So far things are working really well. John Key is accepted by enough to be an ordinary kiwi despite his immense wealth and despite the fact that the only people who have done well under his reign are the very wealthy. Swinging voters are so gullible!
Our attack on Phil Goff’s credibility is working well. We even managed to persuade the MSM that he was told about the Israeli spies in Christchurch, despite the fact that if he had an inkling about what had happened he would have been apoplectic with the attack on New Zealand’s sovereignty. Of course he was not told. We are doing well by persuading some that he may have been briefed on what happened. The meme that he is not able to lead, despite decades of competent governance, is gaining momentum.
And we have managed to create a sense of disunity in Labour’s ranks even though there is actually none. David Cunliffe is loyal to Phil but the media have bought the line that if David says nothing he wants to depose Phil and if he denies wanting to depose Phil then he wants to depose Phil. Excellent work!
We also have some very helpful weapons. Rupert Murdoch’s recent poll was great and provided our supporters with an excellent weapon to attack Goff and Labour with. The MSM fell for it hook line and sinker. Instead of trying to work out how it had Labour’s Auckland’s support at half the level of a poll the day before they reported it as further evidence that Goff is stuffed. Remember to remind our supporters that the truth does not matter, if they are able to spin and bash with an idea then they should do so, no matter how false the idea is.
And it is vital that we do not talk about policy, at least significant policy. If National has to justify the huge budget deficit and talk about selling assets at the same time then our focus groups suggest that support will take a serious hit. Avoid discussions about important policy areas at all cost.
And remember. It does not matter what the reality is. If something arises spin it with conviction. After all, the secret to success is sincerity and conviction, once you can fake that you’ve got it made.
It is incredible that “they” can get away with the dirty tricks. You would think that there would be the odd journalist with integrity. Somewhere? Mickey you have told it the way we see it.
What’s incredible is how cheap voters are. If voters had a clue they’d all start a
co-op right now, that would borrow money on the soon to be privatized assets
and each of them would be rmuch much richer and not have to personally
borrow any money! All those DPB mothers could rush out right now, form a
collective, and buy these National giveaway shares.
Of course Key is trusting that voters are too lazy and think.
My take is if NZ wants good economics of growth, vote Labour. CGT will
means we will invest and grow, but if the voters re-elect Key, then bring it on,
buy the shares, sell them at a profit and have to pay even higher taxes,
few opportunities, greater inequality in the future. That’s the choice,
quick profit now. I know kiwis well enough now to know they are
very individualistic and rather naive about the advantages of collective action
whether in the public sector or private, but this is hardly surprising since
the MSM does a fine job of include the most hardline rightwing rich
people are good for the economy and don’t listen to those lefties who
say that rich people make their money by exploiting distortions and
people at the bottom.
Spot on mickeysavage. Thank-you.
The most discouraging aspect is when you are talking with someone who starts to spout the C/T memes. As soon as you try to explain the reality their eyes glaze over. They don’t want to be confronted with the truth. Very sad.
Is that the extent of your argument insider? Pathetic!
The taxpayer has footed the bill for the likes of Paula Bennett to go off and get trained in how to spin. That’s all National can do because the statistics and reality don’t lie. National has no plan apart from tax cuts for the wealthy and beneficiary bashing. Flogging off assets is a dead end street off a very long road.
National is failing New Zealand when strong leadership is required. Instead of a government that gives a damn about kiwi’s, we get the same old cronyism, growing inequality, a mass exodus, budget cuts, higher costs and hollow rhetoric.
A smile and wave doesn’t cut the mustard when you look at the facts of New Zealand’s situation.
Micky, while its easy make jokes like that one above (very nice btw) when you read comments like:
“when it was put to him [Goff] that National would have had to blunder on a monumental scale to lose after just three years in office, his answer was curiously telling.
“They would have to have had Ruth Richardson running the finance portfolio,” was his response.
And we have managed to create a sense of disunity in Labour’s ranks even though there is actually none. David Cunliffe is loyal to Phil but the media have bought the line that if David says nothing he wants to depose Phil and if he denies wanting to depose Phil then he wants to depose Phil. Excellent work!
This is exactly what Patrick Gower was saying the other night! I was furious..
I don’t get you. If I were served by a person who demanded I prove I did something
wrong, and I have no tech ability, I’m going to be raging that I had to pay a
fine, or had my credit rating hurt, or put on a watch list at the ISP. It
won’t take much time at all before those that send these notices that you have
downloaded somethingyou should not of for everyone to start avoding those
companies. Start a boycott on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays of
Cinemas, if Hollywood gets slap happy. Over time this law is a shit law
and people will get fed up.
and think about it students who have little spare cash having to find alternative
types of media to entertain themselves, what happens when they leave uni,
what’s the chances they don’t get all that attached to hollywood but
continue their alternative free entermain behaviors.
So who wins having a distorted bad law, National a few voters for clamping
down in Nanny state ways.
I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know you can trust the proxy. The proxy hides your real IP address from others, but not the proxy itself. Stacking proxies might help, but if there is no encryption involved any one of them could easily log what you are up to.
Hi Aero, Clandestino is onto it, proxy IPs…the net is a dark and mysterious world. The buggers cant enforce anything if we play “dirty”. Which is why the law is an ass.
Heh, DC++ networks are pretty common in uni’s, so all that’s needed are a couple of people bringing in files via sneakernet, onion routing, private DC++ servers on the net, private torrent trackers, or various file downloading sites, such as rapidshare and they’ll be fine.
And also where does the ‘fine’ go??? if it’s to a company then is it restitution? or what? or is it a civil matter??? in which case cant we just tell em to go blow?
Well there are some nifty tools out there to keep the nasties away, lol. And now a lot of VPN companies are going to make some good money now. maybe they’ll have a special. Mine says I am in Miami.
Hang on! I think he’s talking about the Labour/UN joint venture retirement plan!
Sick of Business Class?? Spent a political career studying corruption? – just get kicked out of Labour caucus and enjoy life in the UN, First Class airfares, stay in the hotels you only dreamed of. Emulate your heroes like DS-K – you’ve got it made!
Precisely Mickey, note the time being devoted to how kiwis are getting assets first and fund managers lining up to back the govts line that it’s kiwis first and watch them froth up over Carters UN job taking any opportunity to rehash his implosion and place Helens name out there again oh and we’ve got a story about someone with links to something to put sideshow John on saying no comment…speculation at best….whereas that 10bill budget hole and other current issues get ignored.
Chris73 yes some on the left are jealous they don’t possess the ability the deceive, diffuse spin and generally fail to engage in anything which will highlight the true agenda….no plan or vision, NZ for sale, ahoy the wealthy and powerful….screw the rest.
Deception, media manipulation, avoidance of wide public scrutiny, ‘bait and switch’, employing drones to blog and general fear and loathing are not really the type of politics the left is envious of #73.
No.s #1 to #72 have different names I suppose but the same tory story. The likes of the Hollow Men really do piss on this country, so it has been good the last couple of days to remind people of their true colours.
I, too, have noticed that there has been a sudden uprise of financiers and fund managers singing in chorus in the media about how the shares would stay in ‘NZ ownership’.
Sadly, Russel Norman on Morning Report today didn’t make the point that it’s not just about foreign ownership but about private ownership of the assets. He got trapped into saying “it’s great that iwi are ambitious” to own some shares but that there’s no guarantee that they won’t end up in foreign hands.
Yes, if there’s going to be private, corporate ownership of these shares then it may as well be iwi corporates but that shouldn’t distract from the fundamental argument against privatisation in the first place.
The main point is that these assets will cease to be publicly owned and run in the ‘national interest’.
Frankly, all the Tower executives and Kiwisaver ‘advisors’ telling us that NZ corporates have sufficient capital to purchase the shares should be countered by pointing out that (a) those institutions aren’t the ‘mum and dad shareholders’ that Key and English have been talking about, and (b) the fact that they are ‘NZ owned’ is not the main concern.
Norman did, however, make the important point that this would have no impact on NZ’s savings/investment rate since it just shuffles ownership around within NZ.
If I get 9.9% of the shares. My wife gets 9.9% of the shares and my son and my daughter and my father-in-law I will own 49% of a SOE. So might John Key act. (Then sell overseas to a Chinese Consortium for 250% profit.)
Perhaps we could all do what I intend to do, buy solar panels. If they’re going to sell our strategic assets then I intend to be strategic about my own energy production.
If it was just a call for individual ‘consumers’ to install solar panels to meet their own, private energy needs then I would disagree.
‘Privatisation’ is not just an economic term. It concerns the increasing tendency to turn our social world into a set of materially discrete private spheres, with a diminishing number of people within each sphere. Connections between these spheres then reduce to contractual arrangements enforced by some coercive system (e.g., the police and judiciary).
Think about what you’d do if someone from the poorer, ‘less wise’ parts of town (who had ‘chosen’ not to install solar panels) came to your place and wanted some of your energy and was in no mind to take ‘no’ for an answer. Would the reactionary individualist come to the fore? (You know, “Well, if they didn’t think ahead, more fool them. I’ll set the cops onto them if they want some of my energy!”)
To add a further step to my points above – my opposition to privatisation is not just about corporate private ownership; it’s about the ills of any solely private ownership of something so necessary to all of us. (That’s not to say that individuals shouldn’t have their own energy supply, just that there also has to be a collective energy supply – or collective means of providing energy – over which we have control and access, together.)
Agreed, but then unfortunately is the real world that we are being confronted with.
Our Government is about to sell our strategic energy resources and as much as I’d like to act collectively to prevent that, the media, polls, apathy, stupidity, self interest, stupidity and so on and so forth are very likely to prevent that sort of collective action.
So, rather than be subject to ever increasing power and water prices, I’ll stand accused of being a self serving individualist and ensure that my children have power from solar and water from the roof and will be happy- if the events that AFKTT predicts happen, as I’m fairly convinced is likely – I’ll be happy to be a hub for the street for power and cooking, if I haven’t managed to get a piece of land before then or am not running fromthe city before he blows the bridges.
But in the meantime, a lack of leadership and governance, from any political party mean I have no option but to act privately. My first intention of coarse is to do all I can to work towards achieving a government in November that won’t sell our assets, but as much as admire the optimism of a Loy of the loyalists on thi blog, I’m not sure I’m feeling quite so sure.
Completely agree and completely understandable – and I wouldn’t want to accuse you of being a self-serving individualist, so my apologies for that implication.
I’m a bit into self-serving self-sufficiency myself, if the truth be known. An old-fashioned section with some fruit trees at the back, a vege garden, greenhouse, worm farm, composting … all very amateurish but making a bit of progress.
Quite. The foreign ownership issue is a red herring. The issue must be to keep those companies in public ownership.
In fact, if I had my way, the energy companies would be turned back into the old ECNZ, and the Bradford reforms rolled back. The electricity is a total mess with ticket clipping and duplication galore. The only good thing about it, is that it gives me a job 🙂
One of the requirements is living in Ireland, TM, and if Sinead is prepared to pay my fare, I’m off, to be sure, to be sure!
Ropata, look again or even better, check her blog, which is linked to in the article. I’m assuming she’s still a christian. Last time I heard, she’d formed her own church and ordained herself as a minister, after considerable earlier difficulties with the Catholic hierarchy.
Whatev millsy, everyone has their own style to be sure, and I am Irish, 4th gen kiwi but not that keen on Guinness or being Sinead’s kept companion slash bonker, but kudos to Voice for posting like it was 1999, or at least a Friday arvo.
I may have been a bit obscure, TM. I posted it as a riposte to a christian commenter who had a bit of an anti-gay meltdown on an earlier open mike. But I’d still be on the first flight to Shannon if Sinead’d have me!
The hair’s longer now, btw, an eton crop, I think it’s called in the salons.
If you define Sinead O’Connor as a Christian, no wonder you have so many problems with understanding the point of view of anyone who doesn’t agree with you!
Bitter and vengeful much, are you? You’ve caused enough trouble for this year – why not sod off to the Dawkins site? You’d never have to deal with contrary views there.
It’s not a question of my definition of a Christian, it’s Sinead’s. If she, or you, claim to be Christian, then that is fine by me. It’s no more my business than what name you prefer to be called by. You claim to be a Christian, but there is little evidence of Christian virtue or values in the abuse you hurl so gaily around this site.
And as for bitter and vengeful, well, as the world’s best selling work of fiction says, let he who is without sin caste the first stone. You stitched yourself up, Vicky32, with bugger all help from me.
You claim to be a Christian, but there is little evidence of Christian virtue or values in the abuse you hurl so gaily around this site.
I don’t fling abuse. You fling abuse… but hell will freeze over before you admit that… Your main issue with me, is that I don’t believe that Christian = doormat, and I won’t put up with lies and insults. Neither do I believe that women should always be subordinate to men and silent in their presence.
And as for bitter and vengeful, well, as the world’s best selling work of fiction says, let he who is without sin caste (sic) the first stone. You stitched yourself up, Vicky32, with bugger all help from me.
Not true, but whatever. Have it your own way. (It’s the only thing that will make you happy, and above all, make you stop harassing me from day to day to tiresome day!) Leave it out – even your sycophants will be getting bored with it soon.
Don’t take everything so personally Vicky, I am Christian also, but I’ve been hanging around the blogs long enough that personal stuff doesn’t get under my skin (much).
Also the USA has amply demonstrated that a nominal “christian” society is not immune from greed and tyranny. Religion is all too often the refuge of scoundrels, so when it’s criticised as such there’s not much argument.
Much of what passes for Christianity these days is indeed fiction. I believe God is working in subtle ways to restore our broken world, but humans are his agents and not the easiest material to work with!
Don’t take everything so personally Vicky, I am Christian also, but I’ve been hanging around the blogs long enough that personal stuff doesn’t get under my skin (much).
Thank you Ropata! I have a tendency to take this kind of thing much too personally – I admit I am a marshmallow and I let it get far too far under my skin!
You are very correct in what you have said.. Bless you!
Little message for the Labour front bench. There’s a rumour some of you drop in here from time to time. You might be familiar with the song from when you were young and believed in something:
Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes? They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Heard it this morning and it reminded me of the situation with Labour, especially the line “they watched their Rome burn”. Thought it must be about the right vintage for most of the front bench…
Shorter version of the comment: F$%#king do something.
I think you’ll find Labour are going to roll out actual policy over the next few months that builds up into a compelling campaign for change. National will continue to smile and wave, and the rest of us get to smile and wave goodbye to our assets.
Hmmm, I didn’t actually ask a question. Back to blog commenting 101 for you, just saying!
You suggested in your shortened version that Labour need to effing do something. This is clearly something and there’s more to come. NZ is going to be asked to make a choice between practical steps to turn the country around or letting Key smile and wave us into poverty.
In one way I’m really quite close to David Cunliffe, according to his political perception as indicated at Vote Chat last week, and my political compass.
Cunliffe placed himself quite close to where the Greens were placed in 2008.
“Prime Minister John Key said it was inevitable there would be some foreign ownership, but local investors would be long-term holders and there was no reason to think they would all sell out. “Our view always has been it’s absolutely critical that majority ownership is held by the New Zealand Government,” he said.
However, that would not be passed into law
“When I say I won’t sell more than 49 per cent … I think New Zealanders will take me at my word,” he said. ”
– just like “no increase in g.s.t ” and “tax cuts north of $50 a week”
We know we can trust him because John’s word is his BondShare
Black border for NZPA. The closing of this agency is an example of how New Zealand is losing its way as a country, our news supply being dominated and shrunk by Australians through Fairfax ownership. Our NZ ownership and control of the majority our newspapers has been lost. Our ability to be informed, to get unslanted background on current topics and reliable history and thoughtful, knowledgable future projections has been decimated. This is made worse as we now have no television that is under public ownership. In the place of such intelligent reports and serious comment we have people who pass themselves off as commentators who are attractive, quirky, or grumpy talking heads, both fluent and confident, offering us a mirror on our country. But mirrors’ reflections depend on their angle!
Australian owners have most of our banks, and our NZ one was achieved after only a fight with the right wing Nationals. Australians own the biggest chunk of our supermarkets, Australian interests own most of our appliance and large furnishing stores.
If there is a Pacific free trade agreement, which includes USA, signed up we will have the coup de grace to our freedom to operate in our interests and to retain our own profits. We are losing the ability to achieve the realisable dreams and plans of our tupuna, through overseas takeover and control of the core businesses of our country’s infrastructure and our main businesses now, and future ones. We will have a case of country osteoporosis, and gradually crumble away. Or we may be destroyed as Mexico has been, their existing problems exacerbated by huge drug deals being rerouted through the country to USA from Columbia.
NZ is being re-colonised courtesy of the FTAs that we’ve signed. Our wealth will be stripped from us by laws that are detrimental to us and given to our new foreign owners.
Were we ever de-colonised in that sense? Haven’t we always had large scale foreign investment? The meat industry was dominated by Vesteys and others for most of last century. Oil by British and US companies, banking and insurance by Australians, shipping by Brits. Plus ca change
@insider – You mention last century – now we are in this century with different things to think about. Looking at the foreign-owned list – you have shipping from Britain, we let our own small shipping fleet go, we are thinking of selling part of our airline, which if we do will see our interests become secondary to a foreigners profit. We have tried to build our own agricultural industries but need to watch that red-hen johhnies come lately don’t break our sector solidity into little shards or that a landslide of foreign investment doesn’t strip us of that. Oil is on its way out and we are hoping to carry on as usual as long as poss no matter what the danger to our water ecology.
It’s not just the same, though a trend shows up for sure for those who are ready to look at it, see it and understand it.
This is a quote from a book by a war journalist Erik Durschmied about the change of commitment and style by the big media networks around 1986. – Company hr departments cut staff with the sensitivity of a chain saw. Decisions were taken by computer printouts: The list! Who’s on the list? went up the anxious cry. Long-termers in seemingly untouchable positions walked into their offices to be told by their secretaries that they had to clear out their desks by noon and hand in their credit cards. The catch phrase was ‘Lean and mean’ and it meant – I want it closed – now.
“A period had come to an end. Once the money-changers took over from creative talent, stock market reports replaced the importance of news reports. A heritage was squandered. Without fanfare, the beacons of information were laid to rest, and with them the influence the networks exerted over millions of faithful viewers. The once supreme CBS lost its number one rating, but its share price doubled within a year.”
Why is it always so depressingly true that to get to the truth you have to follow the money?
I remember some on the right saying that the Treaty process created a “grievance industry” that had an interest in maintaining grievances. Well, I suppose now they’ll be pointing out that the secret rendition process has created a torture facilitation industry that has an interest in perpetuating torture?
Tourettes Sydrome. How do Police manage those who have it?
Could the defense of provocation have been used if the victim had
Tourettes? In light of the light bulb thief what is Police procedure
when dealing with people with mental aberrations? Shouldn’t Doctors
who have the confidence of their patients be in the loop so to speak.
Give the death of a man in state housing, that was not discovered for a year,
why wasn’t their Doctor aware of their reculsive lifestyle and had
a duty of care to insure some way of checking they were okay?
Can you imagine someone running out into traffic and you unwilling to
go to their aid for fear of being run over, only then to be charged with
not going to their aid.
@NickS That was informative. I think I remember right, one study shows infants born at home were three times more likely to die than those born in hospital. Not a comfortable thought.
Although newborn death rates have decreased over the last 20 years, a new study shows that the U.S. neonatal mortality rankings have plummeted by 26 percent. The U.S. is now tied for having the 41st lowest risk of newborn death, down from a ranking of 28th two decades ago, with a current neonatal death rate of 4.3 per 1,000 live births
The study shows that babies born in countries including South Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lithuania, Poland and Israel are now more likely to survive than those born in the United States.
broad brush figures here: 2-2500home births/yr, and about 60-65k live births in NZ per year (statsNZ). So only a few% home births.
I’d be reluctant to extrapolate stats from the States, though, simply because the gap is thin and the confidence intervals on the NZ numbers would be quite wide, even if we were talking about translatable conditions. We’re probably not talking about playing russian roulette with newborns, if you get my drift.
Vaccination is definitely a demonstrable treatment/wellness gap, but I can probably think of bigger issues to get knicker-twisted about than home births. Besides, it would only reopen the obs/mids argument, and everyone seems to have been on good behaviour the last few years, even beginning to work together constructively. THAT is a major benefit to child health in NZ.
Polly Higgins, author of Ecocide (People’s Book Prize Winner, 2011), is in the country to give a few presentations: Wellington (tomorrow 12:30pm, Spectrum Theatre), Nelson (tomorrow evening), Auckland (Sunday & Monday).
Making ecocide a crime is fast gaining international support. Polly is the lawyer who has proposed the Law of Ecocide to the UN and is on a tour to speak with lawyers, ministers, universities and environmentalists. Polly Higgins has been hailed as one of the world’s top 10 visionaries. She will be speaking about Making Ecocide the 5th Crime Against Peace, to sit alongside Genocide, and how it will stop dangerous industrial and agricultural practices. Her proposal has long-term and far-reaching consequences for business and banks.
Her work is regarded as a very significant initiative building on the work of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962).
I have heard her speak and she is brilliant. I would recommend her very highly.
I understand James Shaw, Green Party’s Wellington Central candidate, is hosting her Wellington presentation. Would be good for Labour to be clued up on this. Also, can someone connect her up to Helen Clark, Geoffrey Palmer & UN folks?
Polly’s framing of the issues in terms of the well-established concept of trusteeship in the international law context, to broaden the issues beyond just notions of property rights, is in alignment with kaitiakitanga and should also interest iwi groups. Greens, Fabians and any thinking and feeling person should lend an ear or a helping hand to Polly’s initiative.
p.s. I am posting his as an interested member of public and don’t receive a commission or any financial benefit from generating awareness about this.
Latest Roy Morgan out, Labour down a couple, Greens up a couple. The left still at 44, but as I’ve said before, if the Maori Party, ACT and YourNZ, sorry, UF only get 3 seats between them, it’s all on.
Yep – still very much “all or nothing” for national. They’d be praying there’s no systematic conservative bias in the polling, even of only a few percent.
Because of course there’s no chance the Greens will go with National (sarc).
Now you might think that David Farrar has plucked the 11-09-2032 (for when people are no longer banned from Kiwibog) out of his rather large posterior. Not so… it happens to be his 65 birthday…
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TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
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Memo from Crosby Textor
To the hollow men
So far things are working really well. John Key is accepted by enough to be an ordinary kiwi despite his immense wealth and despite the fact that the only people who have done well under his reign are the very wealthy. Swinging voters are so gullible!
Our attack on Phil Goff’s credibility is working well. We even managed to persuade the MSM that he was told about the Israeli spies in Christchurch, despite the fact that if he had an inkling about what had happened he would have been apoplectic with the attack on New Zealand’s sovereignty. Of course he was not told. We are doing well by persuading some that he may have been briefed on what happened. The meme that he is not able to lead, despite decades of competent governance, is gaining momentum.
And we have managed to create a sense of disunity in Labour’s ranks even though there is actually none. David Cunliffe is loyal to Phil but the media have bought the line that if David says nothing he wants to depose Phil and if he denies wanting to depose Phil then he wants to depose Phil. Excellent work!
We also have some very helpful weapons. Rupert Murdoch’s recent poll was great and provided our supporters with an excellent weapon to attack Goff and Labour with. The MSM fell for it hook line and sinker. Instead of trying to work out how it had Labour’s Auckland’s support at half the level of a poll the day before they reported it as further evidence that Goff is stuffed. Remember to remind our supporters that the truth does not matter, if they are able to spin and bash with an idea then they should do so, no matter how false the idea is.
And it is vital that we do not talk about policy, at least significant policy. If National has to justify the huge budget deficit and talk about selling assets at the same time then our focus groups suggest that support will take a serious hit. Avoid discussions about important policy areas at all cost.
And remember. It does not matter what the reality is. If something arises spin it with conviction. After all, the secret to success is sincerity and conviction, once you can fake that you’ve got it made.
This.
It is incredible that “they” can get away with the dirty tricks. You would think that there would be the odd journalist with integrity. Somewhere? Mickey you have told it the way we see it.
What’s incredible is how cheap voters are. If voters had a clue they’d all start a
co-op right now, that would borrow money on the soon to be privatized assets
and each of them would be rmuch much richer and not have to personally
borrow any money! All those DPB mothers could rush out right now, form a
collective, and buy these National giveaway shares.
Of course Key is trusting that voters are too lazy and think.
My take is if NZ wants good economics of growth, vote Labour. CGT will
means we will invest and grow, but if the voters re-elect Key, then bring it on,
buy the shares, sell them at a profit and have to pay even higher taxes,
few opportunities, greater inequality in the future. That’s the choice,
quick profit now. I know kiwis well enough now to know they are
very individualistic and rather naive about the advantages of collective action
whether in the public sector or private, but this is hardly surprising since
the MSM does a fine job of include the most hardline rightwing rich
people are good for the economy and don’t listen to those lefties who
say that rich people make their money by exploiting distortions and
people at the bottom.
Spot on mickeysavage. Thank-you.
The most discouraging aspect is when you are talking with someone who starts to spout the C/T memes. As soon as you try to explain the reality their eyes glaze over. They don’t want to be confronted with the truth. Very sad.
Wow. You guys really believe this? Says it all…
Is that the extent of your argument insider? Pathetic!
The taxpayer has footed the bill for the likes of Paula Bennett to go off and get trained in how to spin. That’s all National can do because the statistics and reality don’t lie. National has no plan apart from tax cuts for the wealthy and beneficiary bashing. Flogging off assets is a dead end street off a very long road.
National is failing New Zealand when strong leadership is required. Instead of a government that gives a damn about kiwi’s, we get the same old cronyism, growing inequality, a mass exodus, budget cuts, higher costs and hollow rhetoric.
A smile and wave doesn’t cut the mustard when you look at the facts of New Zealand’s situation.
Re insider
As I said….
Micky, while its easy make jokes like that one above (very nice btw) when you read comments like:
“when it was put to him [Goff] that National would have had to blunder on a monumental scale to lose after just three years in office, his answer was curiously telling.
“They would have to have had Ruth Richardson running the finance portfolio,” was his response.
He went on to suggest that the National Government had had “some pretty good alibis” in the past three years, including the global financial crisis and Christchurch earthquakes.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/5536300/Voters-pick-up-the-dog-tucker-signals
You have to start wondering what is Goff doing?
Perhaps Crosby Textor have kidnapped Goff and replaced him with a Right Wing look a like.
Cheere Pete.
Like the rest of us Phil has some very good days and some not so good days …
This is exactly what Patrick Gower was saying the other night! I was furious..
The file sharing law comes into effect today, and thus its back to the $9.99 bins at The Warehouse for me…
Shadow servers, hijacked IP addresses, etc…..hear the evil, cant see it…
I don’t get you. If I were served by a person who demanded I prove I did something
wrong, and I have no tech ability, I’m going to be raging that I had to pay a
fine, or had my credit rating hurt, or put on a watch list at the ISP. It
won’t take much time at all before those that send these notices that you have
downloaded somethingyou should not of for everyone to start avoding those
companies. Start a boycott on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays of
Cinemas, if Hollywood gets slap happy. Over time this law is a shit law
and people will get fed up.
and think about it students who have little spare cash having to find alternative
types of media to entertain themselves, what happens when they leave uni,
what’s the chances they don’t get all that attached to hollywood but
continue their alternative free entermain behaviors.
So who wins having a distorted bad law, National a few voters for clamping
down in Nanny state ways.
Wellington CBD is now wifi for free. Download your files in the CBD and leave the council to sort it out. Or our Public Library. Or the Motel Or…
Not going to work I don’t think. Download speeds and data are assigned and limited. Just use proxy IPs, which you can find for your bittorrent client.
I wouldn’t recommend this unless you know you can trust the proxy. The proxy hides your real IP address from others, but not the proxy itself. Stacking proxies might help, but if there is no encryption involved any one of them could easily log what you are up to.
Or private trackers…
Hi Aero, Clandestino is onto it, proxy IPs…the net is a dark and mysterious world. The buggers cant enforce anything if we play “dirty”. Which is why the law is an ass.
Heh, DC++ networks are pretty common in uni’s, so all that’s needed are a couple of people bringing in files via sneakernet, onion routing, private DC++ servers on the net, private torrent trackers, or various file downloading sites, such as rapidshare and they’ll be fine.
IRC. Newsgroups.
Can’t beat the oldies.
And also where does the ‘fine’ go??? if it’s to a company then is it restitution? or what? or is it a civil matter??? in which case cant we just tell em to go blow?
Well there are some nifty tools out there to keep the nasties away, lol. And now a lot of VPN companies are going to make some good money now. maybe they’ll have a special. Mine says I am in Miami.
Wow, jealous much?
Slither back under your rock you silly man.
Hang on! I think he’s talking about the Labour/UN joint venture retirement plan!
Sick of Business Class?? Spent a political career studying corruption? – just get kicked out of Labour caucus and enjoy life in the UN, First Class airfares, stay in the hotels you only dreamed of. Emulate your heroes like DS-K – you’ve got it made!
Precisely Mickey, note the time being devoted to how kiwis are getting assets first and fund managers lining up to back the govts line that it’s kiwis first and watch them froth up over Carters UN job taking any opportunity to rehash his implosion and place Helens name out there again oh and we’ve got a story about someone with links to something to put sideshow John on saying no comment…speculation at best….whereas that 10bill budget hole and other current issues get ignored.
Chris73 yes some on the left are jealous they don’t possess the ability the deceive, diffuse spin and generally fail to engage in anything which will highlight the true agenda….no plan or vision, NZ for sale, ahoy the wealthy and powerful….screw the rest.
Deception, media manipulation, avoidance of wide public scrutiny, ‘bait and switch’, employing drones to blog and general fear and loathing are not really the type of politics the left is envious of #73.
No.s #1 to #72 have different names I suppose but the same tory story. The likes of the Hollow Men really do piss on this country, so it has been good the last couple of days to remind people of their true colours.
I, too, have noticed that there has been a sudden uprise of financiers and fund managers singing in chorus in the media about how the shares would stay in ‘NZ ownership’.
Sadly, Russel Norman on Morning Report today didn’t make the point that it’s not just about foreign ownership but about private ownership of the assets. He got trapped into saying “it’s great that iwi are ambitious” to own some shares but that there’s no guarantee that they won’t end up in foreign hands.
Yes, if there’s going to be private, corporate ownership of these shares then it may as well be iwi corporates but that shouldn’t distract from the fundamental argument against privatisation in the first place.
The main point is that these assets will cease to be publicly owned and run in the ‘national interest’.
Frankly, all the Tower executives and Kiwisaver ‘advisors’ telling us that NZ corporates have sufficient capital to purchase the shares should be countered by pointing out that (a) those institutions aren’t the ‘mum and dad shareholders’ that Key and English have been talking about, and (b) the fact that they are ‘NZ owned’ is not the main concern.
Norman did, however, make the important point that this would have no impact on NZ’s savings/investment rate since it just shuffles ownership around within NZ.
If I get 9.9% of the shares. My wife gets 9.9% of the shares and my son and my daughter and my father-in-law I will own 49% of a SOE. So might John Key act. (Then sell overseas to a Chinese Consortium for 250% profit.)
Perhaps we could all do what I intend to do, buy solar panels. If they’re going to sell our strategic assets then I intend to be strategic about my own energy production.
If we did that collectively I’d agree.
If it was just a call for individual ‘consumers’ to install solar panels to meet their own, private energy needs then I would disagree.
‘Privatisation’ is not just an economic term. It concerns the increasing tendency to turn our social world into a set of materially discrete private spheres, with a diminishing number of people within each sphere. Connections between these spheres then reduce to contractual arrangements enforced by some coercive system (e.g., the police and judiciary).
Think about what you’d do if someone from the poorer, ‘less wise’ parts of town (who had ‘chosen’ not to install solar panels) came to your place and wanted some of your energy and was in no mind to take ‘no’ for an answer. Would the reactionary individualist come to the fore? (You know, “Well, if they didn’t think ahead, more fool them. I’ll set the cops onto them if they want some of my energy!”)
To add a further step to my points above – my opposition to privatisation is not just about corporate private ownership; it’s about the ills of any solely private ownership of something so necessary to all of us. (That’s not to say that individuals shouldn’t have their own energy supply, just that there also has to be a collective energy supply – or collective means of providing energy – over which we have control and access, together.)
Agreed, but then unfortunately is the real world that we are being confronted with.
Our Government is about to sell our strategic energy resources and as much as I’d like to act collectively to prevent that, the media, polls, apathy, stupidity, self interest, stupidity and so on and so forth are very likely to prevent that sort of collective action.
So, rather than be subject to ever increasing power and water prices, I’ll stand accused of being a self serving individualist and ensure that my children have power from solar and water from the roof and will be happy- if the events that AFKTT predicts happen, as I’m fairly convinced is likely – I’ll be happy to be a hub for the street for power and cooking, if I haven’t managed to get a piece of land before then or am not running fromthe city before he blows the bridges.
But in the meantime, a lack of leadership and governance, from any political party mean I have no option but to act privately. My first intention of coarse is to do all I can to work towards achieving a government in November that won’t sell our assets, but as much as admire the optimism of a Loy of the loyalists on thi blog, I’m not sure I’m feeling quite so sure.
Completely agree and completely understandable – and I wouldn’t want to accuse you of being a self-serving individualist, so my apologies for that implication.
I’m a bit into self-serving self-sufficiency myself, if the truth be known. An old-fashioned section with some fruit trees at the back, a vege garden, greenhouse, worm farm, composting … all very amateurish but making a bit of progress.
No offense taken, I’d much rather a society wide approach, but I’m not gonna wait.
Quite. The foreign ownership issue is a red herring. The issue must be to keep those companies in public ownership.
In fact, if I had my way, the energy companies would be turned back into the old ECNZ, and the Bradford reforms rolled back. The electricity is a total mess with ticket clipping and duplication galore. The only good thing about it, is that it gives me a job 🙂
Thanks Millsy, so true. The underlying issue is how to avoid rent taking behavoir by capital. Make the buggers take risk if they want reward.
AND I suppose we are expected to borrow to buy these shares, as most Kiwi’s have not been paid enough to save since the mid 80’s..
Christian woman likes anal sex shock!
Nothing about christianity or anal sex in that weird article..
Maybe Voice is thinking of replying to Sineads ad….
One of the requirements is living in Ireland, TM, and if Sinead is prepared to pay my fare, I’m off, to be sure, to be sure!
Ropata, look again or even better, check her blog, which is linked to in the article. I’m assuming she’s still a christian. Last time I heard, she’d formed her own church and ordained herself as a minister, after considerable earlier difficulties with the Catholic hierarchy.
I would like to apply also .. I’m off to check my family tree for Irish ancestry
(Although Sinead seems to inhabit a parallel universe of her own)
No chance … nothing compares, nothing compares … to me!
Why the fuck would anyone be attracted to a woman with a shaved head. Too masculine for me…
Yuk..might as well go pick up a bloke…
Whatev millsy, everyone has their own style to be sure, and I am Irish, 4th gen kiwi but not that keen on Guinness or being Sinead’s kept companion slash bonker, but kudos to Voice for posting like it was 1999, or at least a Friday arvo.
I may have been a bit obscure, TM. I posted it as a riposte to a christian commenter who had a bit of an anti-gay meltdown on an earlier open mike. But I’d still be on the first flight to Shannon if Sinead’d have me!
The hair’s longer now, btw, an eton crop, I think it’s called in the salons.
If you define Sinead O’Connor as a Christian, no wonder you have so many problems with understanding the point of view of anyone who doesn’t agree with you!
Bitter and vengeful much, are you? You’ve caused enough trouble for this year – why not sod off to the Dawkins site? You’d never have to deal with contrary views there.
“sod off”?
Nope, no bigotry there…
If you think ‘sod off’ is some kind of bigotry, you need to improve your knowledge of non-American idiom… 😀
And you should think about why the word is what it is.
It’s not a question of my definition of a Christian, it’s Sinead’s. If she, or you, claim to be Christian, then that is fine by me. It’s no more my business than what name you prefer to be called by. You claim to be a Christian, but there is little evidence of Christian virtue or values in the abuse you hurl so gaily around this site.
And as for bitter and vengeful, well, as the world’s best selling work of fiction says, let he who is without sin caste the first stone. You stitched yourself up, Vicky32, with bugger all help from me.
(Puns very much intended).
I don’t fling abuse. You fling abuse… but hell will freeze over before you admit that… Your main issue with me, is that I don’t believe that Christian = doormat, and I won’t put up with lies and insults. Neither do I believe that women should always be subordinate to men and silent in their presence.
Not true, but whatever. Have it your own way. (It’s the only thing that will make you happy, and above all, make you stop harassing me from day to day to tiresome day!) Leave it out – even your sycophants will be getting bored with it soon.
Don’t take everything so personally Vicky, I am Christian also, but I’ve been hanging around the blogs long enough that personal stuff doesn’t get under my skin (much).
Also the USA has amply demonstrated that a nominal “christian” society is not immune from greed and tyranny. Religion is all too often the refuge of scoundrels, so when it’s criticised as such there’s not much argument.
Much of what passes for Christianity these days is indeed fiction. I believe God is working in subtle ways to restore our broken world, but humans are his agents and not the easiest material to work with!
Thank you Ropata! I have a tendency to take this kind of thing much too personally – I admit I am a marshmallow and I let it get far too far under my skin!
You are very correct in what you have said.. Bless you!
Millsy, take it over to Kiwiblog you homophobic tosser.
Little message for the Labour front bench. There’s a rumour some of you drop in here from time to time. You might be familiar with the song from when you were young and believed in something:
Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes?
They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
They got strangled…….
Always prefered the sentiments of ‘Kill yr Idols’ anyway… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYSnZRDe7h4
Cheers, Bill, that hits the spot. The Stranglers were always a bunch of misogynist old tories and bandwagon jumpers anyway.
Heard it this morning and it reminded me of the situation with Labour, especially the line “they watched their Rome burn”. Thought it must be about the right vintage for most of the front bench…
Shorter version of the comment: F$%#king do something.
Well, you might like this, JS.
I think you’ll find Labour are going to roll out actual policy over the next few months that builds up into a compelling campaign for change. National will continue to smile and wave, and the rest of us get to smile and wave goodbye to our assets.
If that article was largely purloined from a Labour press release, send the writer back for retraining journalism 101.
If it was an entirely unscripted report from the journalist, all I can say is typical.
Oh and in reply to your question VoR
-And?
Hmmm, I didn’t actually ask a question. Back to blog commenting 101 for you, just saying!
You suggested in your shortened version that Labour need to effing do something. This is clearly something and there’s more to come. NZ is going to be asked to make a choice between practical steps to turn the country around or letting Key smile and wave us into poverty.
Two words: work schemes
In one way I’m really quite close to David Cunliffe, according to his political perception as indicated at Vote Chat last week, and my political compass.
Cunliffe placed himself quite close to where the Greens were placed in 2008.
Busload of Kids placed at risk:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10748617
The benefits of privatisation…?
The privatisation of our school bus system is a sleeping scandal.
I really dont see how evil the old system was, with the old DoE buses doing the main routes with small private operators filling in the gaps.
“Prime Minister John Key said it was inevitable there would be some foreign ownership, but local investors would be long-term holders and there was no reason to think they would all sell out. “Our view always has been it’s absolutely critical that majority ownership is held by the New Zealand Government,” he said.
However, that would not be passed into law
“When I say I won’t sell more than 49 per cent … I think New Zealanders will take me at my word,” he said. ”
– just like “no increase in g.s.t ” and “tax cuts north of $50 a week”
We know we can trust him because John’s word is his BondShare
Just remember: When a banker speaks he lies!
Black border for NZPA. The closing of this agency is an example of how New Zealand is losing its way as a country, our news supply being dominated and shrunk by Australians through Fairfax ownership. Our NZ ownership and control of the majority our newspapers has been lost. Our ability to be informed, to get unslanted background on current topics and reliable history and thoughtful, knowledgable future projections has been decimated. This is made worse as we now have no television that is under public ownership. In the place of such intelligent reports and serious comment we have people who pass themselves off as commentators who are attractive, quirky, or grumpy talking heads, both fluent and confident, offering us a mirror on our country. But mirrors’ reflections depend on their angle!
Australian owners have most of our banks, and our NZ one was achieved after only a fight with the right wing Nationals. Australians own the biggest chunk of our supermarkets, Australian interests own most of our appliance and large furnishing stores.
If there is a Pacific free trade agreement, which includes USA, signed up we will have the coup de grace to our freedom to operate in our interests and to retain our own profits. We are losing the ability to achieve the realisable dreams and plans of our tupuna, through overseas takeover and control of the core businesses of our country’s infrastructure and our main businesses now, and future ones. We will have a case of country osteoporosis, and gradually crumble away. Or we may be destroyed as Mexico has been, their existing problems exacerbated by huge drug deals being rerouted through the country to USA from Columbia.
NZ is being re-colonised courtesy of the FTAs that we’ve signed. Our wealth will be stripped from us by laws that are detrimental to us and given to our new foreign owners.
Were we ever de-colonised in that sense? Haven’t we always had large scale foreign investment? The meat industry was dominated by Vesteys and others for most of last century. Oil by British and US companies, banking and insurance by Australians, shipping by Brits. Plus ca change
@insider – You mention last century – now we are in this century with different things to think about. Looking at the foreign-owned list – you have shipping from Britain, we let our own small shipping fleet go, we are thinking of selling part of our airline, which if we do will see our interests become secondary to a foreigners profit. We have tried to build our own agricultural industries but need to watch that red-hen johhnies come lately don’t break our sector solidity into little shards or that a landslide of foreign investment doesn’t strip us of that. Oil is on its way out and we are hoping to carry on as usual as long as poss no matter what the danger to our water ecology.
It’s not just the same, though a trend shows up for sure for those who are ready to look at it, see it and understand it.
This is a quote from a book by a war journalist Erik Durschmied about the change of commitment and style by the big media networks around 1986. – Company hr departments cut staff with the sensitivity of a chain saw. Decisions were taken by computer printouts: The list! Who’s on the list? went up the anxious cry. Long-termers in seemingly untouchable positions walked into their offices to be told by their secretaries that they had to clear out their desks by noon and hand in their credit cards. The catch phrase was ‘Lean and mean’ and it meant – I want it closed – now.
“A period had come to an end. Once the money-changers took over from creative talent, stock market reports replaced the importance of news reports. A heritage was squandered. Without fanfare, the beacons of information were laid to rest, and with them the influence the networks exerted over millions of faithful viewers. The once supreme CBS lost its number one rating, but its share price doubled within a year.”
Why is it always so depressingly true that to get to the truth you have to follow the money?
I remember some on the right saying that the Treaty process created a “grievance industry” that had an interest in maintaining grievances. Well, I suppose now they’ll be pointing out that the secret rendition process has created a torture facilitation industry that has an interest in perpetuating torture?
Isn’t that the ironic thing about the right though? Ideologically pure while they’re making money, inconsistent moralists when they’re not.
Tourettes Sydrome. How do Police manage those who have it?
Could the defense of provocation have been used if the victim had
Tourettes? In light of the light bulb thief what is Police procedure
when dealing with people with mental aberrations? Shouldn’t Doctors
who have the confidence of their patients be in the loop so to speak.
Give the death of a man in state housing, that was not discovered for a year,
why wasn’t their Doctor aware of their reculsive lifestyle and had
a duty of care to insure some way of checking they were okay?
Can you imagine someone running out into traffic and you unwilling to
go to their aid for fear of being run over, only then to be charged with
not going to their aid.
And here’s your daily dose of rational, arse kicking feminism:
Your Home Birth is Not a Feminist Statement
@NickS That was informative. I think I remember right, one study shows infants born at home were three times more likely to die than those born in hospital. Not a comfortable thought.
Does anyone know how prevalent home birth is in NZ?
The land of the free and neonatal mortality.
Although newborn death rates have decreased over the last 20 years, a new study shows that the U.S. neonatal mortality rankings have plummeted by 26 percent. The U.S. is now tied for having the 41st lowest risk of newborn death, down from a ranking of 28th two decades ago, with a current neonatal death rate of 4.3 per 1,000 live births
The study shows that babies born in countries including South Korea, Cuba, Malaysia, Lithuania, Poland and Israel are now more likely to survive than those born in the United States.
broad brush figures here: 2-2500home births/yr, and about 60-65k live births in NZ per year (statsNZ). So only a few% home births.
I’d be reluctant to extrapolate stats from the States, though, simply because the gap is thin and the confidence intervals on the NZ numbers would be quite wide, even if we were talking about translatable conditions. We’re probably not talking about playing russian roulette with newborns, if you get my drift.
Vaccination is definitely a demonstrable treatment/wellness gap, but I can probably think of bigger issues to get knicker-twisted about than home births. Besides, it would only reopen the obs/mids argument, and everyone seems to have been on good behaviour the last few years, even beginning to work together constructively. THAT is a major benefit to child health in NZ.
Former Powell Chief of Staff: Cheney “Fears Being Tried as a War Criminal”.
Good.
even if he’s never tried, at least he’s constantly waiting for the knock on the door.
I wonder what the MSM and politicians [of both hue] will make of Nicky Hager’s latest book, which I must read!
Hi to inhabitants of this planet
“Ecocide”
Polly Higgins, author of Ecocide (People’s Book Prize Winner, 2011), is in the country to give a few presentations: Wellington (tomorrow 12:30pm, Spectrum Theatre), Nelson (tomorrow evening), Auckland (Sunday & Monday).
Making ecocide a crime is fast gaining international support. Polly is the lawyer who has proposed the Law of Ecocide to the UN and is on a tour to speak with lawyers, ministers, universities and environmentalists. Polly Higgins has been hailed as one of the world’s top 10 visionaries. She will be speaking about Making Ecocide the 5th Crime Against Peace, to sit alongside Genocide, and how it will stop dangerous industrial and agricultural practices. Her proposal has long-term and far-reaching consequences for business and banks.
Her work is regarded as a very significant initiative building on the work of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962).
I have heard her speak and she is brilliant. I would recommend her very highly.
NZ & Australian presentation details:
http://permaculture.org.au/2011/08/18/polly-higgins-speaking-tour-australia-new-zealand-eradicating-ecocide-laws-and-governance-to-prevent-the-destruction-of-our-planet/
Her website:
http://www.pollyhiggins.com/Polly_Higgins/Welcome.html
Website for her book:
http://www.eradicatingecocide.com/
I understand James Shaw, Green Party’s Wellington Central candidate, is hosting her Wellington presentation. Would be good for Labour to be clued up on this. Also, can someone connect her up to Helen Clark, Geoffrey Palmer & UN folks?
Polly’s framing of the issues in terms of the well-established concept of trusteeship in the international law context, to broaden the issues beyond just notions of property rights, is in alignment with kaitiakitanga and should also interest iwi groups. Greens, Fabians and any thinking and feeling person should lend an ear or a helping hand to Polly’s initiative.
p.s. I am posting his as an interested member of public and don’t receive a commission or any financial benefit from generating awareness about this.
p.p.s. Nelson talk just added to her speaking schedule:
Fri 2 Sep, 7:00- 8:30pm
Making Ecocide a Crime
Eden Foundation, Nelson
http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2011/sep/nelson/eradicating-ecocide-public-talk-by-polly-higgins
Latest Roy Morgan out, Labour down a couple, Greens up a couple. The left still at 44, but as I’ve said before, if the Maori Party, ACT and YourNZ, sorry, UF only get 3 seats between them, it’s all on.
Yep – still very much “all or nothing” for national. They’d be praying there’s no systematic conservative bias in the polling, even of only a few percent.
Because of course there’s no chance the Greens will go with National (sarc).
11th September 2032
Now you might think that David Farrar has plucked the 11-09-2032 (for when people are no longer banned from Kiwibog) out of his rather large posterior. Not so… it happens to be his 65 birthday…