speak frankly and express views about defence issues that could affect us all,” Andrew Little said. “New Zealand is a long-standing participant ...
Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology Wang Zhigang met in Wellington today and affirmed the two countries’ long-standing science relationship. Minister Wang was in New Zealand for the 6th New Zealand-China Joint Commission Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation. Following ...
5 percent uplift clearer and simpler to navigate Domestic productions can access more funding sources 20 percent rebate confirmed for post-production, digital and visual effects Qualifying expenditure for post-production, digital and visual effects rebate dropped to $250,000 to encourage more smaller productions The Government is making it easier for the ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region) Carmel Sepuloni will represent New Zealand at Samoa’s 61st Anniversary of Independence commemorations in Apia. “Aotearoa New Zealand is pleased to share in this significant occasion, alongside other invited Pacific leaders, and congratulates Samoa on the milestone of 61 ...
The Government is continuing to support retailers with additional funding for the highly popular Fog Cannon Subsidy Scheme, Police and Small Business Minister Ginny Andersen announced today. “The Government is committed to improving retailers’ safety,” Ginny Andersen said. “I’ve seen first-hand the difference fog cannons are making. Not only do ...
The Government has received the first independent review of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says. The review, considered by the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, was presented to the House of Representatives today. “Ensuring the safety and security of New Zealanders is of the utmost ...
EU members at Massey University are bitterly disappointed that the Vice-Chancellor has continued to push ahead with disruptive and unnecessary plans to disestablish 178 administration and finance jobs only to establish 141 new roles. A preliminary ...
A group of concerned communities and businesses are today appealing to the Government to make a change that will stop the sudden and significant postal price increase that threatens to cut them off. From July 1, New Zealand Post is hiking its postage ...
The Asthma and Respiratory Foundation is disappointed by the new vaping regulations announced by the Government yesterday, saying they are inadequate to address the scale and seriousness of youth vaping in Aotearoa. "While we are pleased that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gavin Prideaux, Professor, Flinders University Dendrolagus ursinus, or Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo.Shutterstock Kangaroos are an enduring symbol of Australia’s uniqueness. To move, they do what no other large mammals do: they hop along on oversized hind legs. So you may be surprised to ...
Xiaole Zhan’s vivid, award-winning essay about how music can shape the perception of one’s own body was originally published in Landfall 245. I am seventeen with naked knees hacking into the trachea of a dead sheep. The smell will stain me, like bloodshot snow, or the taste of cigarettes and ...
Chris Hipkins has met with his Fijian counterpart Sitiveni Rabuka in Wellington, offering financial support to the Pacific nation as it addresses the impacts of climate change. In a statement, Hipkins said he had an “inspired discussion” with Rabuka on how our two countries can further cooperate to combat climate ...
The Chairperson of the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee is calling for public submissions on the Fuel Industry (Improving Fuel Resilience) Amendment Bill. The bill aims to ensure that New Zealand has adequate fuel stocks to mitigate ...
This week on our pop culture podcast we talk Tina from Turners, Pete Evans’ new ‘do and the secrets of the Love Island villa from Iain Stirling himself. Eat, sleep, crack on, repeat – It’s Love Island week and we could not be more excited to return to ...
“Common sense, driven by Groundswell NZ, seems to be finally permeating the He Waka Eke Noa space. A tax on the world’s most efficient farmers is counterproductive to food security, pricing, and would drive emissions offshore and in greater volume ...
A Malaysian lawyer who petitioned for New Zealand to stop sending plastic recycling to developing countries will be facing off against industry groups in Parliament tomorrow. This Thursday morning, petition leader Lydia Chai will argue for a ban ...
Homelessness is traumatic for young people, with potentially lifelong impacts on their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. According to data by STATS NZ, almost 50% of all those experiencing homelessness in Aotearoa are tamariki and rangatahi. ...
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has released its most recent report on the use of animals in science , stating that 308,872 animals were used for research, testing and teaching in NZ that year, and nearly half (47%) of these animals were ...
Alex Casey chats to Love Island UK narrator Iain Stirling about creating voiceover magic, smoking around the firepit and the fatal flaw in Love Island NZ.Iain Stirling is holding up a small black case like a Deal or No Deal lady. He’s in his spare room in North London, ...
Leading road transport body Transporting New Zealand is calling on all political parties to make transport a top priority in this year’s election. The organisation has released the Road Transport Industry Platform for the 2023 General Election. ...
The Chairperson of the Justice Committee is calling for submissions on the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Rugby World Cup 2023 Extended Trading Hours) Amendment Bill. The 2023 men’s Rugby World Cup will take place from 9 September 2023 to 29 October ...
National’s unveiled a new election year policy dubbed “infrastructure for the future”, which the party said will address the country’s “yawning” infrastructure deficit. It includes a new National Infrastructure Agency that would help coordinate government funding and improve delivery, new partnership deals between the government and local councils to create ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Today’s contentMICHAEL WOOD AUCKLAND AIRPORT SHARES CONFLICT OF INTEREST Luke Malpass (Stuff): Michael Wood, the shares, and the taint of incompetence Thomas Coughlan ...
Duncan Greive has a story on The Spinoff this morning on the awards designed to recognise the service of frontline workers during the pandemic. A year on from the announcement of the awards, hundreds of seemingly eligible people and organisations have been turned down, while around 50,000 awards remain unclaimed. Greive spoke ...
In 2003, a crew member on a New Zealand research vessel snapped a photo of a funny-looking fish. This is the story of how ‘Mr Blobby’ became a deep-sea icon.With its slimy pink skin, bulbous nose and downturned mouth, Mr Blobby is one of the world’s most famous fish. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David King, Senior Lecturer in General Practice, The University of Queensland Pexels/Cottonbro Studio, CC BY Our noses perform important functions every day of our lives, but we often only notice when disease changes how they work. Our sense of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Cardilini, Lecturer, Environmental Science, School of Life and Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment, Deakin University Gajus, Shutterstock Use of sodium fluoroacetate poison baits – commonly known as 1080 – to kill unwanted animals is widespread ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lucinda McKnight, Senior Lecturer in Pedagogy and Curriculum, Deakin University Shutterstock The world of writing is changing. Things have moved very quickly from keyboards and predictive text. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) means bots can now write ...
Primary teachers have accepted the latest collective agreement put forward by the education ministry – the fourth offer proposed following lengthy negotiations and strike action. In a statement, the head of the education union NZEI, Mark Potter, said the new agreement included significant wins for teachers. “The biggest win was ...
Fuel companies are preparing marketing campaigns to sheet home the blame for next month's rise in fuel prices – and controversially, to show motorists how to avoid paying ...
The National Party is standing by its call for Michael Wood to be sacked from all his ministerial posts. Wood, who retains his roles in the immigration and Auckland portfolio, was stood down as transport minister yesterday after it emerged he had continued to hold undeclared shares in Auckland Airport. ...
Michael Wood got parked as transport minister yesterday, his explanation about not selling airport shares found wanting. He’s the fifth minister to cause the prime minister problems since January, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Getty Images Among a host of other recommendations, the Independent Electoral Review has proposed a referendum on extending the term of parliament to four years (from the current ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Grant Duncan, Associate Professor, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Getty Images Among a host of other recommendations, the Independent Electoral Review has proposed a referendum on extending the term of parliament to four years (from the current ...
Jacinda Ardern announced military-style awards to formally acknowledge the pandemic’s frontline workers. But a year on, hundreds of seemingly eligible people and organisations have been turned down, while around 50,000 awards remain unclaimed.The early days of the pandemic were a blur for Terry Taylor. The president of the New ...
A small Canterbury community claims victory after a David and Goliath battle. David Williams reports. Plans to build a cattle feedlot in a tiny Canterbury valley, near one of the country’s most polluted lakes, have been pulled. Farm company Wongan Hills had been granted city council consent to build massive ...
They’re fielding candidates in the Māori seats for the first time in more than 20 years, but the question has to be asked – why? The National Party made headlines when it was announced they would field Māori electorate candidates in the upcoming election for the first time since 2002. ...
From riding in her Dad's rally car aged 12, school girl Bella Haggarty is now co-driving in some of the country's biggest events. Bella Haggarty is on a fast track to success. The 15-year-old from Rangiora is a Year 11 student at St Margaret’s College in Christchurch, but away from that, ...
A proposal to put te reo Māori on New Zealand's road signs has sparked outcries at the cost and the confusion bilingual signage could bring. But as The Detail finds out, bilingual signage has been around for decades — and it works. In Wales, bilingual signage is everywhere. "You've got road signs ...
There are useful models to follow, particularly from many European cities where outdoor space is prioritised and urban character is considered in planning decisionsOpinion: Many aspiring Kiwi homeowners long ago abandoned the quarter acre dream. But should they have to face the prospect of living in inhospitable urban centres ...
As New Zealand reviews its surrogacy and adoption laws, Dr Anne Else argues that fertility is another area we are falling short Comment: This term Labour set out to tackle the urgent, long-delayed tasks of reforming surrogacy and adoption law. But both projects have become bogged down. The Law Commission's extremely ...
If Wayne Brown’s full selldown of airport shares doesn’t get off the ground, will Auckland’s councillors find a compromise? After months of consultation and policy pruning, Auckland’s councillors will gather tomorrow to vote on Mayor Wayne Brown’s budget proposal - and it looks like it will come down to each ...
A tramper who fell 16m from a Department of Conservation swing bridge was a victim of mismanagement, a former ranger claims A senior DoC ranger who threw in his job over lax safety standards says the department is playing down the seriousness of an accident in which a tramper fell ...
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By Alice Lolohea of Tagata Pasifika Twenty five broadcasters from 13 Pacific countries touched down in Auckland recently for the Pacific Broadcasters conference. A meet and greet filled with lots of talanoa, networking and healthy debate, the conference was a welcome change from a typical Zoom meeting. Natasha Meleisea, chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe and his board have pushed up interest rates yet again – for the twelfth time in 14 months – because they want to damage the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Longstaff, Honorary Professor, Australian National University Shutterstock The unfolding PwC scandal could be considered nothing more than an especially egregious example of ethical failure with dire consequences. However, there are deeper issues to be examined. The most obvious concerns ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liam Byrne, Honorary Fellow, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Luong Thai Linh/ AAP Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recent trip to Vietnam is a recognition that Australia’s relationship with the Southeast Asian nation is important ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Liza Lim, Professor, Sculthorpe Chair of Australian Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho passed away Friday at the age of 70. There’s been an outpouring of grief, sadness and love on social media and ...
Maxim Institute respectfully disagrees with He Arotake Potitanga Motuhake – Independent Electoral Review’s interim report insofar as it advocates for lowering the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years. There are indeed many decisions made by Parliament ...
The political radar has been switched off for some in Labour and it's Chris Hipkins’ political capital taking the hit, writes political editor Jo MoirComment: Even if the Prime Minister had wanted to act quickly to deal with his Transport Minister’s conflicts of interest, he couldn’t because he was ...
The prime minister has faced further questions on Michael Wood’s failure to properly disclose his Auckland Airport shares, saying the transport minister himself “didn’t really have an adequate explanation” for the oversight. Speaking at this afternoon’s post-cabinet press conference, Chris Hipkins said he trusted that Wood, who was earlier today ...
Asia Pacific Report The self-styled provisional government of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua“with the people” of the Melanesian region have declared political support for full West Papuan membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). In a statement issued in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila after a meeting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ozan Isler, Research Fellow, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Bao Truong / Unsplash Many of our economic and even social interactions are competitive. We use markets to find jobs, but also dates. What does this mean for our ...
The government has announced new vaping restrictions aimed at reducing the number of young people who take up the habit, with a crackdown on cheap disposable vapes, bans on new vape shops near schools and rules around how vaping products can be named. “From August this year, all vaping devices ...
The government has announced new vaping restrictions aimed at reducing the number of young people who take up the habit, with a crackdown on cheap disposable vapes, bans on new vape shops near schools and rules around how vaping products can be named. “From August this year, all vaping devices ...
The traditional and contemporary intertwine at the first Pacific Dance Festival in three years.After a pandemic-induced absence of three years, Pacific Dance New Zealand’s annual Pacific Dance Festival has returned to Auckland. Opening the three week-long festival last week was Manu Malo by Aloali’i Tapu, with the highly anticipated ...
The traditional and contemporary intertwine at the first Pacific Dance Festival in three years.After a pandemic-induced absence of three years, Pacific Dance New Zealand’s annual Pacific Dance Festival has returned to Auckland. Opening the three week-long festival last week was Manu Malo by Aloali’i Tapu, with the highly anticipated ...
“A very special day for Ngati Porou”, was the reaction of Rei Kohere, Deputy Chairman of Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou, on the announcement of the Knighthood bestowed on Selwyn Tanetoa Parata in this year’s King’s Birthday honours. “The KCNZM, ...
A visit by officials from the Thai Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) is being welcomed as an opportunity to strengthen a key bilateral relationship and support ongoing work to combat the illicit transnational narcotics trade in the Asia-Pacific ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kali Marnane, Honorary Associate Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Design, The University of Queensland Kali Marnane (2023), Author provided I’m in Ahmedabad, India, standing where families once built their homes under the shade of large trees. Today, those houses are ...
How a few basic rules can help get the balance right. Anyone trying to follow the latest political debate over housing, urban intensification and development can be forgiven for feeling confused. The National Party’s newly announced housing policy would allow local councils to opt out of the Medium ...
How a few basic rules can help get the balance right. Anyone trying to follow the latest political debate over housing, urban intensification and development can be forgiven for feeling confused. The National Party’s newly announced housing policy would allow local councils to opt out of the Medium ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Petraglia, Director, Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University Wikimedia, CC BY-SA On September 13 2013, speleologists Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker descended deep into South Africa’s Rising Star cave system and discovered the first evidence of an ...
A key reason for standing down Michael Wood as transport minister was the fact he had told the Cabinet Office his shares in Auckland Airport would be sold, but then they weren’t, Chris Hipkins has said. On his way to question time in parliament this afternoon, soon after he announced ...
A key reason for standing down Michael Wood as transport minister was the fact he had told the Cabinet Office his shares in Auckland Airport would be sold, but then they weren’t, Chris Hipkins has said. On his way to question time in parliament this afternoon, soon after he announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By M. Reza Hosseini, Senior Lecturer in Construction, Deputy Director, Mediated Intelligence in Design (MInD) Research Lab, Deakin University Shutterstock Architecture, engineering and construction employ 1.2 million people in Australia and account for 9% of GDP. But our biggest services sector ...
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New Zealand still has much more to do to support poorer countries adapt and respond to the climate crisis. Oxfam Aotearoa’s Climate Justice Lead Nick Henry said: “Oxfam’s report reveals that as governments around the world begin negotiations of a new global ...
The nats privatisation plans are getting more and more difficult. It was conceded yesterday that unless the legislation specifically prevents this happening a partially privatised SOE could sell individual power stations to overseas interests. Eventually they could all be sold. Being a company the directors need to act in the best commercial interests of all shareholders. If the price was right the power stations could all go.
To stop this the matter will need to be addressed in the proposed legislation. And if they do this then the price will take a hit.
Add Maori’s urgent application to the Waitangi Tribunal concerning the use of water and a professional investor is going to significantly discount any offer made. As far as I am concerned they should be allowed to. After all water and the rivers are taonga that Maori retain tino rangatiratanga over.
There must be a point where the sale process is not worth it. I wonder if we are there yet.
The sale process has never been worth it despite the spin Key and English put on it.
lprent – what is up with the Microsoft cloud/ Plunket banner ad on the home page?
Given that Shonkey and the Nats have already signalled their intention to roll out cloud hosting of govt services and information this ad is pretty wack -using Plunket and the kid to promote microsoft and this type of tech as cuddly or safe kind of glosses over how radical and experimental the move to host govt on the cloud really is.
It should never even go to tender – but can we assume from this that there will be a competitive open tender process? – I for one would dearly like a piece of the Nats IT splurge – Google and Microsoft must be drooling at the though of all the money one of them is about get out of NZ. And silly us, we are paying them while at the same time handing over our soverignty.
Microsoft = evil. Time we all went open source.
From clicking the MS banner ad:
Sound familiar? Ole Shonkey has been parroting the PR of the cloud pushers almost word for word. Their sales pitch obviously won him over, I wonder what his kickback is for regurgitating their spin.
Just an ad. They pay for the servers.
I tend to pretty much ignore the ads except for the odd time. For instance the campaign against MMP banners ads last year, where I added the campaign for MMP logos to our logo.
Cheers Lynn – I am doing my best to ignore it but still find it galling. I was hoping that you might have some comment or might like to post perhaps on the ‘cloud’ and its pros and cons – this is your field after all and I would be most interested in your thoughts.
Cloud is a label covering a multitude of types of systems. This site uses two “cloud” sites for warm backup servers (one is meant to be hot – but needs more time to work on than I have now). One is configured as a VPS, but is easily scaleable. The other is a on demand system.
There isn’t anything much different to the remotely hosted dedicated servers, VPS, and web servers I have been using since 1997. All the usual security issues and problems with slow international links and latencies to code around. Hopefully if the government does it here, then they will do it over the local nets to one of the local clouds.
But you pretty much have security problems as soon as you allow any remote access to any system that doesn’t involve a physical access control with people looking over biometrics. Doesn’t matter that much if it is a terminal to a mainframe or a server on the public nets. You still have to put in a lot of connectivity security against man in the middle and stolen access codes. Systems based on the public systems is usually somewhat better these days – a lot more eyes looking for and fixing holes.
Burning Conscience Israeli Soldiers Speak Out
Thousands of young Israelis refuse to serve in the army. Listen to these two young ex-soldiers and you’ll see why more and more of them are refusing…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI-X49eJfHA&feature=watch_response
trouble is that means it’s the zealots who end up on the front lines, with no qualms at all about lobbing WP into housing projects or shooting children.
Another difficult moral challenge in an overwhelmingly shitty situation.
The Israeli soldiers who commit atrocities are carrying out government orders. If a soldier shoots a Palestinian child and/or demolishes a Palestinian home, it’s not any more acceptable if that soldier does it with a heavy heart and feels guilty.
The problem is the Israeli government, not the poor soldiers who are forced to carry out its crimes.
What “moral challenge” is there? You either participate in these atrocities, or you protest against them, as thousands of young Israelis do every year by refusing to join up.
it’s more how they interpret their orders, and what they choose to interpret as a “threat” that warrants lethal force, and so on.
it’s more how they interpret their orders, and what they choose to interpret as a “threat” that warrants lethal force, and so on.
No, that’s not right. While some Israeli soldiers are undoubtedly cruel, the fact is they are there because the Israeli government has sent them there. It wasn’t a few “bad eggs” who made the decision to destroy Gaza’s electricity supply, bomb its hospitals and schools and cut off its water. It wasn’t a few soldiers making a faulty interpretation of their orders that resulted in white phosphorus, cluster bombs and napalm being used on the civilians of Gaza and Lebanon.
It was the Israeli government.
Good to see you back, Morrissey – and in fine form with dear old Grumpers.
Did you see Norman Finkelstein’s recent demolition of the Palmer report ? – ‘Torpedoing the Law: How the Palmer Report Justified Israel’s Naval Blockade of Gaza’. “A careful analysis of the POI report shows that it is probably the most mendacious and debased document ever issued under the aegis of the United Nations.”
Still, should be useful for Geoff’s career earnings. I wonder if Chen and Palmer will diversify into strategic hasbara PR for the Israeli government ?
Good to see you back, my friend!
Yes, I have indeed read and listened to Finkelstein damning Palmer.
Don’t forget, though, it’s the Palmer-Uribe report. The real driver of the report was no doubt the notorious ex-President of Colombia (and notorious violator of human rights) Signor Uribe. Norman Finkelstein noted that the dice were loaded as soon as Uribe was named as the “investigator”.
I’m sure Palmer contributed little or even nothing of substance, other than sign his name to it.
I wonder if Chen and Palmer will diversify into strategic hasbara PR for the Israeli government?
They already have. For free. I believe Lenin had the right term for people like Palmer: useful idiots.
Some of the time it was. Particularly when involving calls for tactical support and most specifically who to shoot and where.
Fair enough, McFlock. I am not trying to say you are wrong. You’re not. It’s just a question of where the primary responsibility lies. As flawed as some of the Israeli soldiers might be, the primary responsibility for them being in the Occupied Territories lies not with them, but with the Israeli regime.
Why does the word communism automatically alert the moderators? Every time I use it my comments are sucked away. Is there an alternative? How about… “that state of social organisation preceeded by socialism”. Too wordy?
The word communism can only be used legitimately, no? Unlike Nazi, which always seems a little over the top in anything but a historical context. And commie can be humourous. We even have those “In Soviet Russia…” jokes on youtube. Can anyone remember any funny Nazi’s?
[It used to be a common “flag” for RWNJ trolls during the last government. But that use does seem to have faded now. Lynn – time to review this? — r0b]
[lprent: Yep. Along with a number of other words and phrases. I’ll have a review of them in the next couple of weeks when the warm weather and my current project crunch let up. The most effective way is to scan the archives of moderated comments to see what they are being used for now. ]
“Can anyone remember any funny Nazi’s?”
Are you crazy? Hitler had a silly moustache and farted a lot, goering had fabulous blue uniforms and silly batons but was so fat that none of the planes in his airforce were big enough to get him off the ground, goebbels had a congenital malformation and constantly talked about being in the master race…
Aside from the entire planned deaths of millions (and just winging the deaths of millions more) thing, the entire crew seemed to be characters taken from the unreleased comedy classic “Carry On Up the Thousand Year Reich”.
Tossers.
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/occupys-valuable-message/
“…The demise of the Occupy camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral was long overdue.
That is not to say it should never have been there at all.
The protest that the police dismantled late on Monday night was loud, scruffy and angry.
And embedded in its sometimes incoherent messages was a core feeling of dissatisfaction which spoke to many struggling to make sense of the most severe financial crisis since the 1930s.
A world in which the richest few grow ever richer –
– while everyone else feels the squeeze cannot possibly be justified –
– and Occupy can take credit for providing a focus for a much wider concern…”
(cont..)
phil-at-whoar.
Yeah that story from The Independent is a bit sad, not just for the person who wrote it being a typical “don’t look too hard” journalist, but that the occupiers themselves haven’t thought through what St. Paul’s represents well enough and shouted it out in the media. The Church and versions of capitalism go hand in hand and have for thousands of years. It’s the very forms of oppression that Occupy protest against. Christianity seems to me to be the basis of the style of capitalism most of the western world experience: In the old testament it it regards “earthly treasures” as evidence of god’s blessing and mental illness as evidence of sin. It trades in an “eye for an eye” style of adversarial thinking with all the attendant hypocrisies. Then in the New Testament, apparently many years later, once the Church and religious heirachies are cemented, it seeks to both mentally and materially disarm the people and asks them to remain poor and to “give to caesar what is caesar’s” and not fight back. Even on Christ’s last night alive, the man who fought back against the soldiers was chided by Christ and the soldiers ear healed. Many communities have experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed by corporate interests. The Church would suggest they just lay down and turn philosophical.
So which book do we take as rule? Just discard one over the other as it suits? The Church has done nothing to address this contradiction in it’s one major text and teachings. There is no denying that Christianity is a good way into the exercise of thinking morally if you have no alternative and many have had their circumstances improved by christian intervention. But like capitalism, it’s down sides are many and brutal. That Occupy chose St. Paul’s was a good decision and cannot be devalued on the basis that the church did or continues to do some good stuff somewhere, once. One hundred odd days is nothing compared to eras of christian oppression.
while understanding yr historical reading..
..now is now…
..and really..i agree with the writer of this piece..
..who points out that progressives and religions (to use a broad-brush) need to get/work together..
..if we hope to achieve meaningful change..
http://whoar.co.nz/2012/why-progressives-cant-ignore-religion/
phil-at-whoar.
Well yes I agree that any movement, especially American, that stands up and says “Down with religion!” isn’t likely to gain any traction. But that is not what I argue and the overuse of political expediency as soon as things get hard for fledgling organisations is usually the death of them. The Alternet.com story you link to falls prey to the same thinking they award the conservatives within religion:
“Those who worship the gods of selfishness may proclaim themselves to be saved by Jesus, but they do not follow his teachings. As politics and religion continue to influence each other in America, progressives need to realize how completely conservatives have distorted the religion they claim to believe in. And we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about our own values using the familiar language of Christ — a language the vast majority of our fellow Americans already understand.”
Picking and choosing Christ’s words and saying you’re a christian, even a progressive Christian, would be very post-modern, but your Bible would tell you you were a hypocrite – bit of problem. Progressive Churches are popular here in Auckland. My brother attends one and the influence of that on our relationship has all but ended our connection. As far as I understand it, they have reduced christianity to a kind of new-age pop music based sub-culture that mistakes emotion for the truth and contagion emotion as the prescence of a spirit. Nothing wrong with that, if it spins your wheels, but it isn’t very christian as far as a biblical definition goes and not at all intelligent – the kind of intelligent you need to be to be effectively politically progressive. In order to get the progressive church ideas to work, it requires a level of cognitive dissonance to step around the psychological contradictions and it still embraces a big part of the selfishness intertwined with free market capitalism. This problem is not isolated to progressive churches, of course.
I cannot see how Occupy can embrace christianity, officially, if they were to form some sort of “government” or socially influencial body and maintain their own direction. The two philosophies in contact would cause continued rifts. They are less damned if they don’t than if they do. In the very least you’d need a mediatory body between them and stuff like that is just too damn hard to make work in real life. Freedom of religion, but not power in conjunction with the state.
You are looking at religion (conservative and progressive) in its most tedious forms. Andrew Little, an atheist himself, used a Christian quote in his maiden speech: “What gaineth a man who gains the world but loses his soul.” Then there’s “whatever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.” The literature of Dickens, who used the deeper Christian values to challenge the complacent Victorians. Religious concepts continue to permeate our culture and come up poignantly in such things as popular songs, as in “Won’t you help to sing/ this song of freedom/’cause all I ever have/redemption song. Not to mention Mickey Savage, who described Labour’s reforms as “Christianity in Action.”
One thing I am more and more confident about: we have more chance of gaining ground on the left by putting forward a deeper moral vision than the one the right employs, than by hoping that the sciences will ultimately “prove” we are right.
Well, that shows that you know little or nothing about it! The Book of Acts is afaik the first depiction of socialism in practice, and word to the wise, the Old Testament may have supported the idea that material wealth was a sign of good favour, but it has been superceded by, let’s see, what is it called, oh yes, the New Testament (the clue being in the name.)
Do you seriously think that Jesus should have said “Oh good one, yeah, have at it with your sword, violence is always the answer”. As if.
That there is going to be disagreements on interpretations of christianity is exactly the point. Three of here us disagreeing and now you casting unsupported insults. So how will that help government? Religion is a private practice, in his own words (should you believe them) god existed before the world, before the earth, before religion, before the church and will after those things are gone. Vicky, you are picking and choosing. You deny the entire old testament to suit your taste. In some circles that would be blasphemy. The christian god said he was the same now as he ever was and never changes, yet he eagerly gave orders to his people to slaughter anyone that got in his way, no niceties, no mercy. Now you say god is a liar, that he’s changed and didn’t mean it, because the new testament exists and Jesus was a socialist. Jesus himself could only turn a blind eye to homosexuality, where his father openly condemned it; how will you include gays in your religiously progressive new world? Just ignore that part too? This is where the dissonance starts, don’t demand that the entire population of the world join in. And Olwyn above you calls deference to the old as “tedious”. This is the kind of myopic understanding of christianity that starts wars. How is the state going to be better off with you or anyone else defining who is wrong or right based on your narrow version of morality. Who must be hated because they do or think this or that? And how will you include immigrants, with their own religions and perspectives to your progressive cause? As I said, it is not politically intelligent. It is a minefield for developing political movements and must be avoided.
No, I don’t say God is a liar. I say that peoples’ understanding of God changed, and Jesus came among other things, to explain how God is, and bring about that change.
Yes.
I don’t know of any gays who want to be included! All gays I know, hate religion with a purple passion. From my own point of view, gays are almost infinitely less important than they think they are!
When have I ever done that? I don’t recall demanding that anyone ‘join in’.
I am an ESOL teacher – I teach immigrants, a surprising number of whom are Christians. (Not surprising to me, but hey, I am certain it would amaze you! 🙂 ) As for the Muslims, they are not all keffiyeh wearing terrorists, (and I am sure that amazes you as well) and hold differing views on political/social subjects, as is true of any population.
Your hatred is simply tedious.
“I don’t know of any gays who want to be included!”
/facepalm
Damn – I’ve had three guys in my roof doing the Govt funded Pink Batts instalation and it all went quite about an hour ago. I crept down the passage and all I could hear was snoring.
😀
Parata steps over the bounds of decency
It is despicable that National and their apologists are trying to gain political ground and public support for the Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill over such an issue, especially when it’s ultimately the Ministers responsibility to ensure such failings do not occur.
Don’t upset advertisers, Fair Go staff told
Time, methinks, to go to a non-commercial public broadcaster as it’s obvious that any commercial operation is, by its very nature, compromised.
http://202.68.89.83/en-NZ/PB/Presented/Petitions/7/b/d/50DBHOH_PET3097_1-Petition-of-Penelope-Mary-Bright-and-307-others.htm
29 February 2012
Petition of Penelope Mary Bright and 307 others
That the House conduct an urgent inquiry into the decisions regarding prosecutions relating to the Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009.
Petition number: 2011/5
Presented by: Phil Twyford
Date presented: 29 February 2012
Referred to: Commerce Committee
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
So!
Which MPs from which political parties are going to put their hands up and say that they DON’T agree with ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’?
Which MPs from which political parties are going to put their hands up and say that they DON’T agree ‘that the House should conduct an urgent inquiry into prosecutions relating to the Huljich Kiwisaver Scheme registered prospectuses dated 22 August 2008 and 18 September 2009’?
Especially when to date four ‘regulatory bodies’ – the former (useless) Securities Commission, the new Finance Markets Authority (FMA), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the NZ Police – have refused to charge the now Minister of Regulatory Reform, the (new) ACT Party Leader and MP (but for how long?) for Epsom?
For background information – do feel free to check out http://www.pennybright4epsom.org.nz
Which ACT Party members/supporters will put THEIR names forward for NOT believing in ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’?
Remember 3 ACT Party Leaders ago?
Former ACT Party Leader Rodney Hide?
Rodney believes in ACT’s ‘ONE LAW FOR ALL’.
Rodney also believes that John Banks and Don Brash should be charged, and said so publicly on Radio Live 20 January 2012.
Cheers!
Penny Bright
Anti-Corruption Campaigner
Good on you Penny.
Tui advertising breaches law
What is the point in having advertising rules when they’re regularly breached with impunity?
Duncan Garner busts out the pom-poms and reveals he has secret crush
…and suggests that the MP who likes to have things explained to her on a whiteboard could be the next leader of the National Party!!!???
.
[Was that supposed to be a link? If so, fixed it. — r0b]
“She’s tough. She’s been there. She’s been a solo mum. She’s had it hard. She’s come out the other end. Labour hates her. And she hates them more”
This is seriously bad writing by Garner, he really gives no real balance at all. CL is correct, its a bloody rah rah for Bennett.
If she becomes leader, I will have to stand against her myself in Waitakere. West Auckland will not know whats hit it. I might just stand for the fun of it.
Ghastly writing, just Bennett back up propaganda. Equally ghastly is the thought of Garner’s possible “crush” on her blooming into something more enduring and becoming three of them.Ugh, ugh and poor little ugh!
And who knows. You may have as big an electoral effect as Pete George had in Dunedin last election.
😉
Has anybody heard if she is going to be investigated by the Human Right Commision about flouting privacy laws or has My Leader managed to get that one shut down.Also, seeing as she had to GO ON THE BENEFIT because she was so tired how in the hell does she think that any other single working mother is goingto manage what she “wonder woman” could not do. I would also like the complete story about her hardship days. Who looked after her child. Did she get support from her parents? There is a lot she is not saying.Was she living on her own with noone to support her when she came home exhausted! Or did she live with mummy and daddy. Maybe Duncan knows. It would make a great TV story As he said, she came out the other end. Whose I wonder?
Get the word on fracking out
Award-winning filmmakers Tom and Sumner Burstyn from Cloud South Films are reaching out to concerned Kiwi citizens to help fund their next documentary with the working title Fracking Whakatutu.
Thats interesting, I loved their film this way of life.. Utterly beautiful. Apparently started as a documentary about horse whisperers and became this fascinating film about modern NZ culture.
This Way of Life was a very nice film. It will be interesting to see how they will apply their obvious artistic camera skills and if they can gain access to get footage from fracking sites. I hear the industry is pretty secretive, with good reason I might add.
This Way of Life was excellent and I expect they’ll do a good job on this one. There was a confrontation scene at the end of the doco which showed the filmmakers aren’t cowards like our so many of revered celebrity journalists.
Winston Peters was ejected from the debating chamber for saying Gerry Brownlee was an illiterate woodwork teacher. Classic! And so true.
Actually, it’s not true. Brownlee might be a pain in the ass, but he’s hardly illiterate.
LIAR WATCH No. 2
grumpy
The Standard, March 1, 2012
1.) “I go by the simple process of believing that Islamic Radicals are bad bastards and anyone who stands up to them are [sic] good bastards. Sort of the opposite of your opinion.”
2.) “I try to be objective.”
– – – – – – – – – ——- – – – – – – – ——– – – – – – –
If you enjoyed this, you might like to see….
LIARWATCH No. 1 (Populuxe1):
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27022012/#comment-441643
I note that “grumpy” has compounded his foolishness by launching into a drooling rage against Noam Chomsky, and cited a notorious right wing site to “refute” him.
I note also that for some reason I am unable to reply to his muddled message….
http://thestandard.org.nz/wanna-stop-problem-gamblers-close-the-casinos/#comment-442374
(Lin, could you explain why there is no “Reply” option on his messages? It has the effect of giving our far right wing friend an entirely spurious last word.)
[lprent: With a threaded messages system there has to be a limit on how nested the programmers allow it to get. Otherwise you eventually wind up with replies that are indented so far to the right that they are splashed against the right boundary as a column of single or hyphenated words.
WordPress has a maximum of 10 ? reply levels deep. We use their maximum. When you hit it, then there is no reply button.
As someone said below, walk up the parent comments until you find a reply button and use that. Or start a new thread. ]
Hit the reply button 3 messages or so up and your comment will come after Grumpy’s last two.
Here you go, better off on Open Mike anyway…….
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/chomsky/200chomskylies.pdf
Cripes Morrissey, I would have thought you would have worked out how the site works by now………………….
Thanks very much Lin. And thank you also, Te Reo Putake.
Don’t just take Populuxe1 and my word for it, here’s someone else from a long time ago.
“He begins as a preacher to the world and ends as an intellectual crook.”
– Arthur Schlesinger
(Commentary, December 1969)
Anti semitic, holocaust denier, nazi sympathiser etc. etc.
You really are foolish, my friend. If you’re going to substitute random Google results for argument, you couldn’t have blundered on to a less credible source than Arthur Schlesinger. Not that it matters to you, but in case anyone serious is reading this, Schlesinger was the official house myth-maker of the Kennedy clan, and a supporter of everything that JFK did, including the terror campaign against Cuba and the start of the destruction of South Vietnam.
Chomsky was merely the most distinguished of the many intellectuals who showed him up for what he was. Not that this will mean anything to you, of course. I’m sure you don’t even know who Arthur Schlesinger was, and are only familiar with him through stumbling on his dyspeptic and absurd spleen-vent via your Google-searching.
Anti semitic, holocaust denier, nazi sympathiser etc. etc.
Your absurd and fanciful list of accusations against Chomsky is not your own, of course. You don’t know enough to even slander him.
It only makes you look dishonest—and even more foolish.
Seems to depend on you political viewpoint, either he’s the messiah or a devious lying prick. Undoubtably, though, the doyen of the Left.
Do you ever think for yourself?
Seems to depend on you [sic] political viewpoint, either he’s the messiah or a devious lying prick.
You’re seeking to trivialize and turn everything into a joke. That’s because you’re out of your depth. Please read one of the books on that site. If you want to continue ignoring Chomsky, feel free, but you should read one of the others. As it is, you’re lamentably ill-informed. Are you Leighton Smith?
Undoubtably, though, the doyen of the Left.
Again, you have little or no comprehension of what you are writing. Chomsky is perhaps even more critical of the Leftist establishment than he is of the pseudo-scholars of the rabid right, who you unwittingly quote with relish.
Do you ever think for yourself?
That’s rich coming from someone who has inadvertently cited a discredited old Kennedy apparatchik and (even funnier) a lunatic site from the furthest reaches of the braindead right.
“As it is, you’re lamentably ill-informed. Are you Leighton Smith?”
No, just one of Slater’s sycophants.
Has anyone got a blowtorch? I need to permanently remove the visual imagery for “Whaleoil lickspittle” from my brain.
I am really not sure that we should be encouraging self-harm. Please don’t make drongo feel any worse than he obviously is. 😈
just one of Slater’s sycophants.
Ah! I thought so.
Thanks for the heads-up, my friend.
Are you mad?
Schlesinger opposed the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Iraq war and was a columnist for that well known right wing media organization – The Huffington Post.
FFS
He was also foolish enough to let himself be tricked into writing for Norman Podhoretz’s barmy Commentary magazine, from which you (unwittingly) took that ridiculous and mendacious quote.
Has anyone read Gordon McLauchlan’s book The Pasionless People lately? Some of the points in the 1976 book about our doughiness seem to either be still applicable or be applying again.
“Here in a beautiful, benign and uncrowded country…we suffer…from depression and…angst… Unhappiness has become such an epidemic that our smugness, once unassailable, is wearing thin.”
We look to see ourselves and find ‘a group of people who have nurtured in isolation from the rest of the world a Victorian, lower-middle class, Calvinist, village mentality…There is no passion to give us a dream of the good life, a vision of love and beauty, a sense of a variety of lifestyles, of alternative viewpoints and philosophies through which we may fulfil ourselves in different ways.”
…New Zealanders have no moral or social philosophy…Right now, influence within our society is factionalized, compacted into pressure groups which exert their power almost exclusively for selfish needs without any sense of a total community.”
It’s an awesome book! I read it some time in the 1980s.
He’s writing an update (Passionless People No. 2?) as we speak.
Greece cuts minimum wage by 22%; cuts youth rates by 32%
I’m sure these bankster neoliberal EU led steps will lead Greece to financial prosperity. Not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MUo4CHH7Xc&feature=g-user&context=G2acdc6eUCGXQYbcTJ33bKLqBzYhXj1ZuE-6cS5O4xehdqmUzFHdE
Why has Silent T refered to those on the benefit as Stupid and Lazy?
Peter Dunne said in a letter to the Ohariu anti asset sales meeting tonight that he had pledged support for the policy, and that it would be “dishonorable” to renege on his promise. I think it would be more dishonorable to support policies that were not in the best interests of NZ people.
I think the right needs to start putting its money where its mouth is and start circulating a petition for a Citizens Initiated Referendum to ban unions and collective bargaining. Surely this is doable, with many rich pricks with money burning holes in their pocket. If a bunch of god bothering child beaters can do it, then the biggest and richest business barons will have no problems doing it, Im sure Farrar, Slater and Cactus, can mobilise volunteers.
I am being deadly serious here. I have even thought up possible questions:
Should workers be barred from forming and joining trade unions?
Should collective bargaining between workers and their employers be outlawed?
I’m willing to help circulate the petition too, if need be.