Im not an Economist so can anyone explain: given the $7 billion reduction in dairy exports, why is GDP growth still forecasted to be positive?
Given that $7 billion export reduction hasn’t effected GDP growth to any great degree, why do Economists and the MSM think its such an important measure?
GDP measures “productive” economic activity. Some economists think that all productive economic activity is good, and get excited about GDP growth. E.g. Rebuilding Christchurch leads to lots of “productive” activity in the form of construction activity.
Other economists don’t get excited about GDP growth, and look to other measures/indicators, such as Genuine Progress Indicatiors, Happiness Indexes etc. at a national level, and different indicators at a sub-national level: income levels, the distribution of personal income, househol income, household income by number of people in that household etc.
Politicians worldwide have really only had explicit economic growth goals for between 50-100 years.
They think it’s such an important measure because it is a headline indicator, and is conventionally used. I doubt many of them understand what lies beneath it, what it measures or how it is measured.
The $7billion reduction in dairy exports will have significant effects on the NZ economy in the next few years. Dairy farmers will have less money to reinvest, hence less economic activity. There will be a slight lag until these effects are felt. Meanwhile, selling houses in Auckland counts as “productive” economic activity (even though it is deadweight exchange of existing goods – banks profit, but their profits are mainly realised in Australia; government benefits from increased taxes associated with house sales: e.g. Estate agent’s income tax etc).
The govt are being disingenuous when they keep on spouting on about how steady the economy is. It is not really doing so well, as far as I can tell. I cannot see newly emerging innovative industries sprouting all through the land.
I heard an economist on RadioNZ this morning (can’t find it now online) saying that half of the 3% GDP growth in NZ is due to immigration. (My guess is another 1% is due to the Chch rebuild.)
He said that immigration numbers need to be cut so that pressure is taken off the Akl housing market and so that the RB can cut interest rates.
For the life of me I can’t see why the RB isn’t cutting rates since we have some of the highest rates in the world, very low inflation and an over-valued dollar. Other methods than interest rates should be being used to dampen house prices in Akl, either by the RB or the government.
Unfortunately Key and his speculator mates are happy with the housing bubble in Akl, so the rest of the country has to suffer. Talk about lack of vision.
That Devon Funds chap seemed to have some ideas that are new, cf to the usual guff from bank economists.
I think I heard the idea that GDP should be on a population basis so it has more reality and value when analysing the figures. DTB might like to put it better. But it seems to me that some of the stats we are presented with are just measures of a trend in a statistic that never measured the right thing in the right way in the first place.
Like the fun way of telling how a country is doing by studying the price of hamburgers, or the length of women’s skirts (one measure that has been actually posited by objective market watchers, not by finky camera guys)
Sydney taxi on standby, meter running for 9 hours…….$1,248. The arrogance adds up and adds up and adds up. I recall similar from Parata on a one day trip to Sydney a few years ago shortly after appointment as a minister.
And of course smug wee ponce Simon Bridges had ALWAYS planned to come to Northland on ministerial duties in the 10 days prior to the Northland buy-election on 28 March…….”let ‘them’ eat cake” screams.
That is only a little article in the Herald – not the screamer headlines that Labour would have got. Will Mike Hosking denounce Joyce and the Government for this in one of his tedious monologues?
The Taxpayers Union will take the opportunity to pretend they care so when they tout for the ACT party in 2 years time people will think they are impartial.
Agree with it being great work from Unite. As I was trying to explain to Gosman the other day, trying to change a government is not the only way to bring about change. people on the ground, working hard, fighting battles one by one, achieve change.
Mate, there’s so much you missed during your drug addled lost years you’d need a team of historians working in shifts to get you up to date. Best you just start from scratch and just assume your vague memories are as unreliable as your prose is unreadable.
If it’s true, why would I slam it? Phil made an unsubstantiated, anachronistic and inaccurate attack on a trade union. I responded and he doesn’t like it. His issue, not mine. His ignorance, not mine.
Isn’t it funny that most attacks on the union movement come from people who aren’t union members? And in Phil’s case, someone who is not even in the workforce. But no worry, the unions have fought against prejudiced and ignorant attacks for many, many years, wherever they come from.
..and both googled and binged ‘new zealand engineers union activism’..
..yeah..nah..eh..?
..zip/zero/nada..
(and i am not just citing the engineers’ union..
..the union movement in the main – is an example of successful divide and rule by the elites..par excellence..
..self-regulating dissonance..
..and with a history of uncaring/self-interest/outright-perfidy since the mid-80’s..
..which..again..is why the breaking of that ‘consensus’/pattern by unite..
..is both so refreshing..and as i said..a glimpse at the possiblities for good if the union movement removes their collective-heads from their collective-arse-holes..
You’re so out of touch, Phil, it’s mind boggling. I think I’ll take up weka’s suggestion. All the best, anyway. It’s good having you back, even if you’re still not making any sense.
I disagree. Unite union has been well represented at virtually every protest from TPPA, selling State assets, Oil drilling protests, opposing charter schools, defending Glen Innes State housing, etc., supporting Gaza/Palestine.
In fact Unite’s Joe Carolan often speaks to the crowd at these protest rallies and is commonly on a megaphone during the marches. The Unite people have been very visible o social justice issues on all issues of social justice.
isn’t it funny,..no, but I think thats inaccurate,most attacks,as you call it come from other unions ie employers Associations and other organizations.I have been an union organizer, and my reading of history shows sexism, racism, and sometimes even corruption, and of coarse your attack on the underemployed is also unhelpful, but seeing you are an author here as well, and making some good points too, I will dissed from further comment, and read more thoroughly terms and conditions here on TS.
left for deadshark I can’t stand the patronising/sarcastic style either. I think it turns most people right off (they are just so used to it they don’t say anything), so thanks for speaking up.
However, regarding the EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association) I don’t think that qualifies in any sense as a union. I think it’s just an example of the Right co-opting the language of the Left (and to some extent riding on the reputation of the EPMU given the not-dissimilar initials) to promote itself as some form of expert on employment issues, when it is little more than a right-wing lobby group providing some basic services to its members (businesses) in aid of oppressing and crushing (sorry, “appropriately monitoring, restructuring and right-sizing” as they say) their workforce.
..and tho’ ‘intoxicating’ – heroin/opiates do not make you particularly ‘addled’..
..(hence so many doctors morphine-addicts – but still functioning..
..and i wd cast yr mind back to an aussie tv show called ‘hypothetical’..
..where they once presented a panel of doctors etc. with the scenario of a choice of being operated on by a surgeon under the influence of a variety of intoxicants – both illegal and legal..
..all of those chose the surgeon under the influence of opiates..
..but anyway..i stopped using it long before the clark govt arrived on the scene..
..and i remember well the silences of the union movement during those nine long years of ‘worthy’ poor-people vs. ‘unworthy’ poor-people twisted-bullshit from clark..
..it is clearly you who needs the history-lessons…(‘hic!’..eh..?..)
..and let’s not go near the union response to the neoliberal/rightwing revolution undertaken by both national and labour..eh..?
..a tad embarrassing – given that response was to drop their trousers – and bend over..eh..?
Sorry, Phil, none of what you ‘wrote’ made any sense. Better luck next time. Still, terrific that a dedicated non-worker like yourself is so passionate about workers rights. Sure, you haven’t got a clue what’s been going on in the union movement, but that’s not going to stop you having an ignorant and inaccurate whinge is it?
Almost 10 o’clock, must be time for a mood adjuster. Off you go, the pipes, the pipes are calling, Philly boy.
That’s a point Phillip. The elongated nature of your stream of consciousness style takes up a lot of screen space. Of course that has been mentioned before. But some of us are slow learners, unable to adapt and keep up with the pace of change. But not you I thought Phillip?
FFS it starts again. Grow up, the both of you. Phil, do some research before running your mouth and TRP, if you don’t like what he has to say, don’t make the slapdown personal. Aren’t you a mod on this site? You should know better. Now sort your behaviour out or there won’t be any pudding.
Now, why in the blue fuck would I want to engage so you can throw a huge long diatribe that is only really one paragraph? Go and hit the bong, and pack me one while you’re there 😛
Your attitude to the unemployed would fit well with that of the NAct caucus. Since when is unemployment or underemployment something to use to belittle someone?
You have also not managed to give one example of anything progressive the Engineers’ have done in the last twenty years.
Oh, do piss off you pompous git. I have no ‘attitude’ to the unemployed or unemployed. From what Phil has told us, he doesn’t fit into either category.
I can’t give any examples of what the EU has done because there are none for the simple reason that the EU has ceased to exist, which is the point I was making to Phil right at the start. So, yeah, if you’re going to lecture unions on what you perceive to be their failings (on Mayday, too!) at least try and get the names right. And try and find something to moan about from this century, eh.
And, no, I’m not going to list the achievements of the union that actually is the successor to the EU, except one, which is that it saved Unite from financial collapse. Do your own homework for the rest.
Are you actively lobbying for a grand coalition between Labour and National? You’ve got acting like an arrogant and abusive fool down pat already. Simon Bridges could learn off you.
I have no idea why you even bother being on a “left wing” blog. Your attacks on Phil are almost indistinguishable from those he used to receive on Whalespew.
But yeah, you’ll keep going. Almost never discussing anything in good faith, but always with vicious defence of the right of the labour movement. Did you understand the power imbalance between FJK and Amanda Bailey? The way you attack Phil on here suggests that maybe you didn’t.
I personally do not think you should have any role in moderation of this blog. You are far too abusive. However, I know I don’t get a say.
Oooh, I think I smell burning martyr! Get off your high horse, Murray. Funnily enough, my moderation is pretty, er, moderate. Just a couple of bans so far I think. And it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between moderation and commentary. Moderation is in bold black ink. Commentary is on a blue background. I haven’t moderated anyone in this thread, nor would I, because it’s simply a discussion. Nobody has crossed any line, except you trying to tell TS who should and shouldn’t be a moderator. But even then, you’re not being moderated by me. So, get over yourself, why doncha.
PS, I wrote an post touching on the power imbalance between Key and the cafe worker. You must have missed it.
Saying what I think is not telling TS what to do and I know that TS is not an entity anyway. It is giving an opinion. It’s nothing to do with martyrdom whatsoever. It is at most a call for a better atmosphere in these discussions. When you call Phil drug addled and whatever else, there is no way he can (nor should he) respond in kind, irrespective of the colour of your posts.
With Amanda Bailey, it always would have been in her mind that FJK was PM and had power that was inaccessible to her. He claimed he was being silly to show that he had no power. I didn’t swallow his explanation.
One thing that might help clarify matters is a policy whereby all moderation is done in bold. Sometimes moderators make moderation comments in a comment, which confuses things.
I’d kind of like this exchange to stop about here because it just can’t go anywhere. People will have read the comments being referred to and arrived at their own conclusions.
If, Murray, you don’t appreciate how a given commenter interacts with others, then don’t interact with them. Simple.
If they then interact with you, you could try politely pointing out to them why you don’t wish any interaction with them. I eventually did that with Pete George and it worked out fine for both of us. 😉
Of course, there’s always the option to keep the to and fro going until it reaches it’s almost inevitable conclusion. (shrug)
I’d kind of like this exchange to stop about here because it just can’t go anywhere.
Thanks Bill.
It’s hard to take when two people who make a lot of quality contributions to this site get their knickers in a twist and start blasting one another. It almost always looks like misunderstanding of viewpoints to me. You’re on the same side mates so just agree to differ eh? (Hope I haven’t made things worse)
The Voice of Reason apparently wants people to cough up the acronym EPMU–Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union–a union whose published early history I happen to have a copy of–“Advocate, Educate, Control, the History of the NZ Engineers Union 1863–1983”. Put together in the 80s by labour movement historian the late Bert Roth. EPMU came about via amalgamations mainly in the ECA era.
It is no secret that most NZ unions sprang from crafts and guilds and even the “goat riders”–masons and were “creatures of legislation” and the award system after the first Labour govt. (oh for an industry award or MECCA system spanning the country now some would say!)
There was only ever a small group of class struggle based unions that drove the renaissance of the Federation of Labour after the brave but disastrous 1951 lockout. The Engineers should not be considered to be part of that group. They supported the ICFTU rather than the communist/non aligned WFTU international centres during the cold war era and were generally pro Anglo and anti Soviet.
The EPMU was a membership raider in the 90s until a concord was reached with other unions. I had personal dealings with many members and officials of the Engineers in the car industry for 20 years so have some insight into these matters. Some diabolical sell outs occurred with officials of that union.
They are a largely conservative union with a changing membership such as migrant workers at telcos, not so much the “tradesmen” of decades back. Aircraft engineers jobs diminishing and cabin crew etc assuming more importance. An amalgamation with the Service and Food Union may happen too. So a mixed record, they represent members well in work sites but are not a campaigning union, and advocate voting Labour basically.
Like an up-himself school prefect, albeit of the Left. Left is cool as long as it’s Right what ? Just a feeling. Shared I suspect by more than a few. You can piss all over me if that spins your wheels……I don’t give two fucks. You bully far too often for me to care. Gimme the honest if imperfect P.Ure any day !
Asking the hard questions eh Phil. They bounce off a complacent impervious surface. And by the way don’t take comments about drugs etc to heart and bother to reply to justify yourself. You know it’s only a smoke-screen to avoid looking clearly at the actual point you are making.
Unions failed us in NZ. But then we all have failed to understand that real democracy is more vulnerable than we realised. So a sham, fake one has replaced the original one. It could be said that it had a back-door fault like Microsoft. They only keep their systems safe with frequent patches. Most of us never thought of attacks to democracy, or weaknesses needing watching and repairing. So the hackers got in, and physically chopped our rights, advantages, and means of living away.
But the fake democracy still fronts up like the background flats or panels to the actors in an old-style western film.
Look behind, there is nothing there but some strong bracing posts.
Hi r-yeshe
Yes I’ll stick to greywarshark for now. I took a break and went into default mode to warbler when I came back. I still am concerned about the rawshark- thing and Hager so I will stick with the name for the present. One day when things get better? I’ll be a chirpy bird again. Might even go to fantail – they are very inspiring – quick and alert. I’d like to be the same.
Interesting point of view. Of course, there are those who say the back door faults were purposely left in Microsoft products. I think unions began with better intentions than those of Bill Gates.
And the comments about drugs could apply to me too. It’s not a very supportive world for people who do get off the stuff, except for those around them who see what they’ve overcome and subsequently achieved. Anyone who beats smack and doesn’t join NAct deserves credit.
MR
I do feel that there are unsung heroes out there who have made a very good life which seems commendable. But if one only knew the lower point they had started from, they have actually climbed an everest of their own.
Now and then I read of a muso or entertainer who has got over drugs and that’s amazing.
I have no idea, however I know of a case of attempted rape and sexual assault. The offending took place in October 2014. He was arrested two days after the complaint was laid and the Police charged him approximately two weeks later. It could have been less. The “alleged” offender will plead not guilty.
My friend whose close relative was the victim has said they have been told the trial will most likely take place in October 2015 – a year on from the crime taking place.
This person by the way no longer has name suppression but the media never reported it. I thought they might have given his former role in the community.
In the case of The Prominent New Zealander, won’t it be over one year? I can’t recall the timeline but it feels like this case has been going on for quite some time, it feels like it is intentionally dragging along.
Very bad system if there are young people involved .. absolute torture for them and favours the accused. Be very good to have a compassionate and faster process for under-age victims.
Hopefully their evidence has already been recorded and they are being supported, leaving the realities of the trial more for the perpetrator than the victims (depending on ages of victims of course).
This person probably 100% believes that whatever they did was not wrong… no way he/she will plead guilty in those circumstances.
Many folks who live their lives viewing their actions ONLY through their own eyes are genuinely oblivious to the consequences/impacts of their actions.
I believe that anyone wanting to be an elected representative needs to be able to display and show evidence of empathy. How else can they adequately represent others?
I guess some just don’t think it is a necessary trait in the first place. For some reason many think having made alot of money in a niche career is all you need to lead a country…
sigh indeed ….. and btw, when I was on silence from here a few weeks back with Murray Rawshark, I read some of the pieces you posted about the Winebox and your representation of Paul White .. how amazing. Have been re-reading the three books by Wishart … what a catastrophic mess. And I do see ugly parallels today with Ben Rachinger … maybe one day you can talk some more about things you knew. I was astonished Wishart did not choose to interview you, or was it rather chose not to interview you ? If ever there is more you can say, I would be deeply interested. There is never a time I pass by that underpass pillar and don’t think about what the truth might have been — it has always haunted me. We suffer a very dirty and well-disguised underbelly.
I would guess that most child molesters think there’s nothing wrong with what they do. It would be hard to see how they’d do it otherwise. I know that many think of themselves as victims, seduced by the wiles of small children. One I came across thought he was doing 12 year olds a favour by grooming them to be “loved” later on. I did him a favour by preparing him for the bashings he would face in prison. Unfortunately the parents of the two girls chose to ignore what he was doing.
They’ll be trying to position the ‘prominent’ trial midway between elections to minimise public response. The longer it’s delayed the more trouble it will cause in 2017…
If the Key junta actually makes it to 2017 – it would only need a handful of Gnats to be run over, ingest a surfeit of lampreys, or spontaneously combust, and we’ll be rid of this odious assemblage of incompetent villains and vermin.
I don’t think there is any ‘conspiracy’ here in terms of the timing of the trial date.
Regrettably, the length of time for a criminal case to get to trial here in NZ is long, particularly a jury trial, and usually takes over a year.
In this instance, while there have obviously been a number of District Court pre-trial hearings already, the case was only transferred from the District Court to the High Court a week or so ago. IIRC from working for some time in the justice sector, the time already taken in relation to these earlier DC hearings would not be taken into account in scheduling the HC trial.
Here is some information from the MOJ website on the factors that may affect the timing of a trial.
As you will see, average waiting times at Auckland High Court are over a year at 390 days, while median times are only slightly under at 341 days.
The National total average and median times are 408/332.
Gisborne is the quickest with 206/206.
Palmerston North is the longest – average at 955 but median is 308.
Whangerei is the second longest at 634/606.
Huh, I was thinking he was being low key enough it might slip under the radar, but you are right, there will probably be people with vested interests keeping an eye out.
…was listening to some old music last night while on the treadmill….. couldn’t help but be struck by this old Pink Floyd jem:
“Sheep”
Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out
There may be dogs about
I’ve looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.
What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is no bad dream.
Long-serving [meals on wheels driver] volunteer Dr Terry Hearn, of Dunedin, will quit if the board votes to privatise southern hospital kitchens at its meeting next Thursday.
”I am now certain that the assumption was made – whether casually or deliberately – that Compass could continue to rely on volunteer drivers and allow them to subsidise its profits.[“]…
Meanwhile, HBL, the Government entity that developed the deal with Compass, has admitted the cost of the business case has blown out to $4.1 million…
A protest against the plan will be held tomorrow, in the Octagon, starting at noon.
this is EXACTLY the point… a company is using unpaid labour to create a profit for itself. I am pretty sure in another century we had another word for it. For now it is just plain exploitation. I do hope they vote with their feet… The good folks of Dunedin, I feel sure, would start cooking in their own homes and delivering until Meals on Wheels returns.
Yeh, there didn’t seem to be much I could add to Hearn’s comment. Hopefully the Dunedin Labour MPs will be at the protest tomorrow. It makes sense that King would be commenting as Health spokesperson, but the workers and volunteers also need support from their electorate MPs:
As well as financial cost, it was important to remember the significant personal cost for the kitchen workers enduring years of uncertainty, Mrs King said.
The Service and Food Workers’ Union has threatened possible legal action against the southern board, and Mrs King said that should prompt the board to reject the proposal, as it could not afford a legal fight. Some boards had rejected the proposal, and Southern should do the same.
The problem with the SDHB is that they are likely to have an overseer appointed by the government to supervise cost-saving. It’s all starting to feel a bit like Environment Canterbury when inconvenient democracy threatened private profits.
“Meanwhile, HBL, the Government entity that developed the deal with Compass, has admitted the cost of the business case has blown out to $4.1 million…”
What’s a business case? Surely that can’t be the work done to change the system?
Wasn’t there another interesting bit to the Compass-HBL story? That even after a huge amount of dollar input from the government enabling the HBL to do their important health budget-dieting work, they still have charged all the hospitals they have worked in for their services? If so – Oh the sweet, sweet, non-fattening pleasurable taste of a government sinecure. Especially in the hospital context. A cure for as much sin as you want to indulge in paid by a generous and caring government!
Auckland ratepayers are about to be screwed over by Willis Bond – the Wellington vulture company that makes hay on the privatization of prime publicly owned land.
“SBS supports our Anzacs” — and apparently bars any questioning or criticism of them. That mentality sounds like it came right from North Korea, which is to be expected when a media outlet is prohibited from saying anything that offends high government officials. Any society in which it’s a firing offense for journalists to criticize the military is a sickly and undemocratic one.
This is the type of society that the West is becoming. One where the propaganda of the ‘elite’ can no longer be questioned. The old term for such is Lèse-majesté.
This is one of the developments that really worries me – people losing their jobs for speaking out privately against the obscene madness of the militarisation of our national stories. It has really worrying fascistic undertones.
Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I’d order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.
But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.
Wonder how long before Hollywood will do a re-release of Reefer Madness? Some people do have a bad reaction to THC, but then some have a bad reaction to political criticism as well.
That would take care of it ! Not much chance tho the way this govt sells residence status to many who should not have it. .. always available if you have the millions in your bank account … and absurdly with no with need to prove you have it in the same account the next day ! Recipe for corruption isn ‘t it ?
No, but they might need it when they get back. For some people it’s not just a house, it’s a home.
And if they sell to someone who turns it into a rental, how is that any different than the person going overseass renting it out?
They might already be a landlord. If I was renting off them and they’re good landlords, I’d prefer that they didn’t have to sell when they go work overseas for a year, esp if they sell to someone who then ends the tenancy.
I can think of any number of scenarios where it makes sense to not force NZ citizens (and people with residency) to sell.
I’m also thinking about the impact on housing prices in NZ if every person that owns a property that goes overseas for a time has to sell, and then rebuy when they come back.
I didn’t say anything about Kiwis having to sell their house when they leave. I have no idea where you got that idea from. Not being able to buy is not the same as being forced to sell.
Thanks for that rawsharke y. About the sale to overseas interests. Do you know who sold Whatuwhwhi? Who were the owners who sold the camp? I wondered if it was the Maori interests who had big debts after a business failure.
I didn’t realise how well embedded we were in the English speaking Quinad till I heard about the Five Eyes spying.
Now while looking at wikipedia on passports I see –
“the Five Nations Passport Group, an international forum for cooperation between the passport issuing authorities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States “.
I thought it was three 6’s that were supposed to be the mark of a coming bad end. Five seems to be getting bad connotations also.
Also Carter’s disdain and vile shouting rudeness yesterday at Green MP Catherine Delahunty as she tried ( in vain) to have a document tabled in the house. Carter yelled and became so angry, he is just unsuitable for the role. He looks miserable always, until someone on the right tries to make ‘a funny’ of some kind, but he metes out his worst acerbic and furious misery on Greens, Winston and various Labour front benchers. He is an impatient and and acidic angry man.
His divisive partisan behaviour shames the office and betrays us all.
Metiria did try with her excellent point of order .. but Carter should apologise for the ‘unbecoming of the house’ manner in which he yelled at Catherine.
Can you imagine this man as our Ambassador in London ? OMFG.
It’s not a competition for worse, worserer or worserest although it can surely look like it. Each of them is an unmitigated disaster for Aotearoa with Groser about to become yet another in Washington. ( Bet Helen can’t wait sarc.)
But it does seem to be a competition, rawshark-yeshe. And, Key now heads their international conservative organisation – May there name never pass my lips.
I commented about this somewhere else this morning. IN Australia they swallowed the misogynistic anti-Gillard schpiel from CT but very quickly have realised their error, Same in UK, but here… 3 terms later…
Radionz
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Bernie Sanders, independent democratic socialist US Senator, has announced a run for President. On the Democratic ticket – he will be battling Clinton.
He refuses all corporate donations. I think he can take on the billionaire class – or at least give them a good scare. He’s probably to the left of Elizabeth Warren.
He wants to take on Wall Street and break up the banks, truly tax the wealthy, move America to a universal single-payer health system, make universities debt-free, vastly reduce poverty by expanding benefits, double the minimum wage, take on tax evasion by corporations and the rich, oppose US intervention in the middle east, oppose the TPP (and all corporate trade deals), empower unions, expand worker cooperatives, and take on corporate money in politics truly address climate change, etc.
He was a founding member of the Progressive Caucus which is composed of the left/’progressive’ of the Democratic Party. And himself, who is an independent.
He might not win the primary, but he will shake the establishment and confront Hillary Clinton on these issues. The progressive wing of the Party is growing in influence. (i.e. Bill Clinton would *not* get chosen as a nominee today), and she’ll need to make it clear that she’ll appease them. Although I would hope that he could win outright.
Michael. Last night I watched the Russell Brand/Millibrand interview.
The summary from Russell http://www.thepaepae.com/russell-brands-quieter-ed-milibrand-interview/35954/ at about 13:25 was so like your post from Bernie Sanders:
“He wants to take on Wall Street and break up the banks, truly tax the wealthy, move America to a universal single-payer health system, make universities debt-free, vastly reduce poverty by expanding benefits, double the minimum wage, take on tax evasion by corporations and the rich, oppose US intervention in the middle east, oppose the TPP (and all corporate trade deals), empower unions, expand worker cooperatives, and take on corporate money in politics truly address climate change, etc.”
And will we have a similar call from our MPs?
Mind you, Russell reckons it is the power of the people who cause changes.
Yes, well it would be the power of the people that would get Bernie elected. Bernie refuses all corporate donations – not a single cent comes from corporations. 60+% of his funding comes from small, individual donations and the remainder comes mostly from labour, environmental, and civil liberties groups.
This is in contrast to the establishment US politicians who need corporate money to win. Hillary Clinton will raise nearly us$3 billion. The Koch Brothers, billionaire oil barons, are planning on spending nearly $1 billion of their own money to fix the election for the Republican Party.
Bernie would need to be elected via a grassroots movement – first, to overcome Hillary who has the backing of moneyed interests, and then to win the election against a Republican candidate who will receive billions in corporate donations. It would take a mobilisation of ordinary people – a politician that represents people.
How much longer before the police decide they need to act on Gloriavale? Last nights segments confirmed sexual, physical and emotional as well as possibly financial abuse.
As yet I don’t think we have a Waco in the making, but given their disregard for the law when it comes to underage sex and their determination in isolating rebels, I wonder how they would react to the Police turning up with CYFS in force?
Talking of Court costs I would love to know the legal status of this, not to mention the ethics… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11437454
In effect the “cult” are wanting a road to them closed, the local Council has agreed BUT the Council is likely to go to court to defnd their action against other parties. Here’s the dubious bit. The “cult” are going to pay the Councils court costs. In other words an interested party is paying the council to defend a decision against other interested parties. How bent is that?
Must have heard you Robert.
On the Herald: “A free phone line has been set up by police for people wanting to discuss experiences at the secretive Christian community Gloriavale.
One allegation on the TV3 program which wold be easy to investigate is that somebody at Gloriavale received a benefit from WINZ without the knowledge of the person they were claiming for. The person the benefit was claimed for only found out when thy were sent a demand for overpayment. That is fraud, theft, using somebodies identity for criminal purposes…you name it.
Why the blue dresses? Does blue have some religious significance?
Modesty of dress for our men and women led us to design a standard dress code for each sex. We chose blue because it’s a colour that goes well with any skin colour or complexion.
It’s one of those times, when the Christian left and right need to stop fighting. And go look at this community, and see how far off the path it really is. I think many will be shocked at how far off they are.
Personally I’m convinced it’s christian in name only – as some of the utterance of Neville Cooper make him a cult figure not a christian. I find it abhorrent he says his group is based on christianity, to somehow justify that he is not a cult. Indeed the whole Cooperite Community is a cult – just look at this video.
Can I make a couple of suggestions? When addressing commenters who also are at times moderators, think of them as commenters unless they explicitly say they are moderating. I took everything trp said upthread to be him as a commenter, not an author (which means he can be as rude/obnoxious as everyone else, including phil).
The other thing is to stick to the issue and if necessary the behaviour. Your comment comparing trp to Simon Bridges strikes me as rude/abusive as anything trp said to phil. We don’t have to get personal like that (I was on the verge of calling trp out for the druggie put downs), but can instead either focus on the issue (unions), or the behaviour (keep it neutral).
In the end I think we have to take our cues from the authors, and that is going to vary from author to author hugely. I have no problem calling trp out on things, but there is going to be a limit and the authors are the ones that get to say where that limit is for them. I respect that because they are the ones that do the hard yards here, and without them I/we wouldn’t have a place like this to hang out in.
Sorry, that probably doesn’t help a lot, but I sense your frustration and hope there is a way that being here on ts can be ok for you. Lots of people value your input, myself included.
” When addressing commenters who also are at times moderators, think of them as commenters unless they explicitly say they are moderating. I took everything trp said upthread to be him as a commenter, not an author ”
That sounds a bit like something despicable key would say about which hat he was wearing at the time. I think we should expect a higher standard from those with power, even if it is only the power to ban a commenter.
Except in this instance there are two distinct hats. There is a boundary between trp the author/moderator and trp the commenter. I’m kind of surprised that this isn’t obvious, or is a problem for some people. It’s why I’ve suggested upthread that a policy of moderation only happening in bold would make things clearer (the boundary gets blurred when moderators moderate in a comment).
For me personally, when trp is commenting in Open Mike or on a post he didn’t write, he doesn’t have any more power over me than anyone else. Ditto the other day when I was arguing with CV and Red on a post they didn’t write. That they are also sometimes authors was irrelevant and we just argued quite vehemently about the politics. Sometimes it was quite heated and rude. That’s the kaupapa of the place (robust debate).
I really don’t get the issue about power here. It’s not like trp is going to hold it against you if you argue with him (although I think he will eventually reach a limit were he is being harassed as an author/moderator). If anyone else had been relating with phil like he did today, they would have been told off as well by other commenters. What’s the problem?
(btw, JK used the hats thing as a way of avoiding responsibility. I’d like to see how you think I’ve just done that, or trp).
edit, in the end I think it comes down to people not being comfortable with the power imbalance, and I’m kind of curious why it’s coming up so much in the past few months. It’s not like this is new, afaik it’s always been like this on ts.
You’re missing my point, trp is further up the food chain on the standard than most of us so should behave in a manner fitting the position of moderator.
Most here IMO come here in the hope that in some small way it might make a difference so having it degenerate into pointless and pointed abuse will drive people away.
trp isn’t further up the food chain in the way you imply, and people might want to take a step back and consider why they see him that way. His behaviour today is entirely consistent with the rules and culture of the place. Have a go at his behaviour by all means, but there’s not need to have a go at him more because he is sometimes also an author with moderating responsibilities. He wasn’t in that role today and there is no onus on him to behave any better than you or me or phil or Murray etc. as long as he’s relating within the general rules and kaupapa.
I understand and empathize with your comments, MR. I am not about to stir up a hornets’ nest in returning to past events, but I watched from the sidelines and said nothing – not through cowardice but through anger. If I had said my piece, I would not be here now. I totally respect Lprent’s right to moderate as he sees fit; certain others, not so. Time will tell; but I am looking for alternatives.
weka. I am happy to do so, but not tonight. Its been a heavy week, and its Friday night so I am going to enjoy a few wines with friends in town for the weekend. Also, I want my response to be a considered one, not a reaction. I don;t always agree with you, but I respect you so want to respond, so it may take a day or so.
Moderation can’t be removed completely. For example, think of the case where someone might mention Sabin in a legally dubious context. That needs moderating or TS could end up being prosecuted.
Hi Murray yes I agree but was not referring to there being no moderation
My response was in reference to the personal abuse you mentioned as it is my observation there has shown to be a lack of suitability for moderator status in recent appointments
[Drop it. I believe points of concern, various unhappinesses etc, have been proffered in a number of comments. But self martydom offenses includes “including telling us how to run our site or…” ]- Bill
“Privatisation of three Auckland suburbs through the transferal of 2,800 State houses.”
“The Housing Lobby believe the messages being portrayed over Bill English and Nick Smith’s announcement on the transferal of 2,800 State houses from Housing NZ to the Tamaki Redevelopment Company (TRC), is both misleading and untrue,” says Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry.
“In letters delivered by Housing NZ to every tenants’ household on Thursday
29 April 2015, it states ‘nothing will change for tenants’.”
“The situation will drastically change for tenants, if the management and ownership of 2,800 State houses are transferred to a wholly commercial enterprise.”
“Two main changes will be that the Tamaki Redevelopment Company will be able to sell or borrow against a freehold asset already paid for and owned by the public.”
“The impression tenants have is that the Tamaki Redevelopment Company can offer transfers and allocations.”
“It needs to be made clear that it is the Ministry of Social Development that now has this responsibility.”
“One question that needs to be asked is if the Tamaki Redevelopment Company have no experience with tenants why are they there?
Is their real role to assist with the transferal of this State Housing asset directly into the hands of private property development companies?
The other question – is there any truth in the allegation that the Tamaki Redevelopment Company has already applied to Auckland Council to reconfigure massive tracts of reserve lands, parks, and school grounds for intensified housing?”
“What exactly was discussed under ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ session at the Auckland Council Governing Body meeting held behind closed doors with the public excluded, on Thursday 30 April 2015?
Any chance people could lessen the embedding of video in comments? The space takes up half my laptop screen, so doubles the amount of scrolling. The Roger Waters one today is also freezing my iphone screen. I don’t mind the odd embed, but there seems to have been a spate of them in the past few days.
Not sure how to avoid embedding them, weka. I put a link in to a vid the other day and the full clip turned up, much to my surprise. Might be something to do with the wordpress upgrade the other day that also changed the emojis.
It has been mooted here in the recent past that the revelation the GCSB have been spying on South Pacific neighbours and other friendly nations – including China – for the NSA may have had a bearing on his decision to resign well before his term was up.
Sources said the medical examiner found Gray’s catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van.
If the police don’t change their attitude to people of colour especially men then the whole place is going to burn. I cannot accept these men getting shot and killed by police just because of the colour of their skin. Change now police because people are not taking this shit and they never will again.
“a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van” (my emphasis added)
Reminds me of the time my hands were cuffed behind my back in the back of a police van. When they entered the cop shop yard they jumped on the brakes…real hard. Luckily I’d sidled up to the back of the cab and merely got pressed to the metal…otherwise I’d have gone flying with no way to put my hands out in order to lessen any impact.
Hmm….so maybe Gray’s death was a result of ‘standard practice and procedure’?
Waikeria to the mount in the back of a Kingswood maria is something I’d rather forget. Never forget the soup and toast* (and pisspot) when I arrived though.
(The late great Lou Sherwin had the kitchen screw by the shorts*.)
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
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Im not an Economist so can anyone explain: given the $7 billion reduction in dairy exports, why is GDP growth still forecasted to be positive?
Given that $7 billion export reduction hasn’t effected GDP growth to any great degree, why do Economists and the MSM think its such an important measure?
GDP measures “productive” economic activity. Some economists think that all productive economic activity is good, and get excited about GDP growth. E.g. Rebuilding Christchurch leads to lots of “productive” activity in the form of construction activity.
Other economists don’t get excited about GDP growth, and look to other measures/indicators, such as Genuine Progress Indicatiors, Happiness Indexes etc. at a national level, and different indicators at a sub-national level: income levels, the distribution of personal income, househol income, household income by number of people in that household etc.
Politicians worldwide have really only had explicit economic growth goals for between 50-100 years.
They think it’s such an important measure because it is a headline indicator, and is conventionally used. I doubt many of them understand what lies beneath it, what it measures or how it is measured.
The $7billion reduction in dairy exports will have significant effects on the NZ economy in the next few years. Dairy farmers will have less money to reinvest, hence less economic activity. There will be a slight lag until these effects are felt. Meanwhile, selling houses in Auckland counts as “productive” economic activity (even though it is deadweight exchange of existing goods – banks profit, but their profits are mainly realised in Australia; government benefits from increased taxes associated with house sales: e.g. Estate agent’s income tax etc).
The govt are being disingenuous when they keep on spouting on about how steady the economy is. It is not really doing so well, as far as I can tell. I cannot see newly emerging innovative industries sprouting all through the land.
I heard an economist on RadioNZ this morning (can’t find it now online) saying that half of the 3% GDP growth in NZ is due to immigration. (My guess is another 1% is due to the Chch rebuild.)
He said that immigration numbers need to be cut so that pressure is taken off the Akl housing market and so that the RB can cut interest rates.
For the life of me I can’t see why the RB isn’t cutting rates since we have some of the highest rates in the world, very low inflation and an over-valued dollar. Other methods than interest rates should be being used to dampen house prices in Akl, either by the RB or the government.
Unfortunately Key and his speculator mates are happy with the housing bubble in Akl, so the rest of the country has to suffer. Talk about lack of vision.
Paul Glass of Devon Funds Management was the guy (not sure if he is an economist). It’s here and worth a listen:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201752603
That Devon Funds chap seemed to have some ideas that are new, cf to the usual guff from bank economists.
I think I heard the idea that GDP should be on a population basis so it has more reality and value when analysing the figures. DTB might like to put it better. But it seems to me that some of the stats we are presented with are just measures of a trend in a statistic that never measured the right thing in the right way in the first place.
Like the fun way of telling how a country is doing by studying the price of hamburgers, or the length of women’s skirts (one measure that has been actually posited by objective market watchers, not by finky camera guys)
This comment of mine seems to apply:
Steven Joyce – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11441346
Sydney taxi on standby, meter running for 9 hours…….$1,248. The arrogance adds up and adds up and adds up. I recall similar from Parata on a one day trip to Sydney a few years ago shortly after appointment as a minister.
And of course smug wee ponce Simon Bridges had ALWAYS planned to come to Northland on ministerial duties in the 10 days prior to the Northland buy-election on 28 March…….”let ‘them’ eat cake” screams.
Was there only one taxi operating in Sydney that day?
Where are the headlines about this wasteful behaviour in the Herald. That is more than a month’s income for a disabled person.
That is only a little article in the Herald – not the screamer headlines that Labour would have got. Will Mike Hosking denounce Joyce and the Government for this in one of his tedious monologues?
The Taxpayers Union will take the opportunity to pretend they care so when they tout for the ACT party in 2 years time people will think they are impartial.
Here it is re Parata and the Sydney limo’ –
http://thestandard.org.nz/parata-wont-quit-key-wont-sack-her/#comment-565050
big ups! to the unite union – eh..?
– for their david vs. goliath zero-hours-contracts victory over the fast-food behemoths..
unite – showing what a union can/should do..
the (rightwing) engineers union..?..following their long (self-interest-driven?) tradition ?
– not so much..eh..?
Agree with it being great work from Unite. As I was trying to explain to Gosman the other day, trying to change a government is not the only way to bring about change. people on the ground, working hard, fighting battles one by one, achieve change.
There hasn’t been a ‘right wing’ EU for twenty years, Phil. Do try and keep up.
‘twenty-yrs’..eh..?
i must be imagining their long-silences during that poor-bashing clark labour govt time..eh..?
when/what changed..?..
..what did i miss..?
..do tell..!
Mate, there’s so much you missed during your drug addled lost years you’d need a team of historians working in shifts to get you up to date. Best you just start from scratch and just assume your vague memories are as unreliable as your prose is unreadable.
pointless abuse TPR
I agree, that’s why I called Phil on it.
@ TPR,..Head shake…
That should read TRP,..i’m dyslexic.
or are you going too slam that to.
If it’s true, why would I slam it? Phil made an unsubstantiated, anachronistic and inaccurate attack on a trade union. I responded and he doesn’t like it. His issue, not mine. His ignorance, not mine.
Isn’t it funny that most attacks on the union movement come from people who aren’t union members? And in Phil’s case, someone who is not even in the workforce. But no worry, the unions have fought against prejudiced and ignorant attacks for many, many years, wherever they come from.
“..an unsubstantiated, anachronistic and inaccurate attack on a trade union’..
..really..?..do educate me/others on the glowing-history of activism of the engineers union since the douglas/rightwing-revolution started..eh..?
..and of course an interesting compare/contrast is with the australian union movement – who refused to unbuckle..
..and yr sneers @ ‘non-workers’ as others – is symptomatic of all that is/has been wrong with the union movement..
..in that if you are not ‘one of us’/part of that particular union..
..they couldn’t give a fuck about you..
..unions have become covens of self-interest..
..groups of people looking up their own arses..
..do tell how the history of the engineers union does not fit that profile..?
Educate yourself, Phil. Start with the name of the union, then go forward from there.
while I appreciate you needing to keep it real here trp, any chance you could not drag this out all day?
i took yr suggestion..
..and both googled and binged ‘new zealand engineers union activism’..
..yeah..nah..eh..?
..zip/zero/nada..
(and i am not just citing the engineers’ union..
..the union movement in the main – is an example of successful divide and rule by the elites..par excellence..
..self-regulating dissonance..
..and with a history of uncaring/self-interest/outright-perfidy since the mid-80’s..
..which..again..is why the breaking of that ‘consensus’/pattern by unite..
..is both so refreshing..and as i said..a glimpse at the possiblities for good if the union movement removes their collective-heads from their collective-arse-holes..
..and got their act together..
..and thought/worked for the collective-good..
..and not just for themselves/their members..
..and screw everyone else..
..eh..?..
You’re so out of touch, Phil, it’s mind boggling. I think I’ll take up weka’s suggestion. All the best, anyway. It’s good having you back, even if you’re still not making any sense.
and if looking for ideas of what to do..?
..they could start with a three-fer..
..no more zero contracts – for anyone..
..a living wage for all workers..
..and a universal basic income…for all citizens..
..that three-fer will end the evils of child-poverty etc..
..in one fell swoop..
..no more just pissing around the edges of these problems/ills..
..what are you waiting for..?
I disagree. Unite union has been well represented at virtually every protest from TPPA, selling State assets, Oil drilling protests, opposing charter schools, defending Glen Innes State housing, etc., supporting Gaza/Palestine.
In fact Unite’s Joe Carolan often speaks to the crowd at these protest rallies and is commonly on a megaphone during the marches. The Unite people have been very visible o social justice issues on all issues of social justice.
If thats true,.. ?
isn’t it funny,..no, but I think thats inaccurate,most attacks,as you call it come from other unions ie employers Associations and other organizations.I have been an union organizer, and my reading of history shows sexism, racism, and sometimes even corruption, and of coarse your attack on the underemployed is also unhelpful, but seeing you are an author here as well, and making some good points too, I will dissed from further comment, and read more thoroughly terms and conditions here on TS.
left for deadshark I can’t stand the patronising/sarcastic style either. I think it turns most people right off (they are just so used to it they don’t say anything), so thanks for speaking up.
However, regarding the EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association) I don’t think that qualifies in any sense as a union. I think it’s just an example of the Right co-opting the language of the Left (and to some extent riding on the reputation of the EPMU given the not-dissimilar initials) to promote itself as some form of expert on employment issues, when it is little more than a right-wing lobby group providing some basic services to its members (businesses) in aid of oppressing and crushing (sorry, “appropriately monitoring, restructuring and right-sizing” as they say) their workforce.
Well said TRP Ake Ake Ake
Good on you TRP. Nice to hear defence of a union from the real world.
Tautoko. I can’t see any need for it either. I also agree with Phil about the Engineers’ Union.
so..ad homs all ya got..eh..?
..and tho’ ‘intoxicating’ – heroin/opiates do not make you particularly ‘addled’..
..(hence so many doctors morphine-addicts – but still functioning..
..and i wd cast yr mind back to an aussie tv show called ‘hypothetical’..
..where they once presented a panel of doctors etc. with the scenario of a choice of being operated on by a surgeon under the influence of a variety of intoxicants – both illegal and legal..
..all of those chose the surgeon under the influence of opiates..
..but anyway..i stopped using it long before the clark govt arrived on the scene..
..and i remember well the silences of the union movement during those nine long years of ‘worthy’ poor-people vs. ‘unworthy’ poor-people twisted-bullshit from clark..
..it is clearly you who needs the history-lessons…(‘hic!’..eh..?..)
..and let’s not go near the union response to the neoliberal/rightwing revolution undertaken by both national and labour..eh..?
..a tad embarrassing – given that response was to drop their trousers – and bend over..eh..?
..and/but anyway – ad homs all ya got..eh..?
Sorry, Phil, none of what you ‘wrote’ made any sense. Better luck next time. Still, terrific that a dedicated non-worker like yourself is so passionate about workers rights. Sure, you haven’t got a clue what’s been going on in the union movement, but that’s not going to stop you having an ignorant and inaccurate whinge is it?
Almost 10 o’clock, must be time for a mood adjuster. Off you go, the pipes, the pipes are calling, Philly boy.
do keep up..!
vapouriser dear boy – vapouriser..
so..still just ad homs..eh..?
(me a ‘non-worker’..?..eh..?..whoar..!
http://whoar.co.nz/ )
..i actually view what unite have done/achieved as a wake-up call as to the possibilities..
..to a largely comotose/moribund/self-interest-driven/ riven union movement..
..eh..?
..so good news in general..
..so..how about the union movement seek/find some testicular-fortitude..?
..and swing in behind a drive to make zero-hour contracts illegal in all industries..?
..eh..?
..and if not..why fucken not..?
I think you two need to get a room and make mad, passionate love or something.
+1
…. and do you think unites success would have been achieved without the support/reporting of the issue by the right-wing msm?
i agree that campbell live deserve their kudos in helping bring about this change..
..their publicity/coverage has been invaluable..
..in articulating the public disgust/disquiet at this clear abrogation of any civil/human-rights..
..of a marker that a society/culture has got something very very wrong..
You are blog-clogging again Phillip
That’s a point Phillip. The elongated nature of your stream of consciousness style takes up a lot of screen space. Of course that has been mentioned before. But some of us are slow learners, unable to adapt and keep up with the pace of change. But not you I thought Phillip?
FFS it starts again. Grow up, the both of you. Phil, do some research before running your mouth and TRP, if you don’t like what he has to say, don’t make the slapdown personal. Aren’t you a mod on this site? You should know better. Now sort your behaviour out or there won’t be any pudding.
what have i said that is inaccurate..?
Now, why in the blue fuck would I want to engage so you can throw a huge long diatribe that is only really one paragraph? Go and hit the bong, and pack me one while you’re there 😛
Your attitude to the unemployed would fit well with that of the NAct caucus. Since when is unemployment or underemployment something to use to belittle someone?
You have also not managed to give one example of anything progressive the Engineers’ have done in the last twenty years.
Oh, do piss off you pompous git. I have no ‘attitude’ to the unemployed or unemployed. From what Phil has told us, he doesn’t fit into either category.
I can’t give any examples of what the EU has done because there are none for the simple reason that the EU has ceased to exist, which is the point I was making to Phil right at the start. So, yeah, if you’re going to lecture unions on what you perceive to be their failings (on Mayday, too!) at least try and get the names right. And try and find something to moan about from this century, eh.
And, no, I’m not going to list the achievements of the union that actually is the successor to the EU, except one, which is that it saved Unite from financial collapse. Do your own homework for the rest.
Are you actively lobbying for a grand coalition between Labour and National? You’ve got acting like an arrogant and abusive fool down pat already. Simon Bridges could learn off you.
I have no idea why you even bother being on a “left wing” blog. Your attacks on Phil are almost indistinguishable from those he used to receive on Whalespew.
But yeah, you’ll keep going. Almost never discussing anything in good faith, but always with vicious defence of the right of the labour movement. Did you understand the power imbalance between FJK and Amanda Bailey? The way you attack Phil on here suggests that maybe you didn’t.
I personally do not think you should have any role in moderation of this blog. You are far too abusive. However, I know I don’t get a say.
Oooh, I think I smell burning martyr! Get off your high horse, Murray. Funnily enough, my moderation is pretty, er, moderate. Just a couple of bans so far I think. And it’s pretty easy to tell the difference between moderation and commentary. Moderation is in bold black ink. Commentary is on a blue background. I haven’t moderated anyone in this thread, nor would I, because it’s simply a discussion. Nobody has crossed any line, except you trying to tell TS who should and shouldn’t be a moderator. But even then, you’re not being moderated by me. So, get over yourself, why doncha.
PS, I wrote an post touching on the power imbalance between Key and the cafe worker. You must have missed it.
Saying what I think is not telling TS what to do and I know that TS is not an entity anyway. It is giving an opinion. It’s nothing to do with martyrdom whatsoever. It is at most a call for a better atmosphere in these discussions. When you call Phil drug addled and whatever else, there is no way he can (nor should he) respond in kind, irrespective of the colour of your posts.
With Amanda Bailey, it always would have been in her mind that FJK was PM and had power that was inaccessible to her. He claimed he was being silly to show that he had no power. I didn’t swallow his explanation.
One thing that might help clarify matters is a policy whereby all moderation is done in bold. Sometimes moderators make moderation comments in a comment, which confuses things.
Moderation is done in bold. I am not complaining about moderation.
I’d kind of like this exchange to stop about here because it just can’t go anywhere. People will have read the comments being referred to and arrived at their own conclusions.
If, Murray, you don’t appreciate how a given commenter interacts with others, then don’t interact with them. Simple.
If they then interact with you, you could try politely pointing out to them why you don’t wish any interaction with them. I eventually did that with Pete George and it worked out fine for both of us. 😉
Of course, there’s always the option to keep the to and fro going until it reaches it’s almost inevitable conclusion. (shrug)
Fair enough, Bill. The comments are there, as you say. Stopping here.
Meant for Bill (not MR)
I’d kind of like this exchange to stop about here because it just can’t go anywhere.
Thanks Bill.
It’s hard to take when two people who make a lot of quality contributions to this site get their knickers in a twist and start blasting one another. It almost always looks like misunderstanding of viewpoints to me. You’re on the same side mates so just agree to differ eh? (Hope I haven’t made things worse)
The Voice of Reason apparently wants people to cough up the acronym EPMU–Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union–a union whose published early history I happen to have a copy of–“Advocate, Educate, Control, the History of the NZ Engineers Union 1863–1983”. Put together in the 80s by labour movement historian the late Bert Roth. EPMU came about via amalgamations mainly in the ECA era.
It is no secret that most NZ unions sprang from crafts and guilds and even the “goat riders”–masons and were “creatures of legislation” and the award system after the first Labour govt. (oh for an industry award or MECCA system spanning the country now some would say!)
There was only ever a small group of class struggle based unions that drove the renaissance of the Federation of Labour after the brave but disastrous 1951 lockout. The Engineers should not be considered to be part of that group. They supported the ICFTU rather than the communist/non aligned WFTU international centres during the cold war era and were generally pro Anglo and anti Soviet.
The EPMU was a membership raider in the 90s until a concord was reached with other unions. I had personal dealings with many members and officials of the Engineers in the car industry for 20 years so have some insight into these matters. Some diabolical sell outs occurred with officials of that union.
They are a largely conservative union with a changing membership such as migrant workers at telcos, not so much the “tradesmen” of decades back. Aircraft engineers jobs diminishing and cabin crew etc assuming more importance. An amalgamation with the Service and Food Union may happen too. So a mixed record, they represent members well in work sites but are not a campaigning union, and advocate voting Labour basically.
Just watching (over months)……and taking it in……I end up with the feeling that you’re the prime pompous (and hectoring) git around here TRP.
P.Ure sticks his neck out. You lecture……interminably……superior being you. (Hah !)
Like an up-himself school prefect, albeit of the Left. Left is cool as long as it’s Right what ? Just a feeling. Shared I suspect by more than a few. You can piss all over me if that spins your wheels……I don’t give two fucks. You bully far too often for me to care. Gimme the honest if imperfect P.Ure any day !
Asking the hard questions eh Phil. They bounce off a complacent impervious surface. And by the way don’t take comments about drugs etc to heart and bother to reply to justify yourself. You know it’s only a smoke-screen to avoid looking clearly at the actual point you are making.
Unions failed us in NZ. But then we all have failed to understand that real democracy is more vulnerable than we realised. So a sham, fake one has replaced the original one. It could be said that it had a back-door fault like Microsoft. They only keep their systems safe with frequent patches. Most of us never thought of attacks to democracy, or weaknesses needing watching and repairing. So the hackers got in, and physically chopped our rights, advantages, and means of living away.
But the fake democracy still fronts up like the background flats or panels to the actors in an old-style western film.
Look behind, there is nothing there but some strong bracing posts.
a friendly question, please, are you greywarshark returned to your original name ?
Hi r-yeshe
Yes I’ll stick to greywarshark for now. I took a break and went into default mode to warbler when I came back. I still am concerned about the rawshark- thing and Hager so I will stick with the name for the present. One day when things get better? I’ll be a chirpy bird again. Might even go to fantail – they are very inspiring – quick and alert. I’d like to be the same.
🙂 thx grey !
Interesting point of view. Of course, there are those who say the back door faults were purposely left in Microsoft products. I think unions began with better intentions than those of Bill Gates.
And the comments about drugs could apply to me too. It’s not a very supportive world for people who do get off the stuff, except for those around them who see what they’ve overcome and subsequently achieved. Anyone who beats smack and doesn’t join NAct deserves credit.
MR
I do feel that there are unsung heroes out there who have made a very good life which seems commendable. But if one only knew the lower point they had started from, they have actually climbed an everest of their own.
Now and then I read of a muso or entertainer who has got over drugs and that’s amazing.
Now this is interesting. Why a whole years’ delay ? What’s going on here ?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/68156461/prominent-new-zealander-will-stand-trial-on-indecent-assault-charges-in-2016
Cos he has a 1 year fixed contract which requires him to travel????(sarc)
I think it is normal for more than a year to pass before a not guilty pleader faces trial?
I have no idea, however I know of a case of attempted rape and sexual assault. The offending took place in October 2014. He was arrested two days after the complaint was laid and the Police charged him approximately two weeks later. It could have been less. The “alleged” offender will plead not guilty.
My friend whose close relative was the victim has said they have been told the trial will most likely take place in October 2015 – a year on from the crime taking place.
This person by the way no longer has name suppression but the media never reported it. I thought they might have given his former role in the community.
In the case of The Prominent New Zealander, won’t it be over one year? I can’t recall the timeline but it feels like this case has been going on for quite some time, it feels like it is intentionally dragging along.
investigation august last year, first appearance jan this year I think.
I suspect we need more high court judges and staff in this country, if a year is not an unusual period to await trial.
We could always stop the idiotic war on drugs. That would free up a lot of court time.
yeah, but this lot would just cut the budget accordingly…
Very bad system if there are young people involved .. absolute torture for them and favours the accused. Be very good to have a compassionate and faster process for under-age victims.
Hopefully their evidence has already been recorded and they are being supported, leaving the realities of the trial more for the perpetrator than the victims (depending on ages of victims of course).
a decent man mighty plead guilty to save further harm … oh, that’s right ….. no possibility here.
This person probably 100% believes that whatever they did was not wrong… no way he/she will plead guilty in those circumstances.
Many folks who live their lives viewing their actions ONLY through their own eyes are genuinely oblivious to the consequences/impacts of their actions.
fair comment Tracey .. it’s all perception after all.
I believe that anyone wanting to be an elected representative needs to be able to display and show evidence of empathy. How else can they adequately represent others?
So how can we measure that ? Some voters seem able to fooled a lot of the time …
SIGH – I know…
I guess some just don’t think it is a necessary trait in the first place. For some reason many think having made alot of money in a niche career is all you need to lead a country…
sigh indeed ….. and btw, when I was on silence from here a few weeks back with Murray Rawshark, I read some of the pieces you posted about the Winebox and your representation of Paul White .. how amazing. Have been re-reading the three books by Wishart … what a catastrophic mess. And I do see ugly parallels today with Ben Rachinger … maybe one day you can talk some more about things you knew. I was astonished Wishart did not choose to interview you, or was it rather chose not to interview you ? If ever there is more you can say, I would be deeply interested. There is never a time I pass by that underpass pillar and don’t think about what the truth might have been — it has always haunted me. We suffer a very dirty and well-disguised underbelly.
I would guess that most child molesters think there’s nothing wrong with what they do. It would be hard to see how they’d do it otherwise. I know that many think of themselves as victims, seduced by the wiles of small children. One I came across thought he was doing 12 year olds a favour by grooming them to be “loved” later on. I did him a favour by preparing him for the bashings he would face in prison. Unfortunately the parents of the two girls chose to ignore what he was doing.
They’ll be trying to position the ‘prominent’ trial midway between elections to minimise public response. The longer it’s delayed the more trouble it will cause in 2017…
If the Key junta actually makes it to 2017 – it would only need a handful of Gnats to be run over, ingest a surfeit of lampreys, or spontaneously combust, and we’ll be rid of this odious assemblage of incompetent villains and vermin.
LOL
I don’t think there is any ‘conspiracy’ here in terms of the timing of the trial date.
Regrettably, the length of time for a criminal case to get to trial here in NZ is long, particularly a jury trial, and usually takes over a year.
In this instance, while there have obviously been a number of District Court pre-trial hearings already, the case was only transferred from the District Court to the High Court a week or so ago. IIRC from working for some time in the justice sector, the time already taken in relation to these earlier DC hearings would not be taken into account in scheduling the HC trial.
Here is some information from the MOJ website on the factors that may affect the timing of a trial.
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/from/statistics/annual-statistics/june-2011/high-court-waiting-times-1
The links at the bottom are to old 2011 waiting times.
Here are the latest High Court waiting times as at Dec 2014.
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/from/statistics/annual-statistics/latest-december-2014/high-court/high-court-criminal-trial-waiting-time-for-scheduled-hearing-by-courts-as-at-31-december-2014
As you will see, average waiting times at Auckland High Court are over a year at 390 days, while median times are only slightly under at 341 days.
The National total average and median times are 408/332.
Gisborne is the quickest with 206/206.
Palmerston North is the longest – average at 955 but median is 308.
Whangerei is the second longest at 634/606.
EDIT – and Jan Logie on this subject, from the side bar, is worth reading.
https://blog.greens.org.nz/2015/05/01/justice-delayed-and-delayed-and-delayed/
thanks veuto, that’s what I was wondering, so good to have some information.
A trial in the middle of next year, and then an appeal may take this close to the election. The slower the better.
Justice delayed is justice denied
Interestingly the guy who killed the WINZ workers in September was due to start his trial today but it was delayed. So that’s 7 months.
I note Alex Swney, former head of Heart of the City had his sentencing delayed yesterday to a “future time” due to the Judge being ill.
Thanks VV, helpful as ever 🙂
An interesting link in this blog post 😉
https://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/tick-tick-tick-countdown-for-national-begins/
very interesting, well done him 😀 Might not stay up indefinitely so get in while you can.
The last link has been up for a long time – its an Australian site, not NZ.
I meant Frank linking it. He’s breaking name suppression by doing so.
My thought too Weka… Someone will be feverishly advising the Court… you know, for the sake of justice 😉
Huh, I was thinking he was being low key enough it might slip under the radar, but you are right, there will probably be people with vested interests keeping an eye out.
Mind you… any publicity will just send folks a googlin again
Wow! Thanks Hateatea
Thats it said then………..
I hope Frank stays safe.
saw this on that site;
https://fmacskasy.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/its-never-ok-to-touch-someone-without-their-consent.jpg?w=595
…was listening to some old music last night while on the treadmill….. couldn’t help but be struck by this old Pink Floyd jem:
“Sheep”
Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away
Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air
You better watch out
There may be dogs about
I’ve looked over Jordan and I have seen
Things are not what they seem.
What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real
Meek and obedient you follow the leader
Down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel
What a surprise!
A look of terminal shock in your eyes
Now things are really what they seem
No, this is no bad dream.
excellent find
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/340733/meals-wheels-volunteer-will-not-subsidise-compass
this is EXACTLY the point… a company is using unpaid labour to create a profit for itself. I am pretty sure in another century we had another word for it. For now it is just plain exploitation. I do hope they vote with their feet… The good folks of Dunedin, I feel sure, would start cooking in their own homes and delivering until Meals on Wheels returns.
Yeh, there didn’t seem to be much I could add to Hearn’s comment. Hopefully the Dunedin Labour MPs will be at the protest tomorrow. It makes sense that King would be commenting as Health spokesperson, but the workers and volunteers also need support from their electorate MPs:
The problem with the SDHB is that they are likely to have an overseer appointed by the government to supervise cost-saving. It’s all starting to feel a bit like Environment Canterbury when inconvenient democracy threatened private profits.
“Meanwhile, HBL, the Government entity that developed the deal with Compass, has admitted the cost of the business case has blown out to $4.1 million…”
What’s a business case? Surely that can’t be the work done to change the system?
Go Terry Hearn!!
Wasn’t there another interesting bit to the Compass-HBL story? That even after a huge amount of dollar input from the government enabling the HBL to do their important health budget-dieting work, they still have charged all the hospitals they have worked in for their services? If so – Oh the sweet, sweet, non-fattening pleasurable taste of a government sinecure. Especially in the hospital context. A cure for as much sin as you want to indulge in paid by a generous and caring government!
See: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503079&gal_cid=1503079&gallery_id=149812
Auckland ratepayers are about to be screwed over by Willis Bond – the Wellington vulture company that makes hay on the privatization of prime publicly owned land.
* David Cameron makes gaffe in first breath over tax credits ‘raid’
* Furious voter skewers David Cameron over foodbanks saying ‘people have died’
Furious voter skewers David Cameron over foodbanks saying ‘people have died’
Link :
http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/politics
If Cameron has been skewered twice he may have died. A suitable end to someone who should get roasted and not as Hollywood does it either.
Cowardly Firing of Australian State-Funded TV Journalist Highlights the West’s Real Religion
This is the type of society that the West is becoming. One where the propaganda of the ‘elite’ can no longer be questioned. The old term for such is Lèse-majesté.
This is one of the developments that really worries me – people losing their jobs for speaking out privately against the obscene madness of the militarisation of our national stories. It has really worrying fascistic undertones.
+1
Aww, helicopter ride.
What could go wrong with a bite or two?
Everything, as it turned out.
Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I’d order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.
But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/opinion/dowd-dont-harsh-our-mellow-dude.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/opinion/dowd-dont-harsh-our-mellow-dude.html
And you could write several articles identical to that on alcohol every day.
Wonder how long before Hollywood will do a re-release of Reefer Madness? Some people do have a bad reaction to THC, but then some have a bad reaction to political criticism as well.
Happy May Day everyone. Great news as Maccas comes to its senses over zero hour contracts.
excellent! well done everyone involved in that.
+1
Look how much we have just sold again to overseas buyers !! Surely it’s time for a review and radical change to the OIO system.
Oh, and look see what Mike Sabin’s new corporate role has achieved? Selling to Chinese one of the loveliest holiday camps in Northland.
We are goneburgers at this rate. sigh …..
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11441306
Yes. Abolish it as it is a waste of money.
I agree. Get rid of it and stop land sales to non-residents.
That would take care of it ! Not much chance tho the way this govt sells residence status to many who should not have it. .. always available if you have the millions in your bank account … and absurdly with no with need to prove you have it in the same account the next day ! Recipe for corruption isn ‘t it ?
“Get rid of it and stop land sales to non-residents.”
Do you mean people without residency status, or people that don’t live here?
I mean people who don’t live in Aotearoa.
How about NZ Citizens who live overseas? I think would have to be exempt.
Why? So they can be landlords? They don’t need the house to live in if they’re living overseas.
No, but they might need it when they get back. For some people it’s not just a house, it’s a home.
And if they sell to someone who turns it into a rental, how is that any different than the person going overseass renting it out?
They might already be a landlord. If I was renting off them and they’re good landlords, I’d prefer that they didn’t have to sell when they go work overseas for a year, esp if they sell to someone who then ends the tenancy.
I can think of any number of scenarios where it makes sense to not force NZ citizens (and people with residency) to sell.
Yes and…
In most of the countries these NZ citizens might be living in, they don’t have the option of buying a house as well as their house in NZ
I’m also thinking about the impact on housing prices in NZ if every person that owns a property that goes overseas for a time has to sell, and then rebuy when they come back.
I didn’t say anything about Kiwis having to sell their house when they leave. I have no idea where you got that idea from. Not being able to buy is not the same as being forced to sell.
Ok, sorry, I thought you were meaning land ownership.
Thanks for that rawsharke y. About the sale to overseas interests. Do you know who sold Whatuwhwhi? Who were the owners who sold the camp? I wondered if it was the Maori interests who had big debts after a business failure.
I didn’t realise how well embedded we were in the English speaking Quinad till I heard about the Five Eyes spying.
Now while looking at wikipedia on passports I see –
“the Five Nations Passport Group, an international forum for cooperation between the passport issuing authorities in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States “.
I thought it was three 6’s that were supposed to be the mark of a coming bad end. Five seems to be getting bad connotations also.
Was listening to this – The Russel Norman questions
http://www.radionz.co.nz/radionz/programmes/parliament/audio/201752350/question-time-for-29-april-2015
Is it just me or, was there a rising level of contempt from the government benches for Mr Norman when ask questions from the public.
The disdain has been there for a long time, imho.
Also Carter’s disdain and vile shouting rudeness yesterday at Green MP Catherine Delahunty as she tried ( in vain) to have a document tabled in the house. Carter yelled and became so angry, he is just unsuitable for the role. He looks miserable always, until someone on the right tries to make ‘a funny’ of some kind, but he metes out his worst acerbic and furious misery on Greens, Winston and various Labour front benchers. He is an impatient and and acidic angry man.
His divisive partisan behaviour shames the office and betrays us all.
I was waiting for the point of order on When he yelled at Catherine
Point of order: When did the PM ‘s abusive style of bluster, become the norm for the speaker of the house, Mr Speaker.
Of course the member would be ejected – but hey be worth it.
Metiria did try with her excellent point of order .. but Carter should apologise for the ‘unbecoming of the house’ manner in which he yelled at Catherine.
Can you imagine this man as our Ambassador in London ? OMFG.
Would it be any worse than having JK as our PM?
Actually, if you look around the media a bit (except the MSM in NZ) it’s obvious that conservatives around the world are losing the plot.
It’s not a competition for worse, worserer or worserest although it can surely look like it. Each of them is an unmitigated disaster for Aotearoa with Groser about to become yet another in Washington. ( Bet Helen can’t wait sarc.)
But it does seem to be a competition, rawshark-yeshe. And, Key now heads their international conservative organisation – May there name never pass my lips.
I bet they are feeling chuffed about that.
adam .. not sure which one you mean ? maybe try some initials as a clue for me ? I don t think you mean Security Council .. so then pse ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Democrat_Union
The Brazilian branch is a development of ARENA, the fake party that supported the Brazilian military government. They are very close to fascism.
omg! Is Key really the new head ? oh dear, oh dear. Hope they all have short hair.
DTB
I commented about this somewhere else this morning. IN Australia they swallowed the misogynistic anti-Gillard schpiel from CT but very quickly have realised their error, Same in UK, but here… 3 terms later…
These Tories, have become full blown with their women hating of late. it’s just Sick.
The *real* game of thrones in Saudi Arabia while Key was there ..
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/29/saudi-arabia-mohammed-bin-nayef-crown-prince
Radio nz had this – has everyone heard about it? Get the links here –
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/272520/invitation-to-our-discussion-forums
Radionz
We like a good chinwag at radionz.co.nz and now we want you to join the conversation too.
Today we’re trialling a new forums feature – rnztalk. You will also find it at the foot of this piece and on today’s weekly political column, Power Play.
We are starting small so we can see what you think. We won’t be adding forums to everything we publish but we will, depending what you say, start steadily increasing their use over time.
Rnztalk uses a platform called Discourse – a 100 percent open source system – which, like us, wants to encourage a better level of discussion.
This means things are a little bit different from your normal commenting systems. Comments are post-moderated, placing the onus on you to be mature, considered, caring and reasonable in what you write.
My bold. It’s not a place for keyboard warriors to unleash hell and fury. We want people to feel safe and respected on our forums. Before you hit the publish button stop, pause and think. Play the issue never the person.
Click here for some guidelines which should help with that process.
Joining is easy – simply use your existing Facebook or Twitter account or sign up separately.
And, let us know what you think. Thanks.
Cool, another place for people to say “what they reckon”
Interesting they are going for post-moderation. Good on them.
As long as they are even handed in what they let through
“what they let through”
what they take out. They’re not moderating until after the comments have been published.
okee dokee, sorry. you mean moderation after comment not moderation of posts?.
yep. It’s pretty progressive of them. I hope it works.
http://www.janes.com/article/51081/expatriates-face-rising-threat-of-militant-attacks-outside-of-secure-facilities-in-saudi-arabia
Bernie Sanders, independent democratic socialist US Senator, has announced a run for President. On the Democratic ticket – he will be battling Clinton.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/30/bernie-sanders-election-challenge-hillary-clinton
He refuses all corporate donations. I think he can take on the billionaire class – or at least give them a good scare. He’s probably to the left of Elizabeth Warren.
He wants to take on Wall Street and break up the banks, truly tax the wealthy, move America to a universal single-payer health system, make universities debt-free, vastly reduce poverty by expanding benefits, double the minimum wage, take on tax evasion by corporations and the rich, oppose US intervention in the middle east, oppose the TPP (and all corporate trade deals), empower unions, expand worker cooperatives, and take on corporate money in politics truly address climate change, etc.
He was a founding member of the Progressive Caucus which is composed of the left/’progressive’ of the Democratic Party. And himself, who is an independent.
He might not win the primary, but he will shake the establishment and confront Hillary Clinton on these issues. The progressive wing of the Party is growing in influence. (i.e. Bill Clinton would *not* get chosen as a nominee today), and she’ll need to make it clear that she’ll appease them. Although I would hope that he could win outright.
Michael. Last night I watched the Russell Brand/Millibrand interview.
The summary from Russell
http://www.thepaepae.com/russell-brands-quieter-ed-milibrand-interview/35954/ at about 13:25 was so like your post from Bernie Sanders:
“He wants to take on Wall Street and break up the banks, truly tax the wealthy, move America to a universal single-payer health system, make universities debt-free, vastly reduce poverty by expanding benefits, double the minimum wage, take on tax evasion by corporations and the rich, oppose US intervention in the middle east, oppose the TPP (and all corporate trade deals), empower unions, expand worker cooperatives, and take on corporate money in politics truly address climate change, etc.”
And will we have a similar call from our MPs?
Mind you, Russell reckons it is the power of the people who cause changes.
It’s not politicians who made zero contracts go away for certain NZ workers… in fact they allowed them to surface in the first place.
Yes, well it would be the power of the people that would get Bernie elected. Bernie refuses all corporate donations – not a single cent comes from corporations. 60+% of his funding comes from small, individual donations and the remainder comes mostly from labour, environmental, and civil liberties groups.
This is in contrast to the establishment US politicians who need corporate money to win. Hillary Clinton will raise nearly us$3 billion. The Koch Brothers, billionaire oil barons, are planning on spending nearly $1 billion of their own money to fix the election for the Republican Party.
Bernie would need to be elected via a grassroots movement – first, to overcome Hillary who has the backing of moneyed interests, and then to win the election against a Republican candidate who will receive billions in corporate donations. It would take a mobilisation of ordinary people – a politician that represents people.
How much longer before the police decide they need to act on Gloriavale? Last nights segments confirmed sexual, physical and emotional as well as possibly financial abuse.
As yet I don’t think we have a Waco in the making, but given their disregard for the law when it comes to underage sex and their determination in isolating rebels, I wonder how they would react to the Police turning up with CYFS in force?
The problem might be in obtaining evidence that would stand up in court.
CYFS can still get involved though.
Is Gloriavale that community on the West Coast that’s been there for decades, or is it a new one?
across from Lake Haupiri on the West Coast
http://www.gloriavale.org.nz/
They started life in North Canterbury – then moved to a more isolated spot.
Yup, Rangiora. If you read their website they don’t name their founder or any Leader.
Tv3 did an expose in the early 90s of a similar community on the west coast, just wondering if it’s the same one.
Talking of Court costs I would love to know the legal status of this, not to mention the ethics…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11437454
In effect the “cult” are wanting a road to them closed, the local Council has agreed BUT the Council is likely to go to court to defnd their action against other parties. Here’s the dubious bit. The “cult” are going to pay the Councils court costs. In other words an interested party is paying the council to defend a decision against other interested parties. How bent is that?
Must have heard you Robert.
On the Herald: “A free phone line has been set up by police for people wanting to discuss experiences at the secretive Christian community Gloriavale.
The line will be answered by Tasman District Police and has been established to manage the growing number of people wanting to discuss Gloriavale, police said.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11441715
One allegation on the TV3 program which wold be easy to investigate is that somebody at Gloriavale received a benefit from WINZ without the knowledge of the person they were claiming for. The person the benefit was claimed for only found out when thy were sent a demand for overpayment. That is fraud, theft, using somebodies identity for criminal purposes…you name it.
Wonder how much they donate to the National Party?
“Wonder how much they donate to the National Party?” – indeed!
From their FAQ:
Yeah that’s pretty important with this level of diversity: http://www.gloriavale.org.nz/images/icethumbs/960×380/95/images//sampledata//iceslideshow//image1.jpg
It’s one of those times, when the Christian left and right need to stop fighting. And go look at this community, and see how far off the path it really is. I think many will be shocked at how far off they are.
Personally I’m convinced it’s christian in name only – as some of the utterance of Neville Cooper make him a cult figure not a christian. I find it abhorrent he says his group is based on christianity, to somehow justify that he is not a cult. Indeed the whole Cooperite Community is a cult – just look at this video.
http://www.3news.co.nz/tvshows/campbelllive/gloriavale-more-revelations-from-ex-members-2015042219#axzz3YqS95NQb
This is by definition cultish behaviour.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11436904
Time for the Bishops and the other church leaders to step up and challenge this group.
I hope you don’t mean Bishop Tamaki 🙂
OH my goodness no.
That man is in all probability leading a cult as well. He has crossed the line a few times.
Making himself a bishop, was just odd.
Here is a Friday afternoon giggle – time for a wine.
English on being Acting Prime Minister.
https://twitter.com/felixmarwick/status/593944226301259776
https://twitter.com/VernonSmall/status/593944631185805312
When moderators are making personal attacks on commenters, I feel something has gone very wrong. I have no idea what we can do about it.
Can I make a couple of suggestions? When addressing commenters who also are at times moderators, think of them as commenters unless they explicitly say they are moderating. I took everything trp said upthread to be him as a commenter, not an author (which means he can be as rude/obnoxious as everyone else, including phil).
The other thing is to stick to the issue and if necessary the behaviour. Your comment comparing trp to Simon Bridges strikes me as rude/abusive as anything trp said to phil. We don’t have to get personal like that (I was on the verge of calling trp out for the druggie put downs), but can instead either focus on the issue (unions), or the behaviour (keep it neutral).
In the end I think we have to take our cues from the authors, and that is going to vary from author to author hugely. I have no problem calling trp out on things, but there is going to be a limit and the authors are the ones that get to say where that limit is for them. I respect that because they are the ones that do the hard yards here, and without them I/we wouldn’t have a place like this to hang out in.
Sorry, that probably doesn’t help a lot, but I sense your frustration and hope there is a way that being here on ts can be ok for you. Lots of people value your input, myself included.
” When addressing commenters who also are at times moderators, think of them as commenters unless they explicitly say they are moderating. I took everything trp said upthread to be him as a commenter, not an author ”
That sounds a bit like something despicable key would say about which hat he was wearing at the time. I think we should expect a higher standard from those with power, even if it is only the power to ban a commenter.
Except in this instance there are two distinct hats. There is a boundary between trp the author/moderator and trp the commenter. I’m kind of surprised that this isn’t obvious, or is a problem for some people. It’s why I’ve suggested upthread that a policy of moderation only happening in bold would make things clearer (the boundary gets blurred when moderators moderate in a comment).
For me personally, when trp is commenting in Open Mike or on a post he didn’t write, he doesn’t have any more power over me than anyone else. Ditto the other day when I was arguing with CV and Red on a post they didn’t write. That they are also sometimes authors was irrelevant and we just argued quite vehemently about the politics. Sometimes it was quite heated and rude. That’s the kaupapa of the place (robust debate).
I really don’t get the issue about power here. It’s not like trp is going to hold it against you if you argue with him (although I think he will eventually reach a limit were he is being harassed as an author/moderator). If anyone else had been relating with phil like he did today, they would have been told off as well by other commenters. What’s the problem?
(btw, JK used the hats thing as a way of avoiding responsibility. I’d like to see how you think I’ve just done that, or trp).
edit, in the end I think it comes down to people not being comfortable with the power imbalance, and I’m kind of curious why it’s coming up so much in the past few months. It’s not like this is new, afaik it’s always been like this on ts.
You’re missing my point, trp is further up the food chain on the standard than most of us so should behave in a manner fitting the position of moderator.
Most here IMO come here in the hope that in some small way it might make a difference so having it degenerate into pointless and pointed abuse will drive people away.
trp isn’t further up the food chain in the way you imply, and people might want to take a step back and consider why they see him that way. His behaviour today is entirely consistent with the rules and culture of the place. Have a go at his behaviour by all means, but there’s not need to have a go at him more because he is sometimes also an author with moderating responsibilities. He wasn’t in that role today and there is no onus on him to behave any better than you or me or phil or Murray etc. as long as he’s relating within the general rules and kaupapa.
I understand and empathize with your comments, MR. I am not about to stir up a hornets’ nest in returning to past events, but I watched from the sidelines and said nothing – not through cowardice but through anger. If I had said my piece, I would not be here now. I totally respect Lprent’s right to moderate as he sees fit; certain others, not so. Time will tell; but I am looking for alternatives.
veuto, would you mind saying why you are ok with Lynn moderating as he sees fit but not some others?
weka. I am happy to do so, but not tonight. Its been a heavy week, and its Friday night so I am going to enjoy a few wines with friends in town for the weekend. Also, I want my response to be a considered one, not a reaction. I don;t always agree with you, but I respect you so want to respond, so it may take a day or so.
thanks veuto, no worries, have a good night.
Using threats of banning to extort ‘evidence’ then when provided with ‘evidence’ still issue a ban…
Any level of responsibility is too much for certain personality types which is why the sort of behaviour looks set to continue
The answer to the question Murray is remove the responsibility of moderation because it was too much to expect it would not go the way it has
Moderation can’t be removed completely. For example, think of the case where someone might mention Sabin in a legally dubious context. That needs moderating or TS could end up being prosecuted.
Hi Murray yes I agree but was not referring to there being no moderation
My response was in reference to the personal abuse you mentioned as it is my observation there has shown to be a lack of suitability for moderator status in recent appointments
[Drop it. I believe points of concern, various unhappinesses etc, have been proffered in a number of comments. But self martydom offenses includes “including telling us how to run our site or…” ]- Bill
Your false narratives are not “evidence”. That would be a link or two, which you didn’t supply.
http://thestandard.org.nz/finally/#comment-986005
Absolute
FYI
______________________________________________________________________________________
1 May 2015
“Privatisation of three Auckland suburbs through the transferal of 2,800 State houses.”
“The Housing Lobby believe the messages being portrayed over Bill English and Nick Smith’s announcement on the transferal of 2,800 State houses from Housing NZ to the Tamaki Redevelopment Company (TRC), is both misleading and untrue,” says Housing Lobby Spokesperson Sue Henry.
http://www.tamakitrc.co.nz/
“In letters delivered by Housing NZ to every tenants’ household on Thursday
29 April 2015, it states ‘nothing will change for tenants’.”
“The situation will drastically change for tenants, if the management and ownership of 2,800 State houses are transferred to a wholly commercial enterprise.”
“Two main changes will be that the Tamaki Redevelopment Company will be able to sell or borrow against a freehold asset already paid for and owned by the public.”
“The impression tenants have is that the Tamaki Redevelopment Company can offer transfers and allocations.”
“It needs to be made clear that it is the Ministry of Social Development that now has this responsibility.”
http://www.housing.msd.govt.nz/forms/factsheets/social-housing-changes.html
“One question that needs to be asked is if the Tamaki Redevelopment Company have no experience with tenants why are they there?
Is their real role to assist with the transferal of this State Housing asset directly into the hands of private property development companies?
The other question – is there any truth in the allegation that the Tamaki Redevelopment Company has already applied to Auckland Council to reconfigure massive tracts of reserve lands, parks, and school grounds for intensified housing?”
“What exactly was discussed under ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ session at the Auckland Council Governing Body meeting held behind closed doors with the public excluded, on Thursday 30 April 2015?
http://infocouncil.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Open/2015/04/GB_20150430_AGN_5790_AT.PDF (Pg 93)
“C1 Additional New Special Housing Area Request – April 2015 Auckland Development Committee Recommendation ”
“What didn’t they want the public to know?”
“State houses in Tamaki should remain under Housing NZ stewardship – end of story.”
Sue Henry
Spokesperson
Housing Lobby
…………………..
Any chance people could lessen the embedding of video in comments? The space takes up half my laptop screen, so doubles the amount of scrolling. The Roger Waters one today is also freezing my iphone screen. I don’t mind the odd embed, but there seems to have been a spate of them in the past few days.
Not sure how to avoid embedding them, weka. I put a link in to a vid the other day and the full clip turned up, much to my surprise. Might be something to do with the wordpress upgrade the other day that also changed the emojis.
Yep Lynn said something the other day about youtube links now embedding by default until he gets around to fixing it.
ok, thanks you two.
excuse me for being behind the times but is there anything Fletcher says here that has been proven correct!http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=139509
Do you mean proven incorrect les? Hard to believe that no one here or in 5 Eyes is collecting data of any sort on NZers.
Of course is it possible that Fletcher resigned because the “rules” were in fact being broken? Just wondering.
It has been mooted here in the recent past that the revelation the GCSB have been spying on South Pacific neighbours and other friendly nations – including China – for the NSA may have had a bearing on his decision to resign well before his term was up.
On it goes.
Sources said the medical examiner found Gray’s catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van.
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2015/04/breaking-news-no-evidence-found-that-freddie-gray-s-death-was-result-of-police-who-arrested-him-prob.html
If the police don’t change their attitude to people of colour especially men then the whole place is going to burn. I cannot accept these men getting shot and killed by police just because of the colour of their skin. Change now police because people are not taking this shit and they never will again.
“a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van” (my emphasis added)
Reminds me of the time my hands were cuffed behind my back in the back of a police van. When they entered the cop shop yard they jumped on the brakes…real hard. Luckily I’d sidled up to the back of the cab and merely got pressed to the metal…otherwise I’d have gone flying with no way to put my hands out in order to lessen any impact.
Hmm….so maybe Gray’s death was a result of ‘standard practice and procedure’?
Waikeria to the mount in the back of a Kingswood maria is something I’d rather forget. Never forget the soup and toast* (and pisspot) when I arrived though.
(The late great Lou Sherwin had the kitchen screw by the shorts*.)