The All Blacks being used by Key and his right wing propaganda machine to promote a flag change.
Is this what Rome felt like during the days of Commodus?
Bread and circuses.
The Circus Maximus.
Eden Park.
Gladiators.
The All Blacks.
Both used by a corrupt regime to prop up its power.
No i typed corrupt. It fits perfectly. I suggest you read up on your history, rather than wasting your time listening to talk back.
And the word I search for when describing you is shill.
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than THAT, mate!”
A hapless Stephen Franks comes unstuck on The Panel
Radio NZ National, Monday 31 August 2015
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Chris Gallavin
Today was not the first time that Chris Gallavin and Stephen Franks have appeared together on this programme. Back in January, Gallavin made some crass and poorly considered remarks about the Charlie Hebdo murders: “One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist! Oh, I don’t know WHAT’S happening Jim, quite frankly!”
So quite possibly Franks was under the impression that Gallavin was a typical Panel guest, and would not interrupt or demur when he got into whatever frothing lecture he had planned for today. If that’s what Franks had thought, he made a very bad mistake. Gallavin is not as flippant or as shallow as his remarks on January 26 might have suggested; in fact, as Franks was about to find out, he has a sharp mind, and is not prepared to suffer a fool.
I tuned in half-way through, just in time to hear Chris Gallavin, who is a law professor, explain eloquently and succinctly why it may be a good idea for local governments to spend some money taking expert advice on whether or not to set up research centers. Foolishly, instead of remaining silent because he had nothing intelligent to contribute on this matter, Sensible Sentencing Trust “legal counsel” and former ACT MP Stephen Franks (NOT a law professor) decided to condescend to someone obviously brighter and sharper….
STEPHEN FRANKS: Chris put the case about as strongly as it can be put. Good advocacy Chris, but I think that a lot of these feasibility studies are written by experts in, in a ritual. Ummm, they… sort of… they’re prevalent wherever there’s money going, someone else’s money and it’s being thrown around on vague good intentions. It’s sort of, they’re the modern equivalent of paying for prayers and candles to light to the gods of the central government, to, errrrmmm…. CHRIS GALLAVIN: You’re gonna have to come up with a better argument than that, Stephen! Ha ha ha ha ha! JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha! HA HA! CHRIS GALLAVIN: You just praised me for a good argument; I’m not going to give it back to you. You’re going to have to do a lot better than THAT, mate! Ha ha ha ha ha! STEPHEN FRANKS:[uneasily] Weeeellll, no, I, I WAS thinking that if it had been me I would have defended the use of consultants…. [He bores on for an excruciating two minutes]….
With those few words, Gallavin effortlessly, and devastatingly, showed he was a lot smarter than his adversary—and make no mistake, Franks is adversarial, in the worst way. In fact, he’s worse than adversarial, he’s reflexively contrarian and pompously self-righteous, and he gets nasty very quickly. In his regular appearances as a guest on Willie Jackson’s Eye To Eye program on TVNZ, Franks would team up with the notoriously anti-Māori Canterbury University pamphleteer David Round to make inflammatory comments and reduce the discussion to a farce.
When Franks is confronted firmly, however, he seems to be incapable of arguing his corner. Last year Dita Di Boni challenged a number of his statements. Unaccustomed to contradiction, Franks lapsed into a resentful silence.
Later, Franks embarked on one of his trademark wandery homilies, inarticulately but unmistakably praising the contribution of white immigrants to this country, and speaking sententiously about how “we” should not be ashamed to say “we” want to keep out “those who do not share our values.” Somehow, this rant ended up with him making the bizarre allegation that Japanese ski resort workers think New Zealanders are thieves, and extrapolating from that anecdote that New Zealanders tolerate theft, whereas the Japanese do not. Then he said that when he went overseas with a group from New Zealand some time ago, some of those in his party thought it was quite acceptable to shoplift. A few hours later, Seven Sharp viewers were regaled with pretty much the same thing Franks was saying, in an item about a skinhead group in Masterton called the “Right Wing Resistance”.
Chris Gallavin was clearly appalled by what he had just been subjected to. He took Franks up on it in the same way as he no doubt has occasionally had to do when dealing with a particularly dim but recalcitrant law student. Gallavin politely but systematically demonstrated that Franks’s claim that New Zealanders are dishonest had no merit, and was therefore spurious.
Mercifully, Mora helped out Franks by moving on to the next topic. Franks, however, was obviously still brooding on this ten minutes later as the program came to a finish….
JIM MORA: Chris Gallavin, thank you very much! CHRIS GALLAVIN: Thanks Jim! And thanks, Stephen, I enjoyed talking to you. STEPHEN FRANKS:[curtly] Okay. Thanks, Chris.
By the way, Dita Di Boni is the big improver in the media; she is unflustered in debate, and has got the better of several right wing opponents. Franks is not the first mediocrity she has sent packing. She has not always been so sure of herself….. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10052013/#comment-631145
hi morrissey, re stephen franks:
” Franks is adversarial, in the worst way. In fact, he’s worse than adversarial, he’s reflexively contrarian and pompously self-righteous, and he gets nasty very quickly.”
Paul @#3 said
“This article should be compulsory reading for the Labour Party.
Power without principle is not worth it.”
Nice one Paul I liked this bit, and as you said should be compulsory reading
“We want someone to remember that democracy does not begin and end at the ballot box. We want someone to represent the interests of the young, the poor and the marginalised in parliament. These are simple, modest demands. And the most damning indictment on the British political machine is the way in which these simple, modest demands look like a revolution.”
In that representation should be an economic promise. That they will serve the needs of micro businesses fairly. That they will encourage people to get out and earn money, in their own tiny way compared to the great domestic product.
That they will keep taxes low, encourage specialisation and retraining, let women use the market and sell their baking, preserves whatever. The oppression of the poor is not only in unemployment, low minimum wages, it is also allowing health and safety and big business to force the individual out of being entrepreneurial because bigger businesses don’t like it.
USA. In a 2014 survey, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) surveyed hundreds of law enforcement personnel at the state and local level, all of whom had training in intelligence gathering or counterterrorism. They were presented with a list of radical groups and asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 4, how much they agreed that this group posed a terrorist threat to the US.
One of the interesting changes was for Islamic extremists, which dropped from the No. 1 to No. 2 spot — replaced by the anti-government “sovereign citizen” movement, which climbed up from No. 8:
I wouldn’t knock him too much there cobbah. I understand he did go on record last Friday and say he won’t take any political donations from the Talley’s and their group of companies. This came at a Citizen’s Resistance rally he attended. Apparently the local Nat MP Dr Shane Reti went to ground and would not return calls by the Group.
I guess Reti has been muzzled after a series of confused messaging be has put out.
I attended a political forum at the school he is making reference to. I tell ya they really were doing a great job for the young Maori students. A Millitary style setup. The problem for Pen & Kel is the fuckers running the show are either Maori-Tory party or Tory Maori’s. So no votes there for Labour. I guess Davis is after the candidate vote.
“We’ve had a pretty strong campaign against charter schools. It’s not a model that we favour, we don’t think its a good model for addressing Maori underperformance in education and having them would send, or has the potential to send, a conflicting signal.”
Such an arrogant and colonialist attitude, but so typical of labour.
Got a sore leg? No problem, we’ll just saw that critter off. What was that? Thought you said only the result mattered? Thought you said you wanted your sore leg to go away?
On the intelligence front, might it be suggested you take your head out of arse in order that your brain might get more oxygen?
Twenty five years ago I badly wrenched my left shoulder rotator cuff breaking up some concrete. It never really healed, and in particular if I was lying down with that arm above my head for more than a few minutes it was quite painful to get it back to a normal position.
In the past year or so this it was getting worse. Then about three months ago I aggravated the whole thing by trying to grab a bag out of the back seat of the car awkwardly. Could hardly move my left arm for about three days. (Which made driving over the Great Alpine Road in the dark with about 10m visibility that evening quite fun!)
Three weeks ago I was knocked over with a bad cold and decided to let my Chinese Traditional medical practioner have a go at it. At one point she asked about my left shoulder, because she could see how I favoured it – and gave it the full noise acupuncture works. Industrial strength.
An immediate improvement. First trip about 80% better. Second trip 100%. Full movement, no nagging pain – after 25 years it’s gone. If you want to argue I just spent $200 on a placebo effect – go right ahead. I consider the best money I ever spent!
Pretty much how I feel about it too Red. I’ll take an improvement in my health over a theory about Randomised Controlled Trials, and I’ll take responsibility for deciding if the risks of side effects are worth it. Would be nice of mainstream medicine got on board and helped with that.
This isn’t India, and he’s not a doctor. Like any profession quackery demeans all.
[Bit of a strong claim there ‘Realblue’. Prove that he’s not in fact a doctor and if and when you achieve that, show where he made the false claim of himself. In moderation until you acknowledge this instance of moderation] – Bill
[lprent: Your call, but I’d just ban him permanently and without any possible amnesty. He won’t be able to find it because it doesn’t exist. But he will mindlessly parrot the same stupidity next time around. He is just a waste of bandwidth and probably has been for the last 6 years or so. ]
[Done. I was about to do two months and leave any lengthening of that up to others, but hey. Such a shame that anyone else going down the same path probably won’t see this precedent. On the off-chance… seek to trash or otherwise cast aspersions on anyone’s professional life s realblue has done, and you’re gone. ] – Bill
A professional person usually has certificates relating to the levels of professional study they have achieved on the wall. I think that is required. It should be openly on display. I would presume that CV and any other health professional does this.
Real Blue wants to use their prejudice about Chiropractors to beat CV. Chiropractors are allowed to use the term ‘doctor’ in NZ. If Real Blue has a political analysis of that, I’d love to hear it. Bet it’s just bigotry though.
Not sure that CV has anything to prove here online (I agree about in their practices though). We don’t expect northshoredoc to provide documentation of his professional qualifications.
Bill, not sure how RB can provide evidence without breaching CV’s pseudonym. They can of course try and prove that they iare talking about chiropractors in general and that they’re not doctors.
[ Seeing as how I know who he’s talking about, he can refer to CV as CV and point to anything in general terms…eg, he claims on his site/his site says etc. If he can’t do that, then I’d suggest he should have thought about what he was saying/claiming. I’m picking that the idiot is unaware that doctorates are doctorates and not all of them are MDs. Anyway. He’s in moderation, so nothing he submits will become public knowledge unless another mod releases it. I’m off and out of tha net in about 10. After that, ‘trueblue’ will likely just have to put up with his comments sitting in moderation until tomorrow sometime.] – Bill
I thought the protocol here was to let people have their pseudonyms where they want them and not to out them unless they do so. Some people, like you and me, have absolute pseudonyms. Others have contextual ones. CV chooses to comment as CV, I don’t see why that can’t be respected. But it’s not really about him, it’s about the principle of it.
“If you have an argument, let’s hear you make it.”
Quite.
For the record, I think the slurs and sometimes outright attacks on someone here for what they do in their day job, when that day job has nothing to do with what is being discussed, is a form of bigotry and bullying. I can’t see any point to it other than to undermine the person. It’s pathetic, nasty and personal. I don’t see it as being too far removed from the kind of motivations behind doxxing. As far as I am concerned, information about people’s personal lives is a privilege not an invitation to attack them via that information.
If you can’t argue the points, how about you take a step back until you can.
All charters schools teach kids is how to be neo-liberal conformists, and not speak out against the system.
Note that the charter schools in Auckland are a military academy and a christian school, which use 2 totaltarian methods, bibles and guns to subdue methods.
I wonder if that christian school expels kids who identify as LGBTIQ
LOL you clearly have no idea BM, co-opting brown people into running private schools, paying them shit loads of tax payers money, allowing lax rules and inefficiencies, why don’t you bitch about that “colonialism”?
There are many Maaori communities that would favour charter schools. Colonial and paternalistic thinking would say otherwise. Mainstream education is failing Maaori tamariki and rangatahi.
There are plenty of really good immersion schools for Maori – I’m not sure the public money going into private hands (often overseas hands at that) with unqualified teachers and no regulation or transparency is the answer under charter schools.
Also wasn’t there that situation where a charter school was supposed to be set up for Maori but the million dollars was paid for the land and no money was left for the school. The board or whoever got to keep the land even though it was never used as intended.
Real estate deals should not be taking kids education money – like Serco – zero targets or accountability – just taking money away from state schools and giving it to business.
I understand that BUT was addressing a different issue, namely the hypocrisy of BM’s comment…
That ACT, a party of no Maori MP’s is championing charter schools and can thereby “tell” l Maori what is right or wrong for them, but others can’t. He covered his failing by wrongly attributing Charter Schools to the Maori Party.
If Charter Schooling was about enabling Maori to provide a better education for tamariki and rangatahi we would have a hellova lot more in the pilot shceme.
I think Tracey that charter schools, the government and Maori interact this way. The government can’t put too much into Maori schools in the way that Maori would like because government hasn’t faith in their ability to run effectively (note the closing down of what should have been solid secondary schools Queen Vic, St Stephens and another one going down.) Also the National constituency is largely white and dismissive of anyone who can’t match up with the pakeha education system.
Labour got criticised and themselves cut out Closing the Gaps measures instead of sticking to their knitting and riding the waves of derision. Efforts to assist Maori with special training and opportunities to get a clear direction where their talents would take them ran into trouble. As in when a special fee for getting a Maori of the unemployed lists and into a job was rejected by the agency workers as being unfair, I think it was in Christchurch.
It seems to me that for National, charter schools are free from calls of racial bias, they are a sidestep from the norm which is perceived to have failed so many. And Maori have money from settlements, they can invest in themselves and show pakeha what they can achieve in education. Any payments to charter schools with Maori will get lightly noted as all charter schools can receive this.
On Radionz this morning there was a spirited spokesperson for one of the schools visited by Kelvin Davis along the lines that electorates should decide policy, tell their MP and he/she should comply. So Andrew could go suck a lemon. Of course there are many aspects to consider with charter schools and electorates can’t individually decide national policy, but Labour should choose now to work with these schools, and just impose some lines in the sand for them, minimising the known rort avenues by looking at their track record in the USA and other places, and maximising the positive effects. If Labour turns round and shuts the charter school idea down they will be seen as kicking Maori in the teeth and wanting to impose their previously failed concepts on them.
These schools could be good candidates for having a group Principal who would need enough mana to keep them in line, performance and finance-wise. The pride of a hapu or iwi in succeeding in getting high uni graduates, but a lot more high technically competent graduates would light up the sky at night!
I am sure that none want them just as hothouses for sports people run off their feet and off the earth at early ages, or armed forces candidates to send as mercenaries overseas, as Fiji did. Too many soldiers with a penchant for violence as a solution to problems is not what a country needs. But we could do with more Maori police who are strong and can cope with the pollen of racism that floats invisibly down and seems to show up suddenly in particular places and times.
In the charters there are less restrictions than on ordinary schools, and that leaves open possibilities for nepotism and acceptance of shonky confidence tricks. They are open opportunities for Maori to prove their educational nous but if they fall by the wayside into accepting second best when it is their own choice, they will be roasted unmercifully.
edited
@Tracey
I didn’t know what I thought to begin with. I had read about charter schools and that they were often unsatisfactory in the USA. And I didn’t like the corporate model getting into education which should be broad and not tied to consumerism.
Then I heard this spokesperson very hot about Labour and their visit to the school. And I felt it may have gone too far to be reversed, it needs to be helped to success if possible. I knew that Labour could often be patronising to Maori, and the rest of us know thatthey have carried that across to all their supporters in recent decades.
Labour MP for Tāmaki-Makaurau Peeni Henare and his colleague, Kelvin Davis, attended a fundraiser for the He Puna Marama Trust, which has set up a charter school in Whangarei.
The party has been vehemently opposed to the formation of charter schools and pledged to scrap them if it won the last election. http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/282927/labour-mps-told-to-toe-the-line-on-charter-schools
I believe that “we” the collective “we” though our government need to provide the support and means for communities to find the solutions for themselves. We are not all the same. IF a Charter School suits the education needs of a particular community which is suffering under the current system, then it is incumbent on “we” to follow that lead. The profit motive however well disguised cannot, imo, be the motivating factor, or the unsubstantiated belief that if the profit motive model is used, success must follow.
Tracey
Yes the profit motive is a troubling one with education. I can’t feel positive about the privately owned schools growing to larger numbers. Whether run by individuals or corporates or charities or religious entities, as not-for-profit models, sponsorship of materials or for part of the funding, or for particular courses, sport, financial training and budgeting etc. Sponsorships gained by one school could come from four or more different firms, each aimed at the courses relating to the businesses. Too much manipulation and brand-image attachment there.
Locals getting the type of teaching and subjects they need makes sense, provided that they have had experienced and practical
tuition before they make their decisions. And the government should ensure that basic nation-wide subjects are taught to standard.
We do have to watch out for the anti-science primitive church educationalists trying to impose their manufactured beliefs on hard-earned scientific facts, that are open to scrutiny and exposure of fault or fraud. These people are already infiltrating into our society. I believe that most have come from USA which seems to be a strong-hold of individualist religions that seek to detach themselves from the established churches and decide on their own form of Christian belief and meaning.
edited
I agree that Maori are being shat on in the education system, but privatisation isnt the answer, nor is ‘choice’ or ‘competition’.
The whole approach to education since 1989, which is whipping out the collaborative school support structure and implementing social darwinism has failed Maori — Tomorrow’s Schools needs to be overhauled.
More Maori need to be at the chalk face. We need more Maori principals, more Maori teachers and more Maori administrators and school board members.
I think the privitisation of the education dollar is a barrel being pushed by vested interests in the status quo.
However, my primary angst is in thinking that mainstream education is homogenising. Our students are lost in a sea of beige.
I agree that more effort should be exercised in improving Maaori participation. But the system that is rejected by our youth is likely to be as obnoxious to our teachers and principals.
In saying that, we have some excellent teachers and principals and students within the mainstream systems and being supported by excellent schools.
@ Skinny
No, he was supporting young relatives who apparently are involved in the school. He told Little in advance and Little told him it was Davis’ decision whether he attended the function or not. Something similar with Peeni Henare too.
Gower started this crap and people here should know to ignore anything from that half baked journo.
He may well have told them he would prefer them not to go etc. but he still apparently left the decision up to them. That makes sense to me. Andrew Little is not an authoritarian type. He believes they made the wrong decision and he doesn’t expect them to do it again.
Still doesn’t alter the fact it was a pathetic Gower beat-up over very little and should be ignored.
Look, this is just speculative shitstirring from the media. They’re trying to make a controversy out of nothing. MPs have a duty to both their party and their constituents, they’re all going to be talking to people that are in conflict with their party and there is nothing wrong with that. You can’t expect MPs to completely ignore every non-Labour supporter in their electorate can you?
Look at the difference in reporting between today and yesterday;
3news…
“Labour sources have told 3 News Mr Little did not want them to go.”
RadioNZ..
“Mr Davis told 3News at the fundraiser that his leader, Andrew Little, did not want the Labour MPs to attend the event.”
They’re making shit up and people are falling for it.
Yes the naievity and stupidity that Labour continue to show in their media and MP management makes you wonder if they really want treasury benches back again.
“Look, this is just speculative shitstirring from the media”
It started out that way, but now the internal mess that is Labour is showing again. Their story is inconsistent and now they’re disagreeing with each other in public. It just looks really bad on top of everything else.
All I can say is that if the GP behaved like this I’d stop voting for them.
Yeah, they’re all crap scared of upsetting the likes of Gower and becoming the next target. Too many professional politicians. They need to start showing some backbone instead of letting themselves be bullied by these media prats.
The media rarely lie outright. They can get sued for that. They do imply, infer, insinuate…..
The TV3 report said ‘labour sources’. That implied a leak which insinuates dissent in the party ranks. RNZ say the ‘labour sources’ was the man himself which if true says there was no leak or ‘labour sources’.
Frankly it’s unlikely he’d say it how it was quoted either, he’s not a novice in dealing with the media so his words have likely been manipulated to imply there’s more to it than what a few simple words would reveal.
You might want to put a link up about Peeni Henare wanting privatisation of education. I agree with him about He Puna Marama Trust charter school in Whangerei. Transparent, great staff and getting good results.
This statement I agree with.
“I support that particular charter school, and the reason I do that is that I’ve seen kaupapa grow from the fetal stages all the way to what they have today and I’ve seen the outcomes they’ve achieved and that’s I why I support that particular kaupapa.” MP Peeni Henare – taken from the radio NZ web site.
The system is broken -for many Maori and Pacific kids. Charter schools are not the answer. But one of them is making the governments programme look bad, because it is so good. And is it not a wonderful thing to see kids do well?
And is he advocating a quick move to more of them to satisfy the entire need of such students? Or is he advocating a softly softly, don’t upset whitey and non Maori voters process which will see the “problem” ongoing for more decades. Bravery is required. And Bravery is not just going to one school and champioining git. It would be CRYING from the rooftops “EUREKA! now let’s roll this baby our quickly to cater for all our broken Maori schoolchildren.”
Well I have problems with Mr Henare and his lack of obvious work now he is a MP. Reminds me of some other MP’s who enter parliament and do a great job warming seats.
That said, I essentially agree with you Tracey. These MP’s including Winston and Davis should be going – lets roll this model through the education sector. But, I think you hit the hammer on the head – “softly softly, don’t upset whitey”.
We need these kids to reach their best – things need to change. If labour can not or will not offer the leadership. Other parties in opposition should.
As I said to Adele above — more Maori principals, more Maori teachers and more Maori on school boards.
I would be OK with charter schools if there were more along the lines of the concept that militant teaching unionist Al Shanker devised back in the 1980’s, as show cases of innovative teaching methods.
The charter schools we are seeing in the US, and what Parata is trying to import to this country, are more or less corporate/church run sausage factories that teach children nothing more than to toe the line in the neo-liberal world.
nah.
The event was on the weekend, even with all the beat-up it’s beginning to fizzle as a gotcha piece.
In the old days gower et al would have been breathlessly reporting ‘developments’ like people within caucus being angry, confrontations behind closed doors, plans to write a letter of protest and get signatures, all that shit.
But with this, all the vultures have is what they started with: the electorate MPs went, they knew it was not the preferred option, but nobody’s throwing their toys out of the cot.
This interview should be compulsory viewing for all aspiring journalists in NZ (great questions, great technique) also for for NZ Labour leaders, some excellent policies from JC .
Interviewers behaving as though they aren’t wee eight year olds in the school playground any more, and so not acting out a slightly more articulate version of the puffed up ‘nah, nah, nahnah, nah’ taunt of playtime group bullying?
Can’t really see that happening with the current crop of TVNZ or TV3 interviewers, can you?
The superficial spin is being taken up with unseemly enthusiasm by the MSM – I’m so sick of picking through the rubble of TV and newspapers for real news and information I’m on the verge of giving up 🙁
I wrote in yesterday’s Standard about his column and commented he would be the next one for the chop, fortunately he has a job teaching in a boys’ school so he won’t be out on the street. He’s a brave soul putting his neck out and I admire him for it.
Oops just posted a link to Peter’s column on the other thread, ” Away with the economic fairies.” Anyway I am too late, but I do think Peter’s collection of spins is pretty useful.
The Nact memorandum for state houses grand larceny … I’m just too angry to comment but in case it hasn’t been posted elsewhere already … Bridges gets to burn his bridges first in Tauranga:
It’s a licence to print money, small wonder the Aussies are sniffing around they know a steal when they see one.
Who wouldn’t be interested in a govt guaranteed revenue stream in perpetuity. Look at this…
“In general, as long as properties are available and required for social housing, the
government will take vacancy risk.”
Not only does the Govt guarantee the rent, at full market rates, they also guarantee full tenancy. They’re taking all the risk out of property investment and they plan on selling the properties at BELOW market prices? They should be higher… well they shouldn’t be sold at all but it does show what a scam this is.
Most level headed, informative, and accessible person I’ve come across is Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
This 2012 open lecture he gave is something I’ve linked to and trawled for various posts I’ve done on climate change. Here it is again and another to one of his articles.
Thinking of setting up a book club scheme – or requesting certain titles for the Book Discussion Scheme – so that groups of people locally connected, can all read the same information and discuss.
I know that climate awareness for me, became more informed by reading James Hansen’s “Storms of my Grandchildren” and Fred Pearce’s “When the Rivers Run Dry”. It was only then I really comprehended the enormity of change that BAU would require, and the change that would occur regardless. The Transition Towns handbook, also provided some relief from the realisation that it was likely that government would only act after their citizens demanded it.
I no longer belong to the local book club. But it is a way to inform and discuss, with people open to the idea of discussion for the sake of it.
I know that with friends and family, there has been a marked change in those who have shared their thoughts, as opposed to those who think it is ‘not their cup of tea’.
It’s not as if there is an absolute shortage of money. The problem is that banks and other financial players pump most of the money into the financial or virtual economy, where it is used for speculation rather than production and consumption.[3] At the same time the “real” economy of the production and consumption of goods and services faces a money shortage.
When you look it’s really quite obvious why the economy is failing and the reason is because the financial system is geared to making the rich richer rather than producing real goods and services to provide for the well being of society.
Well we are all economic man and woman. When one thinks that consumerism is a driver in the modern economic society, then enabling people to spend in NZ on NZ made goods would make sense.
So then benefits should rise for young people, give them mostly-paid education even with bonds, and also retired people should be able to receive more for volunteer work after training. Then their increased spending on specific NZ goods, cheap travel on the Railways for instance, would improve takings in these areas, and result in the ripple effect of two or three times into the community, the multiplier would act against the recessionary effect of keeping wages low for all those businesses than can’t operate without getting subsidies from somewhere, if not government then the people.
Women’s work in the home. Is it work if nobody notices it?
Radio nz this morning audio will come up later.
10:05 Feminism, economics, & who cooked Adam Smith’s dinner?
Katrine Marcal, author of Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?, argues there is a fatal flaw in our continued reliance on Adam Smith’s representation of how the economy works. She believes it places an over-emphasis on self-interest and ‘economic man’. Katrine Marcal argues economics isn’t about money it is about how we view people, and sometimes how we ignore them. Giving birth to babies, raising children, cultivating a garden, or taking care of Adam Smith so he could write Wealth of Nations. None of this counted in his standard economic model. So is it time to re-think economic science?
Marilyn Waring wrote/studied about this 30 years ago. Some of her unpaid work valuing measures have been taken up in other countries. She was WAY ahead of her time.
..(Counting for nothing) i think, Hot of the press I bought a copy. A couple of women down the road spied my copy, borrowed it, never saw again, read from the library though, sad society cannot see the gains we could make being equal.
Doesn’t matter what good ideas we have, they have to be taken out and looked at regularly to get the best out of them. Perhaps the Greens could take Marilyn Warings out and put them to good use as societies cry out for better, fairer systems.
Oh Tracey so cynical. Sometimes someone finds the right hole to push something through and it gets accepted. Like littlies matching a block to a hole, it works. It happens with music – sometimes the original musician gets an average acceptance and someone else presents it slightly differently and ,.., it’s away.
The final four flag designs are crap – three feature a fern (white feather which is a historic sign of cowardice) which Key wants and the other with the Koru is black – so no guessing Key will get his fern – just as he wanted – you have got to give it to the bloke he is pushy and knows how to get his own way. I think the military will want to keep their kiwi badge.
…the “Cabinet approved” four flags. Suggests that no matter how neutral the panel was they had to get them past cabinet. 3 with key’s fern as you observe and the fourth, imo, not meant to stand up to the other three.
Little or no nod to Tino rangatiratanga which ought to have been reflected in some way in all 4 finalists.
They are certainly colours that NZ could go forward under, at some point in the future, but I am not convinced NZ as a nation has a coherent enough belief in who it is right now to commit to an undertaking of this importance. I certainly do not believe there is a single icon (or chromatic identity) that has broad enough support amongst the populace of Aotearoa New Zealand that it can be transposed to the myriad of tasks that the representation of a national flag incorporates.
The fixation of so many of the messages in the public arena focus on events and flagpoles. Even the chair of the panel said today they thoroughly investigated the various circumstances where there would be presentations of the flag. ‘we looked at it flying in a breeze, on a still day, close up, far away’ No, he wasn’t reading from a new Hairy McCleary book. His comments were predictably about a flag flying on a pole. Nary a mention of the hundreds of other situations where our flag is presented. The hype to date has certainly not concentrated on informing the public about the magnitude of associated real world costs that are the unavoidable next step of changing our flag. Figures which would undoubtedly raise the eyebrows of people currently struggling to tread water in the current economic climate. But letterheads and labels aren’t as exciting as the All Blacks.
I for one remain hopeful the common strength to be found in the unfinished discussion of identity will win out over the carefully structured hype we are to be bombarded with over the coming months. Right now, that second referendum seems a long way off, leaving a lot of scope for ‘persuasion’ of a populace that is hungry to have some control over what it is living through. That said, the fact there is no set minimum vote required in either referendum does not build confidence in the legitimacy of the referendum process we now face.
The pressure of change for the sake of change can be seen in many of the comments throughout various media. Just today on the Live Stuff link there were people saying ‘if we are going to spend 26 million, we may as well have a change to show for it’ If that is a reason to change a flag then I guess it is understandable that commercially marketed images with an existing copyright are up for selection.
The two Lockwood designs being included was so predictable. I know i am not alone in thinking the entire selection process appeared to be an example of how to offer a preferred choice. All I know for sure is I won a bet and my coffee this afternoon is free.
The black/white fern is one of the copyrighted images, which is the other? I had been leaning towards voting for the black/ white koru (or as NRT would have it; the “hypnoflag”), mainly on the basis that it would deny Key his fern.
Over on TDB it’s all about defacing ballot papers to make a statement, but that seems self-defeating. My prediction would be for the red/white/blue Lockwood flag to make the cut on first vote as Key has made it clear that that is his preference (and you can bet the Nats will vote even if no one else does). My problem is that I really hate having another country’s flag taking up a quarter of ours – so anything would be an improvement. Even the sham-consulted offerings that we’re having rammed down our throats as a “choice”.
If your Flag Design is chosen as a Shortlisted Design, then you:
hereby assign to the Crown at no cost all of your rights, title and interest in and to your Flag Design, including all copyright and other intellectual property rights in all works that feature in the Flag Design, and in the Flag Design as a whole, as may exist anywhere in the world;
agree to sign a written document which will include an assignment of all of your rights, title and interest in and to your Flag Design to the Crown, a waiver of all associated moral rights, and other terms and conditions relating to your Flag Design, in the form required by the Crown and at no cost; and
will ensure any other author of your Flag Design, or any element of your Flag Design, signs an agreement as described in clause 15(b) at no cost.
Hi James, of course I had read them, and it was the stipulation that all copyright and commercial rights are surrendered which led to my interest in the ongoing commercial activity of the Silver Fern Flag sales department.
I see now I must have misread the terms when I initially looked at it (oops) and had the longlist of 40 confused with the shortlist of 4 that was announced today. I will endeavour to be more careful in my reading of official documentation, but the basic reality stands, an existing commercial product was selected for consideration as a national flag. That is just weird.
So I guess, as of today, the Silver Fern Flag website will be out of operation as a commercial enterprise.
Wonder what happens to all the flags and badges and buttons in stock. The store is still open for business at time of writing but I guess these things take time. Be interesting to see how long it takes.
I think the main thing is to understand that National have designs aplenty apart from for the flag. Don’t take your eyes off them for a second to look through the proffered images or they will be off with the parts of the country that haven’t already been sold down the river.
When those have been sold, they will sell the river too and all the people will be brainwashed to salute the new flag and forget old New Zealand. After all it was a funny, little country trying to make its way in the world where you had to wait three months to get a new phone connection. Now see what we have got, or some of us!
What I can’t understand is why haven’t they included the standard silver fern flag?? If they wanted to put up the best candidates to take on the old flag they surely would have chosen that one as part of the four wouldn’t they? I know there was the talk about it resembling the ISIS flag, but really I don’t think anyone in NZ would draw that connection…
So, is this more about wasting everyone’s time and keeping people’s minds off other matters or is it just another cockup by Government to not include a really popular flag that could have bought about the change they’re supposedly after.
” I don’t think anyone in NZ would draw that connection…”
but a nation’s flag is seen around the world remember so it might be a problematic choice
and there is also the white feather issue that has been discussed a few times
Fair points, but the end goal here is to convince the NZ public to change the flag and get it done, other countries don’t get to vote on it.
Looking at the 4 flags to choose from, they’ve offered up two flags (the black & white ones) that are practically unknowns or new flags to the public. The other two coloured fern flags are really the same flag with one of them gaining minor popularity with people who have wanted a flag change for a while. Have they got 4 strong alternatives to pit against the old one? Absolutely not.
I hate them too. 3 sports logo’s and a lame attempt at a Koru, that looks like some airport branding
As much as I want a new flag, I don’t want it now under the influence of the Key vanity project/mass distraction project and those designs completely suck.
Ironically I will be voting to keep the current flag.
If we were in a cartoon, and it was like the Road Runner story, we would get a steamroller and flatten yek and then he would become a very individual, unique flag which we would hold aloft while he led us for ever in all our enterprises. And he would be doing something of great positive significance for a change,
reminding us not to vote for charlatans.
NakiMan
Some people will vote for anything that holds their minds for a half hour and/or makes them laugh. There will be the ones too who haven’t got many ideas themselves and find it a pleasure to have someone else’s presented to them to judge. Deciding about things that others have done is The Favourite NZ Pastime.
Oh oops. How about the TPPA for Europe? The TTIP (Please learn to speak and read German though before attempting to read this!>. Seems to me that Adidas is not a German Corporation but like the AIG an international corporation. Hellbent on taking over National sovereignty!
meanwhile in Europe…’Europe must remain free to develop the common market into a space of high standards for consumers, workers and the environment. Blocking this is likely to be the real motive behind the big business lobby’s obsession with TTIP and co. Europe is big enough to sustain a high level of social, consumer, health and consumer rights even in a globalising world. No transnational company wants to stop selling to the European common market. Therefore, Europeans hold in their hand a powerful tool for greening global business. This democratic tool we must not give up for the small potential benefits of bilateral trade deals negotiated behind a veil of secrecy.’…Sven Giegold.
TPPA
1. Japan, Others Seeking TPP Ministerial Meeting in Late Sept.
Tokyo, Aug. 31 (Jiji Press)–Japan and some other countries participating in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations are trying to arrange a plenary ministerial meeting in late September, informed sources have said.
The countries are speeding up arrangements to realize a ministerial meeting of all of the 12 nations negotiating for a TPP deal for regional trade liberalization ahead of key political events in member states, such as a general election in Canada on Oct. 19.
The United States, another TPP negotiation member, however, seems to be examining carefully when the proposed ministerial meeting should take place, as no clear signs have emerged of early agreements on thorny issues, such as intellectual property protection. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015083100607
2. Disposable People: Obama, the TPP, and the Betrayal of Human Rights
[An] examination, based on interviews with more than a dozen sources in Washington and foreign capitals, shows that the government office set up to independently grade global efforts to fight human trafficking was repeatedly overruled by senior American diplomats and pressured into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report.
3 .NZ.Action…. .Adam’s Big Buzz Wheelie Bin Protest.
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to print off our ‘Hey Mr Key, can’t you see, we don’t want your bloody TPP’ images, and affix said image to your wheelie bin. But more, and here’s where things get a bit daring, and we have to say we will disavow any knowledge of your actions, if you know where a politician lives and what day their wheelie bin gets rolled out, well, we leave matters to your own initiative.” http://co-creatingournewearth.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/tpp-tppa-protest-protest-all-over.html
Thanks! I’ve just installed the badger one. Changed the text and font size on my browser though, which I’m not happy about.
The standard has 30 trackers on this page. :-/
Hey adam, can you recommend an ebook reader that isn’t evil? I had a look round last night and it seems there are some significant issues with them re privacy and secret information sharing. I’ve been using calibre, which is good for converting books, ok for reading, but really crap for managing the library. I’m on a mac.
I have a kindle and gave up on privacy on it ages ago. Amazon is one of the worst. I was using Lucidor – http://www.lucidor.org/lucidor/ which was a bit chunky, and I have no idea about privacy. But, gave up when brought kindle.
That said, Nixie Pixel has a tendency to go rather in depth into a topic. Ebooks will come up I’m sure – she was the person who switched me on to using linux well.
thanks, I’ll see if I can follow her somewhere. When I get round to upgrading my OS I’ll probably end up using ibooks, hey ho, Apple are already spying on me etc. Not sure about DRM and books I’ve been ahem lent. I downloaded the Adobe ebook reader and it wanted me to register with them and give them access to all the ebooks on my computer. Bugger that.
edit, just tried to install Lucidor and it needs a high level of geek than I possess.
Find a reader that knows OPDS, turn that on in your Calibre with password etc, then read books from calibre onto to your reader program on whatever device you have it on.
I use fbreader on Android. But a search of whatever app store you frequent looking for OPDS will probably find a few good ones.
Once you download a book into a computer or device, it stays there and you can read it locally.
I buy from my home systems and load (and convert) everything into Calibre into standard ePubs. Then it is available to whatever I am dealing with.
I usually grab a set of 10 or 20 books from Calibre when I am at home on to a tablet or phone and in contract with my server via WiFi. They join the hundreds already on the the device. Makes sure I never run out of reading material.
I can also get into the Calibre remotely if I do run out of reading, but there is a bit more security on that process.
But it means that when my more mobile devices self-destruct or get lost, then I still have my books back home.
I’m mostly reading on my laptop, although I can see using the phone more in the future. I’m happy to use Calibre to store them, but it’s not very good at organising i.e. I want something that has a better interface for me browsing my library.
195 Ill-treatment or neglect of child or vulnerable adult
(1)
Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years who, being a person described in subsection (2), intentionally engages in conduct that, or omits to discharge or perform any legal duty the omission of which, is likely to cause suffering, injury, adverse effects to health, or any mental disorder or disability to a child or vulnerable adult (the victim) if the conduct engaged in, or the omission to perform the legal duty, is a major departure from the standard of care to be expected of a reasonable person.
(2)
The persons are—
(a)
a person who has actual care or charge of the victim; or
(b)
a person who is a staff member of any hospital, institution, or residence where the victim resides.
Could help but notice how much Aussie lookin our new bank notes are in design -a big thank you to Crosby Textor from Key as he looked absolutely ecstatic on tv about it.
A new twist on the Muldoon quote about intelligence when so many enlightened brains left in droves during his reign
Raising the level of deception created by this country in how much we owe Australian and Chinese interests there and here
Another spin exercise by Key to keep us thinking its all positive
Can you imagine the discussion in cabinet this am when they deliberated over the final four flags of choice. I bet there was not a dissenting voice – Key said what he wanted and that was that.
And as for the fern defining us.
We are known as Kiwi’s abroad. “Gidday Kiwi …” mmm “Gidday Punga …” Naah
and the currency is called the Kiwi.
What a selfish, leeching prick is that John McCaw ?…..positively feasting on Richie McKey. It’s bloody dirty really.
Test will be whether Richie takes him aside and says “Hey bro’…..fuck off aye ?…..you’re fucking me up ! Get to London they’ll chuck me outa the bus at The Heath. That’s not my buzz man !”
On the other hand he might choose to say “Mmmmm…..The List aye ? How high ?”
It’s your call Richie but ya not the sorta guy that gets ‘owned’ are ya ? The pay ain’t that good either bro’.
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
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This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
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1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
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TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
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Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
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Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
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The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
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I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
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Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
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The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
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The All Blacks being used by Key and his right wing propaganda machine to promote a flag change.
Is this what Rome felt like during the days of Commodus?
Bread and circuses.
The Circus Maximus.
Eden Park.
Gladiators.
The All Blacks.
Both used by a corrupt regime to prop up its power.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11505765
Did they have corrupt or useless “non-referees” in ancient Rome?
They had chariot races.
Clever.
“Both used by a corrupt regime to prop up its power”
Corrupt, don’t be stupid Paul. Now you are making shit up.
Cunning or orchestrated are the words you are looking for.
No i typed corrupt. It fits perfectly. I suggest you read up on your history, rather than wasting your time listening to talk back.
And the word I search for when describing you is shill.
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than THAT, mate!”
A hapless Stephen Franks comes unstuck on The Panel
Radio NZ National, Monday 31 August 2015
Jim Mora, Stephen Franks, Chris Gallavin
Today was not the first time that Chris Gallavin and Stephen Franks have appeared together on this programme. Back in January, Gallavin made some crass and poorly considered remarks about the Charlie Hebdo murders: “One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist! Oh, I don’t know WHAT’S happening Jim, quite frankly!”
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26012015/#comment-957243
So quite possibly Franks was under the impression that Gallavin was a typical Panel guest, and would not interrupt or demur when he got into whatever frothing lecture he had planned for today. If that’s what Franks had thought, he made a very bad mistake. Gallavin is not as flippant or as shallow as his remarks on January 26 might have suggested; in fact, as Franks was about to find out, he has a sharp mind, and is not prepared to suffer a fool.
I tuned in half-way through, just in time to hear Chris Gallavin, who is a law professor, explain eloquently and succinctly why it may be a good idea for local governments to spend some money taking expert advice on whether or not to set up research centers. Foolishly, instead of remaining silent because he had nothing intelligent to contribute on this matter, Sensible Sentencing Trust “legal counsel” and former ACT MP Stephen Franks (NOT a law professor) decided to condescend to someone obviously brighter and sharper….
STEPHEN FRANKS: Chris put the case about as strongly as it can be put. Good advocacy Chris, but I think that a lot of these feasibility studies are written by experts in, in a ritual. Ummm, they… sort of… they’re prevalent wherever there’s money going, someone else’s money and it’s being thrown around on vague good intentions. It’s sort of, they’re the modern equivalent of paying for prayers and candles to light to the gods of the central government, to, errrrmmm….
CHRIS GALLAVIN: You’re gonna have to come up with a better argument than that, Stephen! Ha ha ha ha ha!
JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha! HA HA!
CHRIS GALLAVIN: You just praised me for a good argument; I’m not going to give it back to you. You’re going to have to do a lot better than THAT, mate! Ha ha ha ha ha!
STEPHEN FRANKS: [uneasily] Weeeellll, no, I, I WAS thinking that if it had been me I would have defended the use of consultants…. [He bores on for an excruciating two minutes]….
With those few words, Gallavin effortlessly, and devastatingly, showed he was a lot smarter than his adversary—and make no mistake, Franks is adversarial, in the worst way. In fact, he’s worse than adversarial, he’s reflexively contrarian and pompously self-righteous, and he gets nasty very quickly. In his regular appearances as a guest on Willie Jackson’s Eye To Eye program on TVNZ, Franks would team up with the notoriously anti-Māori Canterbury University pamphleteer David Round to make inflammatory comments and reduce the discussion to a farce.
When Franks is confronted firmly, however, he seems to be incapable of arguing his corner. Last year Dita Di Boni challenged a number of his statements. Unaccustomed to contradiction, Franks lapsed into a resentful silence.
Later, Franks embarked on one of his trademark wandery homilies, inarticulately but unmistakably praising the contribution of white immigrants to this country, and speaking sententiously about how “we” should not be ashamed to say “we” want to keep out “those who do not share our values.” Somehow, this rant ended up with him making the bizarre allegation that Japanese ski resort workers think New Zealanders are thieves, and extrapolating from that anecdote that New Zealanders tolerate theft, whereas the Japanese do not. Then he said that when he went overseas with a group from New Zealand some time ago, some of those in his party thought it was quite acceptable to shoplift. A few hours later, Seven Sharp viewers were regaled with pretty much the same thing Franks was saying, in an item about a skinhead group in Masterton called the “Right Wing Resistance”.
Chris Gallavin was clearly appalled by what he had just been subjected to. He took Franks up on it in the same way as he no doubt has occasionally had to do when dealing with a particularly dim but recalcitrant law student. Gallavin politely but systematically demonstrated that Franks’s claim that New Zealanders are dishonest had no merit, and was therefore spurious.
Mercifully, Mora helped out Franks by moving on to the next topic. Franks, however, was obviously still brooding on this ten minutes later as the program came to a finish….
JIM MORA: Chris Gallavin, thank you very much!
CHRIS GALLAVIN: Thanks Jim! And thanks, Stephen, I enjoyed talking to you.
STEPHEN FRANKS: [curtly] Okay. Thanks, Chris.
By the way, Dita Di Boni is the big improver in the media; she is unflustered in debate, and has got the better of several right wing opponents. Franks is not the first mediocrity she has sent packing. She has not always been so sure of herself…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10052013/#comment-631145
Ex ACT MP.
Why does a party with less than 1% of the vote get such a disproportionate amount of media time?
ACT is a division of national, the % votes is irrelevant as the MSM does the govt’s bidding which includes it’s little helpers in ACT/MP.
EXACTLY. Which weekly or very regular panel member is representative of Green Party view, our 3rd ranking party?
Well, When you understand MMP – you will see that they are part of the government. Thus the media time.
hi morrissey, re stephen franks:
” Franks is adversarial, in the worst way. In fact, he’s worse than adversarial, he’s reflexively contrarian and pompously self-righteous, and he gets nasty very quickly.”
and he identifies himself as a cyclist.
Steady!
Not a trick-cyclist. Gasp.
A+++++
Chris Gallavin was rather good.
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/panel/panel-20150831-1625-marlborough_council_scoping_for_research_centre-048.mp3
(You’re gonna have to come up with a better argument than that, Stephen! and Franks’ spluttering @ 3.30)
This article should be compulsory reading for the Labour Party.
Power without principle is not worth it.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/08/what-corbyn-moment-means-left
Paul @#3 said
“This article should be compulsory reading for the Labour Party.
Power without principle is not worth it.”
Nice one Paul I liked this bit, and as you said should be compulsory reading
“We want someone to remember that democracy does not begin and end at the ballot box. We want someone to represent the interests of the young, the poor and the marginalised in parliament. These are simple, modest demands. And the most damning indictment on the British political machine is the way in which these simple, modest demands look like a revolution.”
In that representation should be an economic promise. That they will serve the needs of micro businesses fairly. That they will encourage people to get out and earn money, in their own tiny way compared to the great domestic product.
That they will keep taxes low, encourage specialisation and retraining, let women use the market and sell their baking, preserves whatever. The oppression of the poor is not only in unemployment, low minimum wages, it is also allowing health and safety and big business to force the individual out of being entrepreneurial because bigger businesses don’t like it.
USA. In a 2014 survey, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) surveyed hundreds of law enforcement personnel at the state and local level, all of whom had training in intelligence gathering or counterterrorism. They were presented with a list of radical groups and asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 4, how much they agreed that this group posed a terrorist threat to the US.
One of the interesting changes was for Islamic extremists, which dropped from the No. 1 to No. 2 spot — replaced by the anti-government “sovereign citizen” movement, which climbed up from No. 8:
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/31/9208015/terrorism-chart-ranked
Sovereign citizens believe that natural citizens are not subject to any United States federal law, including being subject to the jurisdiction of federal courts, but are subject to natural law and common law. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Sovereign_citizen
When Tim Groser calls TPPA protests “extreme” , is he considering those people to be of the “sovereign citizen” type?
When you ramp up overweight and over strength security forces, they will always eventually turn on the ordinary people.
Well, they have form for it, and lots of guns.
When the republicans started actively cultivating support from militia “tea party” types, they knew exactly who they were seeking support from.
Who is the enemy? North Dakota allows police departments to equip drones with non-lethal weapons such as Tasers, tear gas and rubber bullets.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/08/28/police-taser-drones-authorized–north-dakota/71319668/
This is what happens when military companies need a nice sideline after losing contracts to wreck Iraq and Syria.
And here we go again, Labour’s lack of internal discipline coming back:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/282927/divisions-in-labour-over-charter-schools-policy
Dumb.
Anyone with perception said a long time ago that Kelvin Davis was a liability.
I wouldn’t knock him too much there cobbah. I understand he did go on record last Friday and say he won’t take any political donations from the Talley’s and their group of companies. This came at a Citizen’s Resistance rally he attended. Apparently the local Nat MP Dr Shane Reti went to ground and would not return calls by the Group.
I guess Reti has been muzzled after a series of confused messaging be has put out.
Dover Samuels anyone??
I attended a political forum at the school he is making reference to. I tell ya they really were doing a great job for the young Maori students. A Millitary style setup. The problem for Pen & Kel is the fuckers running the show are either Maori-Tory party or Tory Maori’s. So no votes there for Labour. I guess Davis is after the candidate vote.
This comment stands out for me by Andrew Little
Such an arrogant and colonialist attitude, but so typical of labour.
I have no idea why Maori vote Labour.
Like turning education into private commodity would really help Maori,
Who are you to say what is right or wrong for Maori.
It’s not the method that matters, it’s the result.
Geeezus here’s a guy who actually believes that the ends justifies the means.
Interesting comment from a guy that promotes alternative medicine.
If you have an argument, let’s hear you make it.
btw I don’t “promote” “alternative medicine” I practice non-medical paradigm healthcare.
It’s not the method that matters, it’s the result.
Fuck off mate, the ends does not justify the means, never has, never will.
The method always matters.
Got a sore leg? No problem, we’ll just saw that critter off. What was that? Thought you said only the result mattered? Thought you said you wanted your sore leg to go away?
On the intelligence front, might it be suggested you take your head out of arse in order that your brain might get more oxygen?
Right measure the IQ at 5 years
Kill all those below 120
Its the results that matter, not the method eh BM
Twenty five years ago I badly wrenched my left shoulder rotator cuff breaking up some concrete. It never really healed, and in particular if I was lying down with that arm above my head for more than a few minutes it was quite painful to get it back to a normal position.
In the past year or so this it was getting worse. Then about three months ago I aggravated the whole thing by trying to grab a bag out of the back seat of the car awkwardly. Could hardly move my left arm for about three days. (Which made driving over the Great Alpine Road in the dark with about 10m visibility that evening quite fun!)
Three weeks ago I was knocked over with a bad cold and decided to let my Chinese Traditional medical practioner have a go at it. At one point she asked about my left shoulder, because she could see how I favoured it – and gave it the full noise acupuncture works. Industrial strength.
An immediate improvement. First trip about 80% better. Second trip 100%. Full movement, no nagging pain – after 25 years it’s gone. If you want to argue I just spent $200 on a placebo effect – go right ahead. I consider the best money I ever spent!
Pretty much how I feel about it too Red. I’ll take an improvement in my health over a theory about Randomised Controlled Trials, and I’ll take responsibility for deciding if the risks of side effects are worth it. Would be nice of mainstream medicine got on board and helped with that.
Whatever works, that’s my motto.
Pro- tip, if you ever get the urge to break concrete up again.
Concrete has amazing compressive strength but fuck all shear strength.
The key is to get a wedge underneath the bit you want to break, so it’s off the ground.
You literally just have to tap it and the concrete will break.
No need to pound the crap out of it with a sledge hammer
You mean “fraud”.
Meh, go take your statins and anti-inflammatories like a good lad.
Then why do you persist in calling yourself “doctor” in your advertising?
In India Homeopathists are legallyy referred to as Doctors.
This isn’t India, and he’s not a doctor. Like any profession quackery demeans all.
[Bit of a strong claim there ‘Realblue’. Prove that he’s not in fact a doctor and if and when you achieve that, show where he made the false claim of himself. In moderation until you acknowledge this instance of moderation] – Bill
[lprent: Your call, but I’d just ban him permanently and without any possible amnesty. He won’t be able to find it because it doesn’t exist. But he will mindlessly parrot the same stupidity next time around. He is just a waste of bandwidth and probably has been for the last 6 years or so. ]
[Done. I was about to do two months and leave any lengthening of that up to others, but hey. Such a shame that anyone else going down the same path probably won’t see this precedent. On the off-chance… seek to trash or otherwise cast aspersions on anyone’s professional life s realblue has done, and you’re gone. ] – Bill
“Then why do you persist in calling yourself “doctor” in your advertising?”
Doctors can practice non medical paradigm health care. I think you misunderstood what CV said.
A professional person usually has certificates relating to the levels of professional study they have achieved on the wall. I think that is required. It should be openly on display. I would presume that CV and any other health professional does this.
Real Blue wants to use their prejudice about Chiropractors to beat CV. Chiropractors are allowed to use the term ‘doctor’ in NZ. If Real Blue has a political analysis of that, I’d love to hear it. Bet it’s just bigotry though.
Not sure that CV has anything to prove here online (I agree about in their practices though). We don’t expect northshoredoc to provide documentation of his professional qualifications.
Bill, not sure how RB can provide evidence without breaching CV’s pseudonym. They can of course try and prove that they iare talking about chiropractors in general and that they’re not doctors.
[ Seeing as how I know who he’s talking about, he can refer to CV as CV and point to anything in general terms…eg, he claims on his site/his site says etc. If he can’t do that, then I’d suggest he should have thought about what he was saying/claiming. I’m picking that the idiot is unaware that doctorates are doctorates and not all of them are MDs. Anyway. He’s in moderation, so nothing he submits will become public knowledge unless another mod releases it. I’m off and out of tha net in about 10. After that, ‘trueblue’ will likely just have to put up with his comments sitting in moderation until tomorrow sometime.] – Bill
oh that’s good. I was worried they would start posting links to RL IDs, but if they have to go through moderation, that’s great.
A bit late for that, I would have thought.
I thought the protocol here was to let people have their pseudonyms where they want them and not to out them unless they do so. Some people, like you and me, have absolute pseudonyms. Others have contextual ones. CV chooses to comment as CV, I don’t see why that can’t be respected. But it’s not really about him, it’s about the principle of it.
Not sure why you felt the need to post that link.
Because CV wrote an entire post outing his real life ID.
Whatever.
Thanks for ignoring most of what I said.
It wasn’t a bit late. Obviously.
“If you have an argument, let’s hear you make it.”
Quite.
For the record, I think the slurs and sometimes outright attacks on someone here for what they do in their day job, when that day job has nothing to do with what is being discussed, is a form of bigotry and bullying. I can’t see any point to it other than to undermine the person. It’s pathetic, nasty and personal. I don’t see it as being too far removed from the kind of motivations behind doxxing. As far as I am concerned, information about people’s personal lives is a privilege not an invitation to attack them via that information.
If you can’t argue the points, how about you take a step back until you can.
Thank you weka for making those clear points. We need to remember them.
🙂
Was that directed at me?
More at Real Blue (and others in other past conversations), but if the hat fits you are welcome to wear it.
So you support privatision.
All charters schools teach kids is how to be neo-liberal conformists, and not speak out against the system.
Note that the charter schools in Auckland are a military academy and a christian school, which use 2 totaltarian methods, bibles and guns to subdue methods.
I wonder if that christian school expels kids who identify as LGBTIQ
LOL you clearly have no idea BM, co-opting brown people into running private schools, paying them shit loads of tax payers money, allowing lax rules and inefficiencies, why don’t you bitch about that “colonialism”?
I’m not quite getting what you’re saying?
It’s not what he’s saying that matters its “how” he’s saying it. The result doesnt matter. 😀
LOL, funny.
Maori Party has not led the charge on Charter Schools, the ACT party has. Who are the ACT Party to say what is right or wrong for Maori?
Teenaa koutou katoa
There are many Maaori communities that would favour charter schools. Colonial and paternalistic thinking would say otherwise. Mainstream education is failing Maaori tamariki and rangatahi.
There are plenty of really good immersion schools for Maori – I’m not sure the public money going into private hands (often overseas hands at that) with unqualified teachers and no regulation or transparency is the answer under charter schools.
Also wasn’t there that situation where a charter school was supposed to be set up for Maori but the million dollars was paid for the land and no money was left for the school. The board or whoever got to keep the land even though it was never used as intended.
Real estate deals should not be taking kids education money – like Serco – zero targets or accountability – just taking money away from state schools and giving it to business.
Teenaa koe, Save NZ
Kohanga Reo are effectively charter schools run on a rag by whanau who mostly cannot afford the oily.
The concept that charter schools represent is a school where Te Ao Taangata Whenua is the worldview that shapes everything about the school.
Excellence from a Te Ao Taangata Whenua perspective is where a student is fluent in both cultures and can walk in both worldviews confidently.
There are some excellent mainstream schools for Maaori but these schools are the exception and not the rule. Thank you for your thoughtful words.
“Mainstream education is failing Maaori tamariki and rangatahi.”
Not in our college, they make up approx. 50% and have the same pass rates as non Maori…link attached. A very good college.
http://ero.govt.nz/ezero/Early-Childhood-School-Reports/School-Reports/Otorohanga-College-03-12-2013
I understand that BUT was addressing a different issue, namely the hypocrisy of BM’s comment…
That ACT, a party of no Maori MP’s is championing charter schools and can thereby “tell” l Maori what is right or wrong for them, but others can’t. He covered his failing by wrongly attributing Charter Schools to the Maori Party.
If Charter Schooling was about enabling Maori to provide a better education for tamariki and rangatahi we would have a hellova lot more in the pilot shceme.
I think Tracey that charter schools, the government and Maori interact this way. The government can’t put too much into Maori schools in the way that Maori would like because government hasn’t faith in their ability to run effectively (note the closing down of what should have been solid secondary schools Queen Vic, St Stephens and another one going down.) Also the National constituency is largely white and dismissive of anyone who can’t match up with the pakeha education system.
Labour got criticised and themselves cut out Closing the Gaps measures instead of sticking to their knitting and riding the waves of derision. Efforts to assist Maori with special training and opportunities to get a clear direction where their talents would take them ran into trouble. As in when a special fee for getting a Maori of the unemployed lists and into a job was rejected by the agency workers as being unfair, I think it was in Christchurch.
It seems to me that for National, charter schools are free from calls of racial bias, they are a sidestep from the norm which is perceived to have failed so many. And Maori have money from settlements, they can invest in themselves and show pakeha what they can achieve in education. Any payments to charter schools with Maori will get lightly noted as all charter schools can receive this.
On Radionz this morning there was a spirited spokesperson for one of the schools visited by Kelvin Davis along the lines that electorates should decide policy, tell their MP and he/she should comply. So Andrew could go suck a lemon. Of course there are many aspects to consider with charter schools and electorates can’t individually decide national policy, but Labour should choose now to work with these schools, and just impose some lines in the sand for them, minimising the known rort avenues by looking at their track record in the USA and other places, and maximising the positive effects. If Labour turns round and shuts the charter school idea down they will be seen as kicking Maori in the teeth and wanting to impose their previously failed concepts on them.
These schools could be good candidates for having a group Principal who would need enough mana to keep them in line, performance and finance-wise. The pride of a hapu or iwi in succeeding in getting high uni graduates, but a lot more high technically competent graduates would light up the sky at night!
I am sure that none want them just as hothouses for sports people run off their feet and off the earth at early ages, or armed forces candidates to send as mercenaries overseas, as Fiji did. Too many soldiers with a penchant for violence as a solution to problems is not what a country needs. But we could do with more Maori police who are strong and can cope with the pollen of racism that floats invisibly down and seems to show up suddenly in particular places and times.
In the charters there are less restrictions than on ordinary schools, and that leaves open possibilities for nepotism and acceptance of shonky confidence tricks. They are open opportunities for Maori to prove their educational nous but if they fall by the wayside into accepting second best when it is their own choice, they will be roasted unmercifully.
edited
thanks so much for your thoughtful response. much to consider.
@Tracey
I didn’t know what I thought to begin with. I had read about charter schools and that they were often unsatisfactory in the USA. And I didn’t like the corporate model getting into education which should be broad and not tied to consumerism.
Then I heard this spokesperson very hot about Labour and their visit to the school. And I felt it may have gone too far to be reversed, it needs to be helped to success if possible. I knew that Labour could often be patronising to Maori, and the rest of us know thatthey have carried that across to all their supporters in recent decades.
Labour MP for Tāmaki-Makaurau Peeni Henare and his colleague, Kelvin Davis, attended a fundraiser for the He Puna Marama Trust, which has set up a charter school in Whangarei.
The party has been vehemently opposed to the formation of charter schools and pledged to scrap them if it won the last election.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/282927/labour-mps-told-to-toe-the-line-on-charter-schools
I believe that “we” the collective “we” though our government need to provide the support and means for communities to find the solutions for themselves. We are not all the same. IF a Charter School suits the education needs of a particular community which is suffering under the current system, then it is incumbent on “we” to follow that lead. The profit motive however well disguised cannot, imo, be the motivating factor, or the unsubstantiated belief that if the profit motive model is used, success must follow.
Tracey
Yes the profit motive is a troubling one with education. I can’t feel positive about the privately owned schools growing to larger numbers. Whether run by individuals or corporates or charities or religious entities, as not-for-profit models, sponsorship of materials or for part of the funding, or for particular courses, sport, financial training and budgeting etc. Sponsorships gained by one school could come from four or more different firms, each aimed at the courses relating to the businesses. Too much manipulation and brand-image attachment there.
Locals getting the type of teaching and subjects they need makes sense, provided that they have had experienced and practical
tuition before they make their decisions. And the government should ensure that basic nation-wide subjects are taught to standard.
We do have to watch out for the anti-science primitive church educationalists trying to impose their manufactured beliefs on hard-earned scientific facts, that are open to scrutiny and exposure of fault or fraud. These people are already infiltrating into our society. I believe that most have come from USA which seems to be a strong-hold of individualist religions that seek to detach themselves from the established churches and decide on their own form of Christian belief and meaning.
edited
I agree that Maori are being shat on in the education system, but privatisation isnt the answer, nor is ‘choice’ or ‘competition’.
The whole approach to education since 1989, which is whipping out the collaborative school support structure and implementing social darwinism has failed Maori — Tomorrow’s Schools needs to be overhauled.
More Maori need to be at the chalk face. We need more Maori principals, more Maori teachers and more Maori administrators and school board members.
and Māori schools.
Teenaa koe, Millsy
I think the privitisation of the education dollar is a barrel being pushed by vested interests in the status quo.
However, my primary angst is in thinking that mainstream education is homogenising. Our students are lost in a sea of beige.
I agree that more effort should be exercised in improving Maaori participation. But the system that is rejected by our youth is likely to be as obnoxious to our teachers and principals.
In saying that, we have some excellent teachers and principals and students within the mainstream systems and being supported by excellent schools.
@ Skinny
No, he was supporting young relatives who apparently are involved in the school. He told Little in advance and Little told him it was Davis’ decision whether he attended the function or not. Something similar with Peeni Henare too.
Gower started this crap and people here should know to ignore anything from that half baked journo.
That is definitely NOT what it sounds like from the RNZ report.
He may well have told them he would prefer them not to go etc. but he still apparently left the decision up to them. That makes sense to me. Andrew Little is not an authoritarian type. He believes they made the wrong decision and he doesn’t expect them to do it again.
Still doesn’t alter the fact it was a pathetic Gower beat-up over very little and should be ignored.
Little asked them not to go – they went. What does it mean? Not much imo.
@Anne
Thanks. Fair enough.
Not this again.
Look, this is just speculative shitstirring from the media. They’re trying to make a controversy out of nothing. MPs have a duty to both their party and their constituents, they’re all going to be talking to people that are in conflict with their party and there is nothing wrong with that. You can’t expect MPs to completely ignore every non-Labour supporter in their electorate can you?
Look at the difference in reporting between today and yesterday;
3news…
“Labour sources have told 3 News Mr Little did not want them to go.”
RadioNZ..
“Mr Davis told 3News at the fundraiser that his leader, Andrew Little, did not want the Labour MPs to attend the event.”
They’re making shit up and people are falling for it.
Yep agree, but we know the media are going to shit stir this type of thing up, therefore labour MP’s need to be savvy to it.
Yes the naievity and stupidity that Labour continue to show in their media and MP management makes you wonder if they really want treasury benches back again.
“Look, this is just speculative shitstirring from the media”
It started out that way, but now the internal mess that is Labour is showing again. Their story is inconsistent and now they’re disagreeing with each other in public. It just looks really bad on top of everything else.
All I can say is that if the GP behaved like this I’d stop voting for them.
Yeah, they’re all crap scared of upsetting the likes of Gower and becoming the next target. Too many professional politicians. They need to start showing some backbone instead of letting themselves be bullied by these media prats.
This is a direct statement by RNZ. What was said, who said it, where it was said. I doubt they are lying about the facts of it.
The media rarely lie outright. They can get sued for that. They do imply, infer, insinuate…..
The TV3 report said ‘labour sources’. That implied a leak which insinuates dissent in the party ranks. RNZ say the ‘labour sources’ was the man himself which if true says there was no leak or ‘labour sources’.
Frankly it’s unlikely he’d say it how it was quoted either, he’s not a novice in dealing with the media so his words have likely been manipulated to imply there’s more to it than what a few simple words would reveal.
Kelvin Davis and that Peeni guy support the privatisation of education.
You might want to put a link up about Peeni Henare wanting privatisation of education. I agree with him about He Puna Marama Trust charter school in Whangerei. Transparent, great staff and getting good results.
This statement I agree with.
“I support that particular charter school, and the reason I do that is that I’ve seen kaupapa grow from the fetal stages all the way to what they have today and I’ve seen the outcomes they’ve achieved and that’s I why I support that particular kaupapa.” MP Peeni Henare – taken from the radio NZ web site.
The system is broken -for many Maori and Pacific kids. Charter schools are not the answer. But one of them is making the governments programme look bad, because it is so good. And is it not a wonderful thing to see kids do well?
And is he advocating a quick move to more of them to satisfy the entire need of such students? Or is he advocating a softly softly, don’t upset whitey and non Maori voters process which will see the “problem” ongoing for more decades. Bravery is required. And Bravery is not just going to one school and champioining git. It would be CRYING from the rooftops “EUREKA! now let’s roll this baby our quickly to cater for all our broken Maori schoolchildren.”
Well I have problems with Mr Henare and his lack of obvious work now he is a MP. Reminds me of some other MP’s who enter parliament and do a great job warming seats.
That said, I essentially agree with you Tracey. These MP’s including Winston and Davis should be going – lets roll this model through the education sector. But, I think you hit the hammer on the head – “softly softly, don’t upset whitey”.
We need these kids to reach their best – things need to change. If labour can not or will not offer the leadership. Other parties in opposition should.
As I said to Adele above — more Maori principals, more Maori teachers and more Maori on school boards.
I would be OK with charter schools if there were more along the lines of the concept that militant teaching unionist Al Shanker devised back in the 1980’s, as show cases of innovative teaching methods.
The charter schools we are seeing in the US, and what Parata is trying to import to this country, are more or less corporate/church run sausage factories that teach children nothing more than to toe the line in the neo-liberal world.
nah.
The event was on the weekend, even with all the beat-up it’s beginning to fizzle as a gotcha piece.
In the old days gower et al would have been breathlessly reporting ‘developments’ like people within caucus being angry, confrontations behind closed doors, plans to write a letter of protest and get signatures, all that shit.
But with this, all the vultures have is what they started with: the electorate MPs went, they knew it was not the preferred option, but nobody’s throwing their toys out of the cot.
Yes, Saarbo (at 6).
And while Little is on the back-foot discussing that, NZ First is on the front line fighting this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/71613077/foreign-investment-in-silver-fern-farms-opposed-by-farmers
I wonder who will get the farming vote in the regions?
Rank dishonesty from Corbyn’s opponents:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11506002
There was a bit of an exchange an that yesterday. If you’re interested…
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-31082015/#comment-1064843
Key point of what he actually said being
ie the very important point that it is an outrageous affront to Law & Order, Justice & Democracy for Western countries to do black ops assassinations.
This interview should be compulsory viewing for all aspiring journalists in NZ (great questions, great technique) also for for NZ Labour leaders, some excellent policies from JC .
Interviewers behaving as though they aren’t wee eight year olds in the school playground any more, and so not acting out a slightly more articulate version of the puffed up ‘nah, nah, nahnah, nah’ taunt of playtime group bullying?
Can’t really see that happening with the current crop of TVNZ or TV3 interviewers, can you?
Peter Lyons column about National spin, well worth a read, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz-government/news/article.cfm?c_id=144&objectid=11505697
The superficial spin is being taken up with unseemly enthusiasm by the MSM – I’m so sick of picking through the rubble of TV and newspapers for real news and information I’m on the verge of giving up 🙁
I wrote in yesterday’s Standard about his column and commented he would be the next one for the chop, fortunately he has a job teaching in a boys’ school so he won’t be out on the street. He’s a brave soul putting his neck out and I admire him for it.
That’s why he does stick his neck out….he makes his living elsewhere so doesn’t have to doff his cap to the MSM agenda.
Oops just posted a link to Peter’s column on the other thread, ” Away with the economic fairies.” Anyway I am too late, but I do think Peter’s collection of spins is pretty useful.
The Nact memorandum for state houses grand larceny … I’m just too angry to comment but in case it hasn’t been posted elsewhere already … Bridges gets to burn his bridges first in Tauranga:
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2303707/transfer-of-tauranga-social-housing.pdf
and
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11505742
Cue the opposition to make a strong statement about public assets being returned without a looters bonus being paid.
FFS this is a direct kick in the teeth for those in need. It’ll be a re-run of GI in akl where the private sector make a killing.
It’s a licence to print money, small wonder the Aussies are sniffing around they know a steal when they see one.
Who wouldn’t be interested in a govt guaranteed revenue stream in perpetuity. Look at this…
“In general, as long as properties are available and required for social housing, the
government will take vacancy risk.”
Not only does the Govt guarantee the rent, at full market rates, they also guarantee full tenancy. They’re taking all the risk out of property investment and they plan on selling the properties at BELOW market prices? They should be higher… well they shouldn’t be sold at all but it does show what a scam this is.
yes the statements from the shonky crew are a bat for them to be bashed with if only we had an opposition capable of picking up the bat and using it.
A request for Standardista’s re a climate change resource list.
Any recommendations or recollections of books, documentaries or articles that helped inform and shape your opinion?
Most level headed, informative, and accessible person I’ve come across is Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research.
This 2012 open lecture he gave is something I’ve linked to and trawled for various posts I’ve done on climate change. Here it is again and another to one of his articles.
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/events/2012/194.html (link includes transcript of presentation)
http://www.whatnext.org/resources/Publications/Volume-III/Single-articles/wnv3_andersson_144.pdf
Thanks Bill.
Thinking of setting up a book club scheme – or requesting certain titles for the Book Discussion Scheme – so that groups of people locally connected, can all read the same information and discuss.
I know that climate awareness for me, became more informed by reading James Hansen’s “Storms of my Grandchildren” and Fred Pearce’s “When the Rivers Run Dry”. It was only then I really comprehended the enormity of change that BAU would require, and the change that would occur regardless. The Transition Towns handbook, also provided some relief from the realisation that it was likely that government would only act after their citizens demanded it.
I no longer belong to the local book club. But it is a way to inform and discuss, with people open to the idea of discussion for the sake of it.
I know that with friends and family, there has been a marked change in those who have shared their thoughts, as opposed to those who think it is ‘not their cup of tea’.
Socialism for the rich (Drawbacks of our current money system)
When you look it’s really quite obvious why the economy is failing and the reason is because the financial system is geared to making the rich richer rather than producing real goods and services to provide for the well being of society.
Well we are all economic man and woman. When one thinks that consumerism is a driver in the modern economic society, then enabling people to spend in NZ on NZ made goods would make sense.
So then benefits should rise for young people, give them mostly-paid education even with bonds, and also retired people should be able to receive more for volunteer work after training. Then their increased spending on specific NZ goods, cheap travel on the Railways for instance, would improve takings in these areas, and result in the ripple effect of two or three times into the community, the multiplier would act against the recessionary effect of keeping wages low for all those businesses than can’t operate without getting subsidies from somewhere, if not government then the people.
Women’s work in the home. Is it work if nobody notices it?
Radio nz this morning audio will come up later.
10:05 Feminism, economics, & who cooked Adam Smith’s dinner?
Katrine Marcal, author of Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?, argues there is a fatal flaw in our continued reliance on Adam Smith’s representation of how the economy works. She believes it places an over-emphasis on self-interest and ‘economic man’. Katrine Marcal argues economics isn’t about money it is about how we view people, and sometimes how we ignore them. Giving birth to babies, raising children, cultivating a garden, or taking care of Adam Smith so he could write Wealth of Nations. None of this counted in his standard economic model. So is it time to re-think economic science?
Marilyn Waring wrote/studied about this 30 years ago. Some of her unpaid work valuing measures have been taken up in other countries. She was WAY ahead of her time.
..(Counting for nothing) i think, Hot of the press I bought a copy. A couple of women down the road spied my copy, borrowed it, never saw again, read from the library though, sad society cannot see the gains we could make being equal.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201768831
Katrine Marcal – Swedish economist.
Doesn’t matter what good ideas we have, they have to be taken out and looked at regularly to get the best out of them. Perhaps the Greens could take Marilyn Warings out and put them to good use as societies cry out for better, fairer systems.
Probably need to wait for Waring’s ideas to be trumpeted by a man as his own.
Oh Tracey so cynical. Sometimes someone finds the right hole to push something through and it gets accepted. Like littlies matching a block to a hole, it works. It happens with music – sometimes the original musician gets an average acceptance and someone else presents it slightly differently and ,.., it’s away.
TPP could block copyright fair use
http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/tpp-could-block-copyright-fair-use
Oh Canada! I knew it was bad over there but this is something else (Re; Harper taking control of their democracy). http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/28/canada-stephen-harper-harder-to-vote
The final four flag designs are crap – three feature a fern (white feather which is a historic sign of cowardice) which Key wants and the other with the Koru is black – so no guessing Key will get his fern – just as he wanted – you have got to give it to the bloke he is pushy and knows how to get his own way. I think the military will want to keep their kiwi badge.
…the “Cabinet approved” four flags. Suggests that no matter how neutral the panel was they had to get them past cabinet. 3 with key’s fern as you observe and the fourth, imo, not meant to stand up to the other three.
Little or no nod to Tino rangatiratanga which ought to have been reflected in some way in all 4 finalists.
Flags here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/71624100/live-final-four-nz-flag-designs-unveiled.html
Don’t like any of them actually. Too Bland or too fussy. Trevor reckons the final four were chosen by Key, English, Joyce.
single image of all four here http://i.imgur.com/LIVbpKZ.jpg
the individual images here
http://cdnmo.coveritlive.com/media/image/201508/1600_phpj1kmonimage1_1.jpg
http://cdnmo.coveritlive.com/media/image/201508/1600_php2atlgcimage1_2.jpg
http://cdnmo.coveritlive.com/media/image/201508/1600_phpdsfiogimage1.jpg
http://cdnmo.coveritlive.com/media/image/201508/phpz8ea4e4.-alofi-kanter-silver-fern-black-and-white.jpg
-still think including two commercially marketed copyrighted images for consideration as a nation’s flag is just weird
Red, Black and White would be a respectful hat-tip to the Tangata whenua… but not under this Government i guess.
Aren’t 2 the same design with different colours? Which means its actually 3 designs not 4?
They are certainly colours that NZ could go forward under, at some point in the future, but I am not convinced NZ as a nation has a coherent enough belief in who it is right now to commit to an undertaking of this importance. I certainly do not believe there is a single icon (or chromatic identity) that has broad enough support amongst the populace of Aotearoa New Zealand that it can be transposed to the myriad of tasks that the representation of a national flag incorporates.
The fixation of so many of the messages in the public arena focus on events and flagpoles. Even the chair of the panel said today they thoroughly investigated the various circumstances where there would be presentations of the flag. ‘we looked at it flying in a breeze, on a still day, close up, far away’ No, he wasn’t reading from a new Hairy McCleary book. His comments were predictably about a flag flying on a pole. Nary a mention of the hundreds of other situations where our flag is presented. The hype to date has certainly not concentrated on informing the public about the magnitude of associated real world costs that are the unavoidable next step of changing our flag. Figures which would undoubtedly raise the eyebrows of people currently struggling to tread water in the current economic climate. But letterheads and labels aren’t as exciting as the All Blacks.
I for one remain hopeful the common strength to be found in the unfinished discussion of identity will win out over the carefully structured hype we are to be bombarded with over the coming months. Right now, that second referendum seems a long way off, leaving a lot of scope for ‘persuasion’ of a populace that is hungry to have some control over what it is living through. That said, the fact there is no set minimum vote required in either referendum does not build confidence in the legitimacy of the referendum process we now face.
The pressure of change for the sake of change can be seen in many of the comments throughout various media. Just today on the Live Stuff link there were people saying ‘if we are going to spend 26 million, we may as well have a change to show for it’ If that is a reason to change a flag then I guess it is understandable that commercially marketed images with an existing copyright are up for selection.
The two Lockwood designs being included was so predictable. I know i am not alone in thinking the entire selection process appeared to be an example of how to offer a preferred choice. All I know for sure is I won a bet and my coffee this afternoon is free.
He must have missed the memo about this being about branding, for sides of lamb and beep and cans on shelves (no wind needed)
freedom
The black/white fern is one of the copyrighted images, which is the other? I had been leaning towards voting for the black/ white koru (or as NRT would have it; the “hypnoflag”), mainly on the basis that it would deny Key his fern.
Over on TDB it’s all about defacing ballot papers to make a statement, but that seems self-defeating. My prediction would be for the red/white/blue Lockwood flag to make the cut on first vote as Key has made it clear that that is his preference (and you can bet the Nats will vote even if no one else does). My problem is that I really hate having another country’s flag taking up a quarter of ours – so anything would be an improvement. Even the sham-consulted offerings that we’re having rammed down our throats as a “choice”.
Informal and invalid votes do get counted.
None of these flags look like they are worth voting for. So I’m planning to vote against.
these are the images I was referring to Pasupial ( copyright notice at bottom of page)
http://www.silverfernflag.org/store.html
I was not aware the black & white fern was under copyright as well. ??
d’oh of course!
it is “the logo of Immigration NZ and the Companies Office”
http://thestandard.org.nz/nrt-meh/
so out of 10,000 contributions we get to choose from three copyrighted images and a koru ?
I think you will find every submission is copyrighted. But if you actually read the submission rules you will see that: (from https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your-chance-to-decide/resources/terms-and-conditions/)
If your Flag Design is chosen as a Shortlisted Design, then you:
hereby assign to the Crown at no cost all of your rights, title and interest in and to your Flag Design, including all copyright and other intellectual property rights in all works that feature in the Flag Design, and in the Flag Design as a whole, as may exist anywhere in the world;
agree to sign a written document which will include an assignment of all of your rights, title and interest in and to your Flag Design to the Crown, a waiver of all associated moral rights, and other terms and conditions relating to your Flag Design, in the form required by the Crown and at no cost; and
will ensure any other author of your Flag Design, or any element of your Flag Design, signs an agreement as described in clause 15(b) at no cost.
so you get copyright and then agree to sign away any rights to the image (essentially).
Hi James, of course I had read them, and it was the stipulation that all copyright and commercial rights are surrendered which led to my interest in the ongoing commercial activity of the Silver Fern Flag sales department.
I see now I must have misread the terms when I initially looked at it (oops) and had the longlist of 40 confused with the shortlist of 4 that was announced today. I will endeavour to be more careful in my reading of official documentation, but the basic reality stands, an existing commercial product was selected for consideration as a national flag. That is just weird.
So I guess, as of today, the Silver Fern Flag website will be out of operation as a commercial enterprise.
Wonder what happens to all the flags and badges and buttons in stock. The store is still open for business at time of writing but I guess these things take time. Be interesting to see how long it takes.
at least I wasn’t the only person who had mistakenly considered the 40 as the shortlist
Mike Hosking did too
“there are some genuine contenders in the flag shortlist”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11495552
yes i am experiencing the horror and shame at momentarily being in such unenlightened company 😉
I think the main thing is to understand that National have designs aplenty apart from for the flag. Don’t take your eyes off them for a second to look through the proffered images or they will be off with the parts of the country that haven’t already been sold down the river.
When those have been sold, they will sell the river too and all the people will be brainwashed to salute the new flag and forget old New Zealand. After all it was a funny, little country trying to make its way in the world where you had to wait three months to get a new phone connection. Now see what we have got, or some of us!
variations of a black/white fern are copyrighted… as a result there are many versions of the silver fern
What I can’t understand is why haven’t they included the standard silver fern flag?? If they wanted to put up the best candidates to take on the old flag they surely would have chosen that one as part of the four wouldn’t they? I know there was the talk about it resembling the ISIS flag, but really I don’t think anyone in NZ would draw that connection…
So, is this more about wasting everyone’s time and keeping people’s minds off other matters or is it just another cockup by Government to not include a really popular flag that could have bought about the change they’re supposedly after.
” I don’t think anyone in NZ would draw that connection…”
but a nation’s flag is seen around the world remember so it might be a problematic choice
and there is also the white feather issue that has been discussed a few times
Fair points, but the end goal here is to convince the NZ public to change the flag and get it done, other countries don’t get to vote on it.
Looking at the 4 flags to choose from, they’ve offered up two flags (the black & white ones) that are practically unknowns or new flags to the public. The other two coloured fern flags are really the same flag with one of them gaining minor popularity with people who have wanted a flag change for a while. Have they got 4 strong alternatives to pit against the old one? Absolutely not.
They look more like corporate logos to me.
I wouldnt have minded the United Tribes flag in there – New Zealand’s flag as an independent nation — even if only on paper.
Yeah they’re all pretty bad. A vexillogogical clusterfuck.
Boy, do I hate those flags.
Keep the NZ flag – and get rid of Key.
I’d like a new flag but this is just a branding scam led by the 9th floor.
I hate them too. 3 sports logo’s and a lame attempt at a Koru, that looks like some airport branding
As much as I want a new flag, I don’t want it now under the influence of the Key vanity project/mass distraction project and those designs completely suck.
Ironically I will be voting to keep the current flag.
Rosie
+100
+ another 100, lets change the PM not the flag
If we were in a cartoon, and it was like the Road Runner story, we would get a steamroller and flatten yek and then he would become a very individual, unique flag which we would hold aloft while he led us for ever in all our enterprises. And he would be doing something of great positive significance for a change,
reminding us not to vote for charlatans.
On 50%+ish polling its not looking likely at this point
yeah. He’s even managed to keep his hands to himself lately, no matter how tantalizing he finds someone’s ponytail
On The AIG And Why The All Blacks Should Be Marked As A National’s Political Campaign Contribution!
Whoever wrote that is a moron. For starters Adidas isnt an American corporation – its German.
” and a flag change nobody wants”
What will the moron say when the people vote for the new flag.
NakiMan
Some people will vote for anything that holds their minds for a half hour and/or makes them laugh. There will be the ones too who haven’t got many ideas themselves and find it a pleasure to have someone else’s presented to them to judge. Deciding about things that others have done is The Favourite NZ Pastime.
Oh oops. How about the TPPA for Europe? The TTIP (Please learn to speak and read German though before attempting to read this!>. Seems to me that Adidas is not a German Corporation but like the AIG an international corporation. Hellbent on taking over National sovereignty!
meanwhile in Europe…’Europe must remain free to develop the common market into a space of high standards for consumers, workers and the environment. Blocking this is likely to be the real motive behind the big business lobby’s obsession with TTIP and co. Europe is big enough to sustain a high level of social, consumer, health and consumer rights even in a globalising world. No transnational company wants to stop selling to the European common market. Therefore, Europeans hold in their hand a powerful tool for greening global business. This democratic tool we must not give up for the small potential benefits of bilateral trade deals negotiated behind a veil of secrecy.’…Sven Giegold.
A musical response to the flag referendum shortlist.
https://youtu.be/PKOG91wA2X0
A Prince covers singalong. Awesome. 😀
TPPA
1. Japan, Others Seeking TPP Ministerial Meeting in Late Sept.
Tokyo, Aug. 31 (Jiji Press)–Japan and some other countries participating in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations are trying to arrange a plenary ministerial meeting in late September, informed sources have said.
The countries are speeding up arrangements to realize a ministerial meeting of all of the 12 nations negotiating for a TPP deal for regional trade liberalization ahead of key political events in member states, such as a general election in Canada on Oct. 19.
The United States, another TPP negotiation member, however, seems to be examining carefully when the proposed ministerial meeting should take place, as no clear signs have emerged of early agreements on thorny issues, such as intellectual property protection. http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2015083100607
2. Disposable People: Obama, the TPP, and the Betrayal of Human Rights
[An] examination, based on interviews with more than a dozen sources in Washington and foreign capitals, shows that the government office set up to independently grade global efforts to fight human trafficking was repeatedly overruled by senior American diplomats and pressured into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report.
In all, analysts in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons – or J/TIP, as it’s known within the U.S. government — disagreed with U.S. diplomatic bureaus on ratings for 17 countries, the sources said.
http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/08/disposable-people-obama-the-tpp-and-the-betrayal-of-human-rights/
3 .NZ.Action…. .Adam’s Big Buzz Wheelie Bin Protest.
“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to print off our ‘Hey Mr Key, can’t you see, we don’t want your bloody TPP’ images, and affix said image to your wheelie bin. But more, and here’s where things get a bit daring, and we have to say we will disavow any knowledge of your actions, if you know where a politician lives and what day their wheelie bin gets rolled out, well, we leave matters to your own initiative.”
http://co-creatingournewearth.blogspot.co.nz/2015/08/tpp-tppa-protest-protest-all-over.html
4 Free Browser Tools for Privacy on the Net – Properly Paranoid
With one of my favourite linux reviews – Nixie Pixel.
Kiwi connection – Mega upload. Well worth the 8 minutes of your time.
Thanks! I’ve just installed the badger one. Changed the text and font size on my browser though, which I’m not happy about.
The standard has 30 trackers on this page. :-/
Hey adam, can you recommend an ebook reader that isn’t evil? I had a look round last night and it seems there are some significant issues with them re privacy and secret information sharing. I’ve been using calibre, which is good for converting books, ok for reading, but really crap for managing the library. I’m on a mac.
I have a kindle and gave up on privacy on it ages ago. Amazon is one of the worst. I was using Lucidor – http://www.lucidor.org/lucidor/ which was a bit chunky, and I have no idea about privacy. But, gave up when brought kindle.
That said, Nixie Pixel has a tendency to go rather in depth into a topic. Ebooks will come up I’m sure – she was the person who switched me on to using linux well.
thanks, I’ll see if I can follow her somewhere. When I get round to upgrading my OS I’ll probably end up using ibooks, hey ho, Apple are already spying on me etc. Not sure about DRM and books I’ve been ahem lent. I downloaded the Adobe ebook reader and it wanted me to register with them and give them access to all the ebooks on my computer. Bugger that.
edit, just tried to install Lucidor and it needs a high level of geek than I possess.
fbreader on android is pretty good.
Find a reader that knows OPDS, turn that on in your Calibre with password etc, then read books from calibre onto to your reader program on whatever device you have it on.
I use fbreader on Android. But a search of whatever app store you frequent looking for OPDS will probably find a few good ones.
OPDS, is that something online? I need a catalogue I can use offline on my laptop.
Have downloaded fbreader. It looks nice.
Once you download a book into a computer or device, it stays there and you can read it locally.
I buy from my home systems and load (and convert) everything into Calibre into standard ePubs. Then it is available to whatever I am dealing with.
I usually grab a set of 10 or 20 books from Calibre when I am at home on to a tablet or phone and in contract with my server via WiFi. They join the hundreds already on the the device. Makes sure I never run out of reading material.
I can also get into the Calibre remotely if I do run out of reading, but there is a bit more security on that process.
But it means that when my more mobile devices self-destruct or get lost, then I still have my books back home.
I’m mostly reading on my laptop, although I can see using the phone more in the future. I’m happy to use Calibre to store them, but it’s not very good at organising i.e. I want something that has a better interface for me browsing my library.
Is failing to provide medical assistance akin to torture?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/71406797/inmate-in-pain-for-weeks-before-terminal-cancer-diagnosis
Heads should roll.
I think Crimes Act 1961s195 is the one:
To show this is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated, a staunch message must be sent.
maybe.
But it won’t, not under this lot.
No maybes about it. A strong deterrent is required.
And as far as this lot go, unfortunately, you’re probably right.
Could help but notice how much Aussie lookin our new bank notes are in design -a big thank you to Crosby Textor from Key as he looked absolutely ecstatic on tv about it.
A new twist on the Muldoon quote about intelligence when so many enlightened brains left in droves during his reign
Raising the level of deception created by this country in how much we owe Australian and Chinese interests there and here
Another spin exercise by Key to keep us thinking its all positive
Can you imagine the discussion in cabinet this am when they deliberated over the final four flags of choice. I bet there was not a dissenting voice – Key said what he wanted and that was that.
And as for the fern defining us.
We are known as Kiwi’s abroad. “Gidday Kiwi …” mmm “Gidday Punga …” Naah
and the currency is called the Kiwi.
Wellington is open for business and keen to attract Chinese investors, that’s the message Celia Wade-Brown will bring to China next week.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/71614150/wellington-business-opportunities-at-new-zealand-china-mayoral-forum
What a selfish, leeching prick is that John McCaw ?…..positively feasting on Richie McKey. It’s bloody dirty really.
Test will be whether Richie takes him aside and says “Hey bro’…..fuck off aye ?…..you’re fucking me up ! Get to London they’ll chuck me outa the bus at The Heath. That’s not my buzz man !”
On the other hand he might choose to say “Mmmmm…..The List aye ? How high ?”
It’s your call Richie but ya not the sorta guy that gets ‘owned’ are ya ? The pay ain’t that good either bro’.
“OK…..Governor-General then…..please, pretty please”.
“Oooh Fuck…..let me see”.
Still ‘owned’ my bro’. Ya could always make a slip with the sword of course…..