“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
“They were eight core people and they’ve walked away. They expected us to help the Greens… we’re not going to work for the Greens, bugger that. It leaked out at the [annual] conference. One of the candidates was told by Andrew Little… people here are really angry.”
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
The latest Roy Morgan has Labour on 23% and Labour+Greens on 37.5% – RM polls vary quite a bit but this is an awful way to finish the year.
What will it take for those remaining in Labour to wake up to the reality that spraying everyone who walks away with vitriol is not going to rebuild the party.
Would 19% be enough of a wake up call?
Or would that be blamed on the pollster, the media, and on all the ex Labour voters too?
Those Nelson members need a lesson in MMP. Nelson is conservative, some didn’t vote for Street when she stood here purely because she is a lesbian.
I’m going to take a leaf out of Peter Goodfellows book… it’s a smear campaign, yes that’s it, that’s the answer to any controversy, it’s a smear campaign by those whom are against us.
No. They want to work for the Labour party and want to be led by their local candidate. That is why National always stands a candidate in Epson. It is Labour who don’t understand MMP, the party vote elects the Government but it is the local committees and volunteers who do the work to make that happen. The Greens have finally woken up to the fact, if they are going to grow their vote to become more than a fringe party they need Electorate seats and the groundswell and legitimacy that brings.
Small parties have two options; behave like NZF and refuse to say which larger party they will support or sign a MOU, which signals to supporters of that party (Labour), that a vote for either is the same thing. I know the MOU finishes on election night, but that is not what voters expect.
The two main parties need to concentrate on their vote and protect the soft support from seeping to a smaller party. That is why National has made some movement on immigration in an attempt to stop the flow to NZF. Labour signing the MOU has helped that flow. Little showed he was a complete novice, when he signed up, and coupled with his own poor ratings this has turned into a disaster. He has lost control of the narrative, the Greens are just leaking what they want and because Little signed the MOU, people assume it is a done deal….perception is everything in politics.
Blaming local people for feeling that they have been abandoned won’t achieve anything, except piss them off even more.
The Greens are a main party now.
Anyone who thinks Green support is going anywhere else but up is delusional.
As are any Labour party members who think they will get back to the Labour/National cosy born to rule. club
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
A view confirmed by Leggett’s subsequent joining of the National Party. Why don’t you stop trying to push shit uphill with a fork?
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
Ex-Labour member in Nelson still doesn’t understand MMP ten years’ later. Not exactly news – there are surprisingly many people who still don’t get it.
Edit: sorry, was meant to be reply to Pete George in comment 1.
‘True Labour’ seems to be a rapidly narrowing thing, and I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
A political expert says Labour gave Nick Leggett little choice but to jump ship.
Massey University Professor Claire Robinson said Andrew Little has been so vocal about Nick Leggett being disloyal to the party.
“What do you do? You can’t hang around waiting to be told or advised when you become loyal again, so actually I think he didn’t have much choice but to stand for another party.”
Someone who can easily jump to the opposition shouldn’t expect to go far within the Labour Party.
The fact that he did (at one stage) coupled with the fact he was being touted as a potential Party leader, highlights the mess and loss of direction the Party is in.
I did as well a couple of days ago when the rumors spread. Came up with nothing.
Who wrote the article? Perhaps they should explain from whom they received that wisdom. It sounds about as self-manufactured as Shane Jones self-promotion of the same future job opportunity.
I remember looking at Shane Jones a number of years ago displaying the self-love of his oratory, while I was lexxing his actual content down to what I determined to be the pea size of his intellect.
… I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
We’ve been here before, Pete. There’s a clue cleverly hidden in the name of the party – perhaps so cleverly hidden that only those who aren’t chronically obtuse can see it.
What’s notable about Leggett’s defection is that someone like him with political ambition saw no future with Labour.
An ambitious right-winger saw no future with Labour? Er, good. Anything else notable about it?
PG your still welded to FPP.
Labour is the largest opposition party.
The Greens and Winston first are the the left and right branches Labour middle.
Labour is being cleansed of Neo liberals like yourself.
Won’t that just mean people who support more business friendly policies but also wish to ensure a good level of social spending (e.g. Nick Leggett) are just going to go to National meaning National is more likely to hit 50% than they are now?
The Independent wrote that article. which roughly consigns Labour to the rubbish bin of history, when the Conservatives were on 44% and Labour on 28%.
I wonder what they would describe the New Zealand situation of 49.5% to 23% as?
Clearly New Zealand Labour are in far worse shape.
Incidentally I wonder if Trevor Mallard is trying to reverse his plan to retire gracefully to a cushy seat via the list? With the way the polls are going he will most ungracefully be retired completely. There won’t be any list seats available unless Labour lose a lot of their electorate seats.
I wonder what they would describe the New Zealand situation of 49.5% to 23% as?
I have no idea why you’d compare an apple with an orange. Or a first past the post electorate system (as the UK has) with a MMP system (as we have here).
Your senility or stupidity would seem to be the only options. Perhaps you could comment on that debate.
I’ll be charitable and suggest that alwyn is just being temporarily stupid. Of course that raises the debate about what the temporary effect is caused by?
Well you just stick to your beliefs.
MMP systems will see parties with low popularity gain more seats than they would under a FPP system.
It doesn’t affect the fact that if your popularity is such that you are sinking down to risible levels you aren’t going to be in Government.
If this poll is correct it says that a party that was the most popular one 10 (well 11 actually) years ago is now heading down to be on level pegging with the Green Party.
When Shearer got the push Labour were on about 34% weren’t they?
Why did you dump him for the useless Cunliffe and the even worse Little? No wonder the support is down to 23% and sinking.
MMP favours having a range of parties. They have a strong chance of getting into government because every government is a coalition.
Only a political relic would insist in viewing everything as if it was a head to head contest between two parties as if this was still 1975.
A political party has to represent it’s members and it’s long term supporters. Shearer certainly didn’t do the first and it is unlikely he was doing the second. Instead he was trying to drag the Labour party in directions that had been repeatably refuted in previous decades. So he got the same treatment that we gave Douglas and Moore.
It might be the vision of you and your like minded fair weather friends like Quinn, Leggett, and Pagani. So start your own blog or party rather than being parasites.
2 It has Labour at 23% which would see them get just 28 MPs in a House of 120. As they hold 27 electorates it means on that poll they would get just one List MP – their leader Andrew Little. If they drop just 1% more, then Little loses his seat. Alternatively if they pick up one more electorate seat then again Little loses his seat.
3 Other List MPs such as Jacinda Ardern and David Parker are toast on this result.
4 It is always useful to compare polls to the same time period in the previous election cycle. So how are National and Labour placed in November 2013 and November 2016?
• November 2013 – National 44.5% and Labour 34.0% for a 10.5% lead
• November 2016 – National 49.5% and Labour 23.0% for a 26.5% lead
5 A huge difference. This is the second lowest poll result ever for Labour in the history of the Roy Morgan poll.
paragon
ˈparəɡ(ə)n/
noun
a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality.
“it would have taken a paragon of virtue not to feel viciously jealous”
a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence.
“After a decade in the wilderness, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers.
Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget, people close to Cohn and the transition said. Cohn, a long-time commodities trader, is friendly with Trump’s powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner.”
For all the people who frequent this blog that supported Trump over Clinton in the US elections, I hope you see how absurd that is now. Goldman Sachs is getting into every major corner of the Trump Administration, a billionaire who wants to privatise public education is heading the Education Department, and a range of Republicans who are anything but populist/anti-establishment are taking a number of other Cabinet spots. Meanwhile, the GOP Congress is getting ready to rip up Medicare and Medicaid, along with Obamacare. Not to mention his national security appointments!
There are some on here who especially made egregious claims about how Trump would govern for the working class, how he’d bust the establishment, how he’d protect the welfare state, etc…it’s just a farce. If Hillary Clinton had won, we’d be arguing whether or not her carbon emissions reduction plan is aggressive enough, not over Trump possibly abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency. But for some reason people think that someone being ‘outside the establishment’, despite being a literal cartoon billionaire, is better than a woman with decades of experience who would likely just continue Obama’s policies roughly.
What were they thinking when they touted Leggett as a future Leader?
Maybe that they wanted someone electable? articulate? pleasant? A leader?
Maybe to lead a Party that had a policy platform that was left but not so far left to make it unattractive to all but 23% of NZ?
A “real estate agent, specialising in commercial and industrial sales”, has legged it back to his natural home on the right. People are surprised by this?
And their hard left stance has seen them rise to 23% .
Sorry drop to 23%.
The hard left is a much diminished and diminishing base as the internet has allowed people to better access information and compare the living standards of socialist utopias with they real world.
The infiltration by the right has resulted in Labour Party policy falling short. Which in turn has led to a fall in their support, hence increasing their need to work with the Greens.
To Pete George and others: If a National party MP was forced out of the party because they supported the public sector provision of health and education, opposed the sale of state owned assets, supported a high(er) minimum wage, a welfare state, social housing, and intervention in the power market to bring down prices, what would your opinion be? The fact is that if you wish to be part of a political party, you need to sign up to its values. And Labour’s values so happen to be public services, worker protections and state housing. If workers having 5 days of sick leave, cheap power bills and clean air to breathe is so repugnant to Legett then he should join National, whose sole purpose is to dismantle worker’s rights and replace them with contract law, as well as have us choke on LA style smog and impose US style health care.
And you are blind to the modern realities of MMP politics.
MMP was supposed to help the left as apparently the left are progressive and modern and will make the most of it. It’s just kind of came along and fucked the left up, as if you don’t know how to play the game and win votes?
Blaming everyone but yourself is not the way to learn in life. It just ostracizes you further. But hey, what would anyone but those on the “pure” left know right? it’s not like we are generally more successful at everything. Except caring, not actually doing something about caring, just caring and being loud enough about that everyone knows, you care. Well done on that.
Millsy you repeatedly have this rant regarding the NZ government wanting to replace our current health system with one akin to that in the US – yet fail to produce a shred of evidence to support such a position.
For the record both Labour and National strongly support PHARMAC which provides heavily (most often totally) subsidised pharmaceuticals. Governmental spend on health has increased year on year under the current National and previous Labour government and is projected to keep on doing so.
I agree that; “information”, needs to be informative. But when you are paying your budgeted Public Relations money to PR consultants every month, that just doesn’t seem to happen.
it was ”quite frankly, farcical” that the company blamed problems it faced on an ageing network, rather than ”lack of maintenance, lack of planning and the excessive profits creamed from the network for the last 26 years”…
Staff called on the Etu union to organise a meeting for union and non-union members to discuss the matter, and the resolution in the letter that was developed for the meeting.
The letter said the employees, who installed and maintained lines, cables and equipment in the network ”believe that much of the network is in a run-down state”.
That meant compromised safety for both workers and the public…suggested radio advertisements and full-page newspaper notices ”explaining the dangers and showing what gear and areas to avoid around poles etc”.
Information released to the media needed to be accurate and factual, ”something which has been sadly lacking so far”.
“may I ask, why do you think National regard, “WFF, interest free loans ect etc…” as “dead rats”?”
– I think National regard them as dead rats because its basically middle class welfare but they can’t get rid of it without suffering major voter backlash from the middle class voters
Doesn’t sound as though those things are part of National’s kaupapa, more that they are foreign objects that need to be swallowed in order to stay alive. Ne ra?
– Yes they are, I completely agree with this statement
However something else to note is that National, especially under john Key, is somewhat of a broad church, you have fundamentalists (probably) and atheists, blue Greens and dig it all ups, Nick Leggatt wants to bring in the living wage yet he’s standing for National
So I think that National has moved towards the centre and as Wayne put it yesterday its not likely the voters of NZ would vote for a hard right/far right party especially under MMP
There’s one huge difference between National and labour.
National runs it self like a business, Labour still runs it’self like a political party.
When you run your political party like a businesses you’re looking at what your “customers” want and adapting your “products” to suit and make them more attractive to existing and potential customers.
Part of being a successful business is to increase market share, for National that means appealing to both center left and center right, so a lot of the stuff Clark put in place stays because it has voter appeal and by doing so it locks in those center left voters.
Political Ideology has no place in National any more, it’s stifling and does more harm than good.
“No customers, no business.” – true, if you buy in to the business model. There are other models but, as you are perhaps saying, they have to compete with the consumption model which is a very hungry one. People, I contend, don’t have to be consumers. There are other models for us to chose from, however, we are in the thrall of business at this point in our history. More fool us, I say.
Run like a business all right.
Where the Managers make the short term profits look good so they can run off with the cream.
While a few years later the business fails because all the income earning assets have been sold and the staff have had enough.
BM’s pointing to how National treats the gaining and retaining of the Government benches as a business; the business of winning elections. His point is well made, I think. National’s other business, as described by KJT, has been well picked over here on TS but is a side-line to the business of winning votes.
Businesses that exploit for profit and diminish the trust with their customers have a natural end game. Be prepared for tanking sales. Just look at the Clintons. The Nats have gone down this path thus their fate is determined.
I agree, to a certain extant, yet if it were completely true the partial sell down of the power companies wouldn’t have happened nor would the GST increase gone ahead and NZ would be taking in more refugees
But certainly the message is much better presented by National
No, that shows an ideological party in action. A party that will go against the wishes of the people to implement the policy that they want that will enrich a few while making everyone else worse off.
An election was fought with asset sales as a major issue. The party proposing to sell the assets won the election. How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people. Not voting is a tacit acceptance of the policies of the party that eventually wins, whether you like them or not.
How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people.
Because polling and a referendum showed 70% of people against the sales.
I can only assume that some people voted for National despite their policy of selling state assets in the belief that they’d then listen to the public and not sell them. Just as they did with mining protected areas on Great Barrier.
Not voting is a tacit acceptance of the policies of the party that eventually wins, whether you like them or not.
It could be viewed that way. It can also be viewed as a vote of no confidence. The thing is, we don’t know.
Which is why I say we need to view voting as a duty not a right and make it compulsory.
And the 70% against asset sales is why I support policies being set by referenda and not by parliament. Why we should be getting rid of ‘government’ altogether. Elected dictatorship does not bring about the wishes of the people.
The Nats went into the election banging a drum and telling everyone they were selling the power companies and they romped home in the election, they SLAUGHTERED Labour who campaigned to keep the power companies.
People voted Nat because they wanted the power companies sold.
Just because a party wins the election doesn’t mean that they then, ipso facto, carry out the wishes of the people.
It was obvious from before the election happened through polling that people didn’t want to sell our state assets. Referendum after the election showed that to still be true.
National still sold those assets – against the will of the people.
And, no, they didn’t slaughter Labour – without the overhang seats of UF and Act they would not have been able to sell those assets.
We don’t have a democracy – we have an elected dictatorship. If we had an actual democracy the announcement of seeking a referendum would have stopped the sale until afterwards and the actual referendum would have stopped the sale altogether – because the people of NZ didn’t want to sell them.
yes National slaughtered Labour, wiped the floor with them and pissed all over them.
Nats got twice the vote of Labour.
Labour would have needed the support of four other parties to beat National.
The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets and were happy to do so because the alternative was so appalling.
Labour would have needed the support of four other parties to beat National.
And National needed three.
The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets and were happy to do so because the alternative was so appalling.
Nope. People voted for National and then tried to stop them selling the assets. That’s what the referendum was for – National continued with their failed ideology.
It is one thing to run a political party like a business (and in that I think your analysis re National is correct), however there are obvious problems with running a country as a business.
National runs it self like a business, Labour still runs it’self like a political party.
Labour runs itself like a government.
National (as you say) runs itself like a business. It considers that a long-range plan is no more than 4-5 years.
That is its problem. Kids take 20 years to raise. Victims of childhood abuse cost the country (one way or another) for 50+ years after the abuse stops. Moderately severe earthquakes (like Christchurch or Kaikoura) happen every 20-30 years on average. Severe ones happen about every 80 years on average. Defense forces and hospital systems take decades to get running properly. etc.
National may be fit to be a business with their short-term thinking. But they aren’t capable of being a government.
Who gives a flying fuck about how good their marketing is. BM are you really that shallow?
That folks is the ideology underpinning of this national government right there on display by BM. First it denies it’s ideological, then it proceeds like a Marxist on acid to steam roll anything which disagrees with it. Secondly it argues it’s just common sense, when it is anything but. Third, a complete lack of understanding of what ideology is to muddy the waters. And finally the ‘big lie’ if the lie is big most people believe it, if it small almost no one believes it…
Just for the record BM, the last person who said there were no place for ideology in a political party was a vain, short, sex addicted, snake tongue, and Italian…
Well, BM, either you’re extremely clever or you really believe your idea of the “business model”, if it is your idea. Is it?
National operates like a corporate, a global corporate for that matter, not a national one.
Here’s the thing that I don’t buy [no pun]: we, the people, the voters, are National’s “customers”.
There’s a famous quote – it is just a quote:
If you’re not paying for it; you are the product
Hang on, you say, we are paying, we are paying taxes!
Sure, we do, but we do regardless of who’s in government and we would get (most of) the services regardless. I could expand on this, and probably should, but it’s getting late and I want to get to my main point(s).
But but but, you say, we ‘pay’ with our votes, not in hard(-earned) dollars.
Indeed, and now you’re getting closer to the truth of the National Party.
National’s “business” is staying in power and maintaining status quo.
By making us believe we’re getting something in return National remains in power. However, are we the real beneficiaries of this ‘transaction’ or is there more to it?
To answer this question you’d need to follow the money, my dear fellow New Zealand taxpayer and law-abiding consumer.
Yes, we are customers and consumers in the literal sense, but not National’s, and, at a different level, we are the product or commodity that National uses to achieve its ‘target’.
Complete and utter nonsense, you say. Fair enough, please go to the National Party website and read it for yourself:
Less debt, more jobs, strong stable government
The National Party seeks a safe, prosperous, and successful New Zealand that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams.
You see, National ‘sells’ us dreams! It is pure make-belief, trickery magic, and mass hypnosis packed into one smooth political message. And it does the trick very well!
Meanwhile some people are laughing all the way to the bank, literally, and laughing at us, the poor suckers, who are buying this dream shit and day-in-day-out work at the coal-face to pay the bills and for our children’s education so that they can “reach their personal goals and dreams” because that’s our dream, isn’t it?
Now, before you shake your head in disbelief that I can be so stupid I’ll give you one more reason to do some head banging: the Labour Party is doing essentially the same …
The “we are all customers” concept is an interesting one and the analogy invites comment about how customer decisions are made; why buy this product and not that product, why buy at all, etc. The role of advertising is key (apologies there) and purchasers of products are famously plastic when it comes to their decisions. As well, there’s the deeper consume-like-a-consumer issue for those who think we are consuming our world and that the consumption model is our undoing on a global scale.
Chomsky on America’s Ugly History:
FDR Was Fascist-Friendly Before WWII AlterNet, Nov. 29, 2016
Before the Second World War, what view did the United States government have of fascism in Germany? What was the political and military relationship between Berlin and Washington?
Noam Chomsky: Well, it was a mixed story. Roosevelt himself had a mixed attitude. For example, he was pretty supportive of Mussolini’s fascism, in fact described Mussolini as “that admirable Italian gentleman.” He later concluded that Mussolini had been misled by his association with Hitler and had been led kind of down the wrong path. But the American business community, the power systems in the United States were highly supportive of Mussolini.
In fact, even parts of the labor bureaucracy were. Fortune Magazine for example, the major business journal I think in 1932, had an issue with the headline, I’m quoting it: “The wops are unwopping themselves.” The “wop” is a kind of a derogatory term for Italians and the “wops are finally unwopping themselves,” under Mussolini they’re becoming part of the civilized world. There was criticism of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, a lot of criticism. But basically pretty supportive attitude toward Mussolini’s fascism. When Germany, when Hitler took over, the attitude was more mixed.
There was a concern for a potential threat but nevertheless the general approach of the U.S., the British even more so, was fairly supportive. So for example in 1937, the State Department described Hitler as a kind of a moderate, fending off the dangerous forces of the right (and left). The State Department described Hitler as a moderate who was holding off the forces, the dangerous forces of the left, meaning the Bolsheviks, the labor movement and so on, and of the right, namely the extremist Nazism. Hitler was kind of in the middle and therefore we should kind of support him. This is a pretty familiar stance, incidentally like in many other cases.
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
This has nothing to do with “left” and “right”—not that you even understand what you mean when you fling those labels about. You really do not have a clue.
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
Well, yes. We can take that as read because that’s what he always talks about. I guess we can count our blessings that their shamelessness, depravity and boundless cynicism haven’t infected the political establishments of other countries… oh, wait…
Well, apart from his theory of transformational syntax being a big part of my undergraduate major in Linguistics back in the 80s, the various books of his I’ve read and the time I went to see him speak, you’re right, I know fuck-all about him. Those things don’t really constitute getting to know a person. I suspect you imagine you know plenty about him, on the other hand, with the emphasis being on the word “imagine.”
It’s a long read, but worth it to get a picture of what the super-rich do when just lowering taxes at home isn’t enough for them. Screwing (soon to be ex-) partners seems to be just an added benefit.
I fold. If I didn’t, this would escalate to the End of Days and I don’t want to be responsible for that. In a way, I’ve averted global catastrophy here today. I need no thanks, it’s just what I do.
*shuffles modestly
Oh my goodness! ANOTHER Public Servant doing their job.
Golly gosh, this could become a trend….an actual thing…
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier fronts up to the Education Select Committee and tells them…this legislation has the potential to allow schools to exclude children with disabilities (especially autism) from schools….by forcing them into one of the brandspanking new On Line Schools.
and oooh look! Its on Natrad….more publicly paid people doing their job!
I am starting to feel a tiny little bit of optimism for the future. These are high profile government appointees speaking out on some of the most important issue facing New Zealand’s most vulnerable.
lol….no Im saying that if polls are a true (within MoE) representation of voter intention then it would be reasonable to expect a non response that equates with real life participation……this poll states a non selection rate of 6.5% (unchanged) whereas the last election had a non selection rate of 23%…..obviously their sample is not representative.
Interesting that the shipping interests have taken the opportunity of the debacle of essential roads rendered impassable also train transport, to point out the bleeding obvious that sea transport is the new black. It may be the time to breach the wall of determined ignorance that the National government puts up to important faults in their choice of governance of the country which includes emphasis on roads which in a stretched out country, is very expensive and inefficient. Also they made the point about how sea transport would reduce our carbon footprint.
The New Zealand Shipping Federation says the government needs to take the resilience of ports seriously as the Kaikoura earthquake has shown the vulnerability of roading – and consider what their role is when auditing them. Annabel Young is the Executive Director of the NZ Shipping Federation. Canterbury University Professor of Geological Sciences Tim Davies, says improving and increasing the transport network through coastal shipping is essential. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201826002
Well I will take the opportunity to wish you (early) a Merry Christmas and good relaxing times with Lyn and some nice cool beers and time to do what you fancy for once.
🙂 relaxing. I wish.
Between now and the 4th on Jan when I head back to work to carry on the current project, I will be fitting in
1. One more day on the current project
2. Two weeks work in Italy.
3. 4 days work on the current project (and jetlag).
4. Family xmas in Auckland
5. Family Birthday in ChCh
6. Family New Years in Auckland.
7. Maybe a couple of days of downtime….
But I will have sometime in the evenings after I get to Italy…
And I suspect a good holiday when it starts cooling down again in March/April
Well all I can say is – that it doesn’t sound boring. And two weeks work in Italy sounds exotic but I fear that it might be like the period my son spent in Paris. In a narrow concrete room lined with computers and people facing the walls, opening out onto a grey concrete corridor – or that’s the picture in my mind. Not an ooh la la in sight. So hope you have time for a chianti – ciao and kia kaha.
“Because they [scientists] think they are so smarty-pants, they think they can say whatever they like and we should just take it.”
“The more educated you are in a field, the narrower your thinking becomes. I’m not hot on these academics…sitting on comfy chairs up on their hill. I’ve studied this subject for over 20 years, I know a little bit more than they do.”
. It seems that when there is insecurity within the populace people flock to Conservative Politicans. Looking tor the blanket. And the Rhetoric.
Trump in USA. Cameron in the UK. Both deep Conservatives
The wheel spins and it turns out that the Conservatives know only one thing – and that is how to look after their own income and glamour. They thank the voters who voted them into power by putting Austerity packages on the PAYE middle class and on the very poor.
While the Politicians blatantly fiddle with their Tax Avoidance schemes.
Conservatives always have the best rhetoric – full of empty promise. They also have ostentatious wealth. Glamour Glamour Glamour.
So in time, but always too late, the Voters disown the Conservative hoax and walk to the center left, because they know that Labour / Greens / and like minded, care for the Community.
All I can say is :
. With all the support that all the Main Stream Media gives to National Party hacks; with all the money Bill English borrows; with all the efforts of the wandering trolls who suck up to John Key …
With all that, why is New Zealand in a death spiral? Why will the present young generation from cradle to grave receive nothing but excessive burden from Mr Key?
Because Mr Key does exactly what the greed of Corporations and Media want. He is an actor; a hoax; a shallow wealthy being building up Casinos. As does Trump.
He and his mates simply do not care. They care not about our polluted water; not about our work or pay; not about our Education; not about our Health provision; not about our lack of infrastructure; not about our future.
New Zealand Conservatives have a lot to think over.
The normally excellent Lynn Freeman failed to do her job this morning.
RNZ National, Thursday 1 December 2016, 11:10 a.m.
I’m sure that many regular listeners will agree with me that Lynn Freeman is superior to the regular Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan. She’s more thoughtful, better and more widely read, and is prepared to challenge and refute the dodgy statements of people like Matthew Hooton. [1] But she’s not perfect: this morning she allowed “new technology expert” Andy Linton to repeat a bizarre and unfounded trope from a thoroughly discredited and unsuccessful election campaign. [2]
Disappointed, I sent her the following email…..
Andy Linton’s dismissal of Julian Assange
Dear Lynn,
I was disturbed to hear your technology correspondent Andy Linton recycling the Clinton campaign’s cynical propaganda against the dissident journalist Julian Assange. To compound his credulity, Andy Linton snickered when he suggested that “Assange’s agenda is to get out of the Ecuadorian embassy.”
I never fail to be appalled when I hear safe and complacent people deriving humour from the suffering of those who dare to tell the truth. Surely Andy Linton should be supporting Julian Assange, not laughing at his plight.
. I think that very few people have confidence in Polls nowadays. Because they rely on an ever reducing number of people who have landlines.
Also, the wide variety of polling results (consider USA recently) is disconcerting. Pollsters did not even correctly select who is the President to be.
If the recent CB or RM polls were favorable to Labour, it would have been headline news here. A little bit of discussion (denial) on the CB, but the disastrous – yes, 23% is a disaster- RM poll has passed through with merely a mention.
Some people are talking about it, but they seem to think the solution is for Labour to follow Corbynite UK Labour and lurch leftwards.
But if the UK polls are anything to go by, Corbyn is leading his party to a rout at the next General Election.
Yeah, yeah, I know his name is Andrew, but didn’t the Mayor of Kaikoura refer to him as David? It’s a mark of how poorly Little projects himself. You could argue that personalities shouldn’t matter, but the fact is that they do.
And you can choose to ignore Roy Morgan if you want, but the other polls don’t make things look much better for Labour.
Seems both the Colmar and the Roy Morgan under estimate the National vote – So I do no get where you are saying Morgans being wide of the mark – unless you think National is higher.
BTW OT – All the full stops?? – is your keyboard broken?
That Farrar chooses to test the efficacy of polls by comparing to the polls just before an election to the election result, and then somehow implying that they were just as effective a year earlier long before many people voting would have made up their mind – well that tells me:-
Either David Farrar is statistically a moron who doesn’t understand the maths of sample sizes and confidence
Or David Farrar is PR mouthpiece saying whatever is advantageous for his business
Or both.
That you choose to present this as something worth discussing, just makes you look ignorant and/or stupid.
. Why do you support so firmly National’s scandalous treatment of the ordinary person within New Zealand.
You know perfectly well that wages are too low for even doctors to purchase a house. And rents are too high for many people to afford anything but a hovel. Or even a shed.
You ram your wicked philosophy into the ordinary Kiwi by giving the Landords huge subsidies – taken from the Paye Tax Payers, minimum Wage Earners; Pensioners and Beneficiaries – while you use tax avoidance to live the life of Reilly.
The landlords of course get all manner of tax exemptions on top of their excessive exploitation.
You are great people MLPC. You truly are. I wonder why you disgust me to the core..
Your problem, OT, is that you obviously think the ordinary person is stupid, and that you know better than they do what is good for them.
You can’t understand why Labour is deeply unpopular, can you?
I can tell you. It is because the party has completely lost a connection with the ordinary person. It has a completely useless leadership. And it is so disparate that it has climbed into bed with another party whose policies are anathema to the interests of the ordinary working person.
I don’t care if I disgust you to the core. I care more about the ordinary working person than you do.
Joe Biggs is an Infowars reporter. This Pizzagate thing first sounded bizzare. Over the period of the last few weeks the information coming out is only reinforcing the idea that there is something very, very sinister to look into. At this point I’m actually trying to prove my normalicy bias correct, rather than the #Pizzagate. So far my attempts keep failing : (
Yesterday SGT Report had a video covering the disproportionate amount of childrening missing in Virginia. Now this:
Thankyou for your diagnosis of what you call my problem. Your certainty taints and swamps any discussion.
You don’t discuss. You just proclaim. – as if you were Almighty. Please turn your megaphone down. Right down to an angry endless Shout.
Your support for the ordinary man comes as a bit of a surprise mlpc. But I accept that you do everything better than me – and better than anyone anywhere.
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 29 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 28 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
“They were eight core people and they’ve walked away. They expected us to help the Greens… we’re not going to work for the Greens, bugger that. It leaked out at the [annual] conference. One of the candidates was told by Andrew Little… people here are really angry.”
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
The latest Roy Morgan has Labour on 23% and Labour+Greens on 37.5% – RM polls vary quite a bit but this is an awful way to finish the year.
What will it take for those remaining in Labour to wake up to the reality that spraying everyone who walks away with vitriol is not going to rebuild the party.
Would 19% be enough of a wake up call?
Or would that be blamed on the pollster, the media, and on all the ex Labour voters too?
Those members in Nelson could always be encouraged to work for, y’know, the party vote.
Why do they think they’d be working for the greens?
Those Nelson members need a lesson in MMP. Nelson is conservative, some didn’t vote for Street when she stood here purely because she is a lesbian.
I’m going to take a leaf out of Peter Goodfellows book… it’s a smear campaign, yes that’s it, that’s the answer to any controversy, it’s a smear campaign by those whom are against us.
No. They want to work for the Labour party and want to be led by their local candidate. That is why National always stands a candidate in Epson. It is Labour who don’t understand MMP, the party vote elects the Government but it is the local committees and volunteers who do the work to make that happen. The Greens have finally woken up to the fact, if they are going to grow their vote to become more than a fringe party they need Electorate seats and the groundswell and legitimacy that brings.
Small parties have two options; behave like NZF and refuse to say which larger party they will support or sign a MOU, which signals to supporters of that party (Labour), that a vote for either is the same thing. I know the MOU finishes on election night, but that is not what voters expect.
The two main parties need to concentrate on their vote and protect the soft support from seeping to a smaller party. That is why National has made some movement on immigration in an attempt to stop the flow to NZF. Labour signing the MOU has helped that flow. Little showed he was a complete novice, when he signed up, and coupled with his own poor ratings this has turned into a disaster. He has lost control of the narrative, the Greens are just leaking what they want and because Little signed the MOU, people assume it is a done deal….perception is everything in politics.
Blaming local people for feeling that they have been abandoned won’t achieve anything, except piss them off even more.
The Greens are a main party now.
Anyone who thinks Green support is going anywhere else but up is delusional.
As are any Labour party members who think they will get back to the Labour/National cosy born to rule. club
The Greens are not a main party. They cannot move their vote from the fringe.
They may become one, tho’, if Labour stick to their current terrible “strategy”
Good to have a link to those quotes please
Nick Leggett ‘wasn’t true Labour’ – Andrew Little
– http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/nick-leggett-wasnt-true-labour—andrew-little-2016112615
‘Bugger that!’ – Labour members leave party over proposed deal with Green Party in Nelson
– https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/bugger-labour-members-leave-party-over-proposed-deal-green-in-nelson
And now how about a quote of a Labour member or MP “spraying vitriol”.
It also begs the question: Did they move away from Labour, or has Labour moved away from them. I suspect the reality is that it may be a bit of both.
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour”
– Andrew Little
A view confirmed by Leggett’s subsequent joining of the National Party. Why don’t you stop trying to push shit uphill with a fork?
– Ex Labour member in Nelson who doesn’t like the deal Turei went public on and Little said wasn’t done on Tuesday.
Ex-Labour member in Nelson still doesn’t understand MMP ten years’ later. Not exactly news – there are surprisingly many people who still don’t get it.
Edit: sorry, was meant to be reply to Pete George in comment 1.
‘True Labour’ seems to be a rapidly narrowing thing, and I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
What’s notable about Leggett’s defection is that someone like him with political ambition saw no future with Labour.
Labour is not exactly over-endowed with new talent. Nor with old members.
I don’t think one dominant party is good for New Zealand, but that seems to be where we’re headed.
He could have got a job.
Someone who can easily jump to the opposition shouldn’t expect to go far within the Labour Party.
The fact that he did (at one stage) coupled with the fact he was being touted as a potential Party leader, highlights the mess and loss of direction the Party is in.
Leggett never appeared on my horizon as a potential leader.
I’d really like to know where this ‘touting’ came from? Leggett, Quin, and Pagani?
I did a bit of looking – I couldnt find anything.
I did as well a couple of days ago when the rumors spread. Came up with nothing.
Who wrote the article? Perhaps they should explain from whom they received that wisdom. It sounds about as self-manufactured as Shane Jones self-promotion of the same future job opportunity.
I remember looking at Shane Jones a number of years ago displaying the self-love of his oratory, while I was lexxing his actual content down to what I determined to be the pea size of his intellect.
… I haven’t seen any clear definition of what it even is.
We’ve been here before, Pete. There’s a clue cleverly hidden in the name of the party – perhaps so cleverly hidden that only those who aren’t chronically obtuse can see it.
What’s notable about Leggett’s defection is that someone like him with political ambition saw no future with Labour.
An ambitious right-winger saw no future with Labour? Er, good. Anything else notable about it?
“Professor Claire Robinson”
Yeah right. The only thing noticeable about her is that she really doesn’t like anyone left of a David Shearer or greener than John Key.
You really do know how to destroy your own argument.
PG your still welded to FPP.
Labour is the largest opposition party.
The Greens and Winston first are the the left and right branches Labour middle.
Labour is being cleansed of Neo liberals like yourself.
Won’t that just mean people who support more business friendly policies but also wish to ensure a good level of social spending (e.g. Nick Leggett) are just going to go to National meaning National is more likely to hit 50% than they are now?
And in the meantime the U.K. Labour Hard Left experiment has seen Labour drop to near record low levels of support.
Still a lot of enthusiasm here for NZ Labour going down the same route?
The NZ Labour Party centrist stance has seen their support drastically fall as well.
The current Labour stance is somewhere Left of HC’s govt. – Trade Union Leader etc., and cannot get within a very long barge poll of 2005 support.
So if Harder Left don’t work, and Center Left also ain’t doing it, that leaves shifting towards further Right?
“The current Labour stance is somewhere Left of HC’s govt”
I disagree. Despite Little coming from the Union, the Party’s position is still centrist. There has been no commitment to overturn past Labour policy.
Therefore, we’ve yet to see Labour move back to a left wing stance.
Get with the programme man – “Labour under Andrew Little has rejected neo-liberalism.”
https://thestandard.org.nz/labours-legacy-building-a-better-new-zealand/#comment-1267498
The problem being is that Labour haven’t gone Left. In fact, they’re still centre-right and they’re bleeding support because of it.
And I haven’t really seen anything from UK Labour that indicates that they’ve gone hard left from their Blairite position either.
The Independent wrote that article. which roughly consigns Labour to the rubbish bin of history, when the Conservatives were on 44% and Labour on 28%.
I wonder what they would describe the New Zealand situation of 49.5% to 23% as?
Clearly New Zealand Labour are in far worse shape.
Incidentally I wonder if Trevor Mallard is trying to reverse his plan to retire gracefully to a cushy seat via the list? With the way the polls are going he will most ungracefully be retired completely. There won’t be any list seats available unless Labour lose a lot of their electorate seats.
I have no idea why you’d compare an apple with an orange. Or a first past the post electorate system (as the UK has) with a MMP system (as we have here).
Your senility or stupidity would seem to be the only options. Perhaps you could comment on that debate.
I’ll be charitable and suggest that alwyn is just being temporarily stupid. Of course that raises the debate about what the temporary effect is caused by?
Well you just stick to your beliefs.
MMP systems will see parties with low popularity gain more seats than they would under a FPP system.
It doesn’t affect the fact that if your popularity is such that you are sinking down to risible levels you aren’t going to be in Government.
If this poll is correct it says that a party that was the most popular one 10 (well 11 actually) years ago is now heading down to be on level pegging with the Green Party.
When Shearer got the push Labour were on about 34% weren’t they?
Why did you dump him for the useless Cunliffe and the even worse Little? No wonder the support is down to 23% and sinking.
MMP favours having a range of parties. They have a strong chance of getting into government because every government is a coalition.
Only a political relic would insist in viewing everything as if it was a head to head contest between two parties as if this was still 1975.
A political party has to represent it’s members and it’s long term supporters. Shearer certainly didn’t do the first and it is unlikely he was doing the second. Instead he was trying to drag the Labour party in directions that had been repeatably refuted in previous decades. So he got the same treatment that we gave Douglas and Moore.
It might be the vision of you and your like minded fair weather friends like Quinn, Leggett, and Pagani. So start your own blog or party rather than being parasites.
2 It has Labour at 23% which would see them get just 28 MPs in a House of 120. As they hold 27 electorates it means on that poll they would get just one List MP – their leader Andrew Little. If they drop just 1% more, then Little loses his seat. Alternatively if they pick up one more electorate seat then again Little loses his seat.
3 Other List MPs such as Jacinda Ardern and David Parker are toast on this result.
4 It is always useful to compare polls to the same time period in the previous election cycle. So how are National and Labour placed in November 2013 and November 2016?
• November 2013 – National 44.5% and Labour 34.0% for a 10.5% lead
• November 2016 – National 49.5% and Labour 23.0% for a 26.5% lead
5 A huge difference. This is the second lowest poll result ever for Labour in the history of the Roy Morgan poll.
just link it instead of stealing it?
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/12/little_on_brink_of_losing_his_own_seat.html
Plagiarism is fine in a RWNJ’s world since they are all part of a Borg collective. What one says, they all say.
Selling other peoples work was the forte of that paragon of the hard Left, Kim Dot Con. No Righty him.
“paragon of the hard Left,”
excuse me?
paragon
ˈparəɡ(ə)n/
noun
a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality.
“it would have taken a paragon of virtue not to feel viciously jealous”
a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence.
“a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence.”
so yeah – your talking rubbish
many liked KDC due to the events of the time, but at the same time, few trusted the guy further than they could throw him.
so no paragon of the hard left like you tried to claim
Please try not to pollute this site with propaganda from Kiwiblog, it brings the tone of debate down to a level that some find offensive
Thanks for the note from the censor, Comrade.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/goldman-sachs-power-white-house-231998?cmpid=sf
“After a decade in the wilderness, Wall Street’s most powerful firm, Goldman Sachs, is dominating the early days of the incoming Trump administration. The newly picked Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, spent 17 years at Goldman. Trump’s top incoming White House adviser, Steve Bannon, spent his early career at the bank. So did Anthony Scaramucci, one of Trump’s top transition advisers.
Goldman’s president, Gary Cohn, spent an hour schmoozing with President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday and could be up for an administration job, possibly as director of the Office of Management and Budget, people close to Cohn and the transition said. Cohn, a long-time commodities trader, is friendly with Trump’s powerful son-in-law, Jared Kushner.”
For all the people who frequent this blog that supported Trump over Clinton in the US elections, I hope you see how absurd that is now. Goldman Sachs is getting into every major corner of the Trump Administration, a billionaire who wants to privatise public education is heading the Education Department, and a range of Republicans who are anything but populist/anti-establishment are taking a number of other Cabinet spots. Meanwhile, the GOP Congress is getting ready to rip up Medicare and Medicaid, along with Obamacare. Not to mention his national security appointments!
There are some on here who especially made egregious claims about how Trump would govern for the working class, how he’d bust the establishment, how he’d protect the welfare state, etc…it’s just a farce. If Hillary Clinton had won, we’d be arguing whether or not her carbon emissions reduction plan is aggressive enough, not over Trump possibly abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency. But for some reason people think that someone being ‘outside the establishment’, despite being a literal cartoon billionaire, is better than a woman with decades of experience who would likely just continue Obama’s policies roughly.
All those voters angry about a speech at Goldman Sachs sure showed America! .
“I said at the time when Nick stood for the Wellington mayoralty that he wasn’t true Labour” – Andrew Little.
And to think, Leggett had previously been touted as a potential future Labour Party leader.
What were they thinking?
Douglas, Jones, Leggett, etc… Labour have allowed themselves to be infiltrated by the right.
What were they thinking when they touted Leggett as a future Leader?
Maybe that they wanted someone electable? articulate? pleasant? A leader?
Maybe to lead a Party that had a policy platform that was left but not so far left to make it unattractive to all but 23% of NZ?
Liggett was hard right, and wanted to privatise everything.
A “real estate agent, specialising in commercial and industrial sales”, has legged it back to his natural home on the right. People are surprised by this?
Hard Right millsy?
Your head is so far up your arse you must see daylight.
“Maybe to lead a Party that had a policy platform that was left but not so far left to make it unattractive to all but 23% of NZ?”
Labour haven’t been left since 1984.
Therefore, their National lite position has contributed to their downfall.
And their hard left stance has seen them rise to 23% .
Sorry drop to 23%.
The hard left is a much diminished and diminishing base as the internet has allowed people to better access information and compare the living standards of socialist utopias with they real world.
Compare Denmark, Sweden and Norway to right wing paradises like Somalia, Haiti and Chicago. Fixed it for you.
Their hard left stance?
You must be joking. Labour don’t have a hard left stance.
More National-sponsored polling, it didn’t work for Hillary, it won’t work for Key and his cronies
I think the problem Labour should be more concerned about is the infiltration by the greens.
The infiltration by the right has resulted in Labour Party policy falling short. Which in turn has led to a fall in their support, hence increasing their need to work with the Greens.
To Pete George and others: If a National party MP was forced out of the party because they supported the public sector provision of health and education, opposed the sale of state owned assets, supported a high(er) minimum wage, a welfare state, social housing, and intervention in the power market to bring down prices, what would your opinion be? The fact is that if you wish to be part of a political party, you need to sign up to its values. And Labour’s values so happen to be public services, worker protections and state housing. If workers having 5 days of sick leave, cheap power bills and clean air to breathe is so repugnant to Legett then he should join National, whose sole purpose is to dismantle worker’s rights and replace them with contract law, as well as have us choke on LA style smog and impose US style health care.
millsy.
Dunno… it never happens. The Nats are so left of center these days anyone is welcome.
I mean FFS…Leggett is in favour of stealing money from unemployed poor people and gifting it to Council staff via the totally bullshit “living wage”
The man has no place in the Blue camp.
so thats why the nats help act in epsom – they need them to run all their hard left stuff they dont want to be seen handling ,
good grief man – your talking nonsense that ignores personal/party history, ideology and concepts of modern marketing
Huh wot?
Epsom is just a free seat. Be pretty dumb not to take it huh?
” The Nats are so left of center these days”
your talking nonsense that ignores personal/party history, ideology and concepts of modern marketing
you know what i said (i hope) yet your playing dumb games.
Please stop being this way – its really dull.
And you are blind to the modern realities of MMP politics.
MMP was supposed to help the left as apparently the left are progressive and modern and will make the most of it. It’s just kind of came along and fucked the left up, as if you don’t know how to play the game and win votes?
Blaming everyone but yourself is not the way to learn in life. It just ostracizes you further. But hey, what would anyone but those on the “pure” left know right? it’s not like we are generally more successful at everything. Except caring, not actually doing something about caring, just caring and being loud enough about that everyone knows, you care. Well done on that.
What the hell are you on about? Seriosuly – it makes zero sense as a reply
thats a weird response to me saying that…
“based on ideology and history national arent left of center”
do you think national are left of center?
Millsy you repeatedly have this rant regarding the NZ government wanting to replace our current health system with one akin to that in the US – yet fail to produce a shred of evidence to support such a position.
For the record both Labour and National strongly support PHARMAC which provides heavily (most often totally) subsidised pharmaceuticals. Governmental spend on health has increased year on year under the current National and previous Labour government and is projected to keep on doing so.
I agree that; “information”, needs to be informative. But when you are paying your budgeted Public Relations money to PR consultants every month, that just doesn’t seem to happen.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/deltas-explanations-farcical-staff-believe
To Robert
“may I ask, why do you think National regard, “WFF, interest free loans ect etc…” as “dead rats”?”
– I think National regard them as dead rats because its basically middle class welfare but they can’t get rid of it without suffering major voter backlash from the middle class voters
Doesn’t sound as though those things are part of National’s kaupapa, more that they are foreign objects that need to be swallowed in order to stay alive. Ne ra?
– Yes they are, I completely agree with this statement
However something else to note is that National, especially under john Key, is somewhat of a broad church, you have fundamentalists (probably) and atheists, blue Greens and dig it all ups, Nick Leggatt wants to bring in the living wage yet he’s standing for National
So I think that National has moved towards the centre and as Wayne put it yesterday its not likely the voters of NZ would vote for a hard right/far right party especially under MMP
There’s one huge difference between National and labour.
National runs it self like a business, Labour still runs it’self like a political party.
When you run your political party like a businesses you’re looking at what your “customers” want and adapting your “products” to suit and make them more attractive to existing and potential customers.
Part of being a successful business is to increase market share, for National that means appealing to both center left and center right, so a lot of the stuff Clark put in place stays because it has voter appeal and by doing so it locks in those center left voters.
Political Ideology has no place in National any more, it’s stifling and does more harm than good.
Hit the nail on the head, BM, and you know, the customer is always right, right?
Certainly is , they’re the people who keep a business/political party afloat.
No customers, no business.
“No customers, no business.” – true, if you buy in to the business model. There are other models but, as you are perhaps saying, they have to compete with the consumption model which is a very hungry one. People, I contend, don’t have to be consumers. There are other models for us to chose from, however, we are in the thrall of business at this point in our history. More fool us, I say.
There is more than a grain of truth to what you say there BM.
Run like a business all right.
Where the Managers make the short term profits look good so they can run off with the cream.
While a few years later the business fails because all the income earning assets have been sold and the staff have had enough.
Run like too many businesses are these days.
BM’s pointing to how National treats the gaining and retaining of the Government benches as a business; the business of winning elections. His point is well made, I think. National’s other business, as described by KJT, has been well picked over here on TS but is a side-line to the business of winning votes.
Businesses that exploit for profit and diminish the trust with their customers have a natural end game. Be prepared for tanking sales. Just look at the Clintons. The Nats have gone down this path thus their fate is determined.
It’ll happen no doubt but when do you think it’ll happen, before the next lection of before the 2020 election?
I agree, to a certain extant, yet if it were completely true the partial sell down of the power companies wouldn’t have happened nor would the GST increase gone ahead and NZ would be taking in more refugees
But certainly the message is much better presented by National
I agree, to a certain extant, yet if it were completely true the partial sell down of the power companies wouldn’t have happened
Which why only 50% was sold not 100%, 100% would have been politically disastrous for National and probably cost them the election.
50% was a best of both worlds compromise, appeals to both center left and center right.
I agree, it was definitely pragmatism at its finest
Meanwhile other asset sales, privatisations and running down of services, continue under the radar.
49% was sold. wasnt it?
and that shows a pragmatic Party in action, get some cash but its an easy message to sell to the punters, everyone understands what 49% means.
No, that shows an ideological party in action. A party that will go against the wishes of the people to implement the policy that they want that will enrich a few while making everyone else worse off.
An election was fought with asset sales as a major issue. The party proposing to sell the assets won the election. How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people. Not voting is a tacit acceptance of the policies of the party that eventually wins, whether you like them or not.
Because polling and a referendum showed 70% of people against the sales.
I can only assume that some people voted for National despite their policy of selling state assets in the belief that they’d then listen to the public and not sell them. Just as they did with mining protected areas on Great Barrier.
It could be viewed that way. It can also be viewed as a vote of no confidence. The thing is, we don’t know.
Which is why I say we need to view voting as a duty not a right and make it compulsory.
And the 70% against asset sales is why I support policies being set by referenda and not by parliament. Why we should be getting rid of ‘government’ altogether. Elected dictatorship does not bring about the wishes of the people.
“How can you then claim they went against the wishes of the people. Not voting is a tacit acceptance”
referenda are also part of our democracy tool kit and are designed to focus on a single issue, which elections cant do
Yawn, still fighting 2012’s battles?
still denying that the public had a say on this at the referendum on the topic
Draco.
WFT are you on about?
Go against the wishes of the people???
The Nats went into the election banging a drum and telling everyone they were selling the power companies and they romped home in the election, they SLAUGHTERED Labour who campaigned to keep the power companies.
People voted Nat because they wanted the power companies sold.
Just because a party wins the election doesn’t mean that they then, ipso facto, carry out the wishes of the people.
It was obvious from before the election happened through polling that people didn’t want to sell our state assets. Referendum after the election showed that to still be true.
National still sold those assets – against the will of the people.
And, no, they didn’t slaughter Labour – without the overhang seats of UF and Act they would not have been able to sell those assets.
We don’t have a democracy – we have an elected dictatorship. If we had an actual democracy the announcement of seeking a referendum would have stopped the sale until afterwards and the actual referendum would have stopped the sale altogether – because the people of NZ didn’t want to sell them.
yes National slaughtered Labour, wiped the floor with them and pissed all over them.
Nats got twice the vote of Labour.
Labour would have needed the support of four other parties to beat National.
The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets and were happy to do so because the alternative was so appalling.
And National needed three.
Nope. People voted for National and then tried to stop them selling the assets. That’s what the referendum was for – National continued with their failed ideology.
“The people voted for National knowing National would sell the assets ”
and then after that there was a referendum on the topic
How can you sit there and claim the election gives the policy approval – when a referendum held after the election rejected the policy?
It is one thing to run a political party like a business (and in that I think your analysis re National is correct), however there are obvious problems with running a country as a business.
Labour runs itself like a government.
National (as you say) runs itself like a business. It considers that a long-range plan is no more than 4-5 years.
That is its problem. Kids take 20 years to raise. Victims of childhood abuse cost the country (one way or another) for 50+ years after the abuse stops. Moderately severe earthquakes (like Christchurch or Kaikoura) happen every 20-30 years on average. Severe ones happen about every 80 years on average. Defense forces and hospital systems take decades to get running properly. etc.
National may be fit to be a business with their short-term thinking. But they aren’t capable of being a government.
Who gives a flying fuck about how good their marketing is. BM are you really that shallow?
National maybe fit to run the lemonade stand at the front gate but that’s about it and even that’s debatable.
That folks is the ideology underpinning of this national government right there on display by BM. First it denies it’s ideological, then it proceeds like a Marxist on acid to steam roll anything which disagrees with it. Secondly it argues it’s just common sense, when it is anything but. Third, a complete lack of understanding of what ideology is to muddy the waters. And finally the ‘big lie’ if the lie is big most people believe it, if it small almost no one believes it…
Just for the record BM, the last person who said there were no place for ideology in a political party was a vain, short, sex addicted, snake tongue, and Italian…
Well, BM, either you’re extremely clever or you really believe your idea of the “business model”, if it is your idea. Is it?
National operates like a corporate, a global corporate for that matter, not a national one.
Here’s the thing that I don’t buy [no pun]: we, the people, the voters, are National’s “customers”.
There’s a famous quote – it is just a quote:
Hang on, you say, we are paying, we are paying taxes!
Sure, we do, but we do regardless of who’s in government and we would get (most of) the services regardless. I could expand on this, and probably should, but it’s getting late and I want to get to my main point(s).
But but but, you say, we ‘pay’ with our votes, not in hard(-earned) dollars.
Indeed, and now you’re getting closer to the truth of the National Party.
National’s “business” is staying in power and maintaining status quo.
By making us believe we’re getting something in return National remains in power. However, are we the real beneficiaries of this ‘transaction’ or is there more to it?
To answer this question you’d need to follow the money, my dear fellow New Zealand taxpayer and law-abiding consumer.
Yes, we are customers and consumers in the literal sense, but not National’s, and, at a different level, we are the product or commodity that National uses to achieve its ‘target’.
Complete and utter nonsense, you say. Fair enough, please go to the National Party website and read it for yourself:
https://national.org.nz/about [I hope this link is not going to trigger some kind of TS alarm or Moderator alert]
You see, National ‘sells’ us dreams! It is pure make-belief, trickery magic, and mass hypnosis packed into one smooth political message. And it does the trick very well!
Meanwhile some people are laughing all the way to the bank, literally, and laughing at us, the poor suckers, who are buying this dream shit and day-in-day-out work at the coal-face to pay the bills and for our children’s education so that they can “reach their personal goals and dreams” because that’s our dream, isn’t it?
Now, before you shake your head in disbelief that I can be so stupid I’ll give you one more reason to do some head banging: the Labour Party is doing essentially the same …
Good morning, Pucky. Thanks for your response. I see what you mean.
Of course its completely unscientific and my opinion only so I could be completely wrong about…well everything
The “we are all customers” concept is an interesting one and the analogy invites comment about how customer decisions are made; why buy this product and not that product, why buy at all, etc. The role of advertising is key (apologies there) and purchasers of products are famously plastic when it comes to their decisions. As well, there’s the deeper consume-like-a-consumer issue for those who think we are consuming our world and that the consumption model is our undoing on a global scale.
Chomsky on America’s Ugly History:
FDR Was Fascist-Friendly Before WWII
AlterNet, Nov. 29, 2016
Before the Second World War, what view did the United States government have of fascism in Germany? What was the political and military relationship between Berlin and Washington?
Noam Chomsky: Well, it was a mixed story. Roosevelt himself had a mixed attitude. For example, he was pretty supportive of Mussolini’s fascism, in fact described Mussolini as “that admirable Italian gentleman.” He later concluded that Mussolini had been misled by his association with Hitler and had been led kind of down the wrong path. But the American business community, the power systems in the United States were highly supportive of Mussolini.
In fact, even parts of the labor bureaucracy were. Fortune Magazine for example, the major business journal I think in 1932, had an issue with the headline, I’m quoting it: “The wops are unwopping themselves.” The “wop” is a kind of a derogatory term for Italians and the “wops are finally unwopping themselves,” under Mussolini they’re becoming part of the civilized world. There was criticism of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, a lot of criticism. But basically pretty supportive attitude toward Mussolini’s fascism. When Germany, when Hitler took over, the attitude was more mixed.
There was a concern for a potential threat but nevertheless the general approach of the U.S., the British even more so, was fairly supportive. So for example in 1937, the State Department described Hitler as a kind of a moderate, fending off the dangerous forces of the right (and left). The State Department described Hitler as a moderate who was holding off the forces, the dangerous forces of the left, meaning the Bolsheviks, the labor movement and so on, and of the right, namely the extremist Nazism. Hitler was kind of in the middle and therefore we should kind of support him. This is a pretty familiar stance, incidentally like in many other cases.
Read more….
http://www.alternet.org/world/chomsky-americas-ugly-history-fdr-was-fascist-friendly-wwii
Kind of ironic that you’d post something about left-wingers getting sucked in to supporting right-wing authoritarian nationalist dictators…
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
This has nothing to do with “left” and “right”—not that you even understand what you mean when you fling those labels about. You really do not have a clue.
Chomsky is talking about the shamelessness, the depravity and the boundless cynicism of the American and British political establishments, not about labels.
Well, yes. We can take that as read because that’s what he always talks about. I guess we can count our blessings that their shamelessness, depravity and boundless cynicism haven’t infected the political establishments of other countries… oh, wait…
I get the impression you don’t actually know much about Chomsky at all.
Well, apart from his theory of transformational syntax being a big part of my undergraduate major in Linguistics back in the 80s, the various books of his I’ve read and the time I went to see him speak, you’re right, I know fuck-all about him. Those things don’t really constitute getting to know a person. I suspect you imagine you know plenty about him, on the other hand, with the emphasis being on the word “imagine.”
The story of a super-rich divorce takes a deep dive into the cess-pool of foreign trusts, international tax arrangements…
http://www.msn.com/en-nz/money/markets/how-to-hide-dollar400-million/ar-AAkXWnR?li=BBqddE1&ocid=mailsignout
It’s a long read, but worth it to get a picture of what the super-rich do when just lowering taxes at home isn’t enough for them. Screwing (soon to be ex-) partners seems to be just an added benefit.
The rats are cocking a snook!
Responding to the Government’s audacious challenge to the rat community’s long-term well being, rats around the country are rising up, literally in some towns, and making themselves seen and heard in defiance, it seems, of the threats from the Beehive. Rats, begging for food from picnickers in our parks, multiplying where they should be succumbing to the attentions of the poisoners, flowing from the rivers in waves of whisker and bald tail – the revenge of the rats, Ben, has just begun;
here;
http://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/85947945/Brazen-rats-ruin-riverside-picnics
here;
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/87004923/rats-run-amok-in-historic-seaside-suburb-on-aucklands-north-shore
and here;
http://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/81133196/DOC-look-at-reshuffling-1080-drops-as-rats-not-behaving-as-predicted
It’s almost like rats don’t want to be exterminated…
I see your Ben and raise you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rats_(novel)
I see your James Herbert and raise you a Frank; sandworms trump rats!
I call: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremors_(film)
I fold. If I didn’t, this would escalate to the End of Days and I don’t want to be responsible for that. In a way, I’ve averted global catastrophy here today. I need no thanks, it’s just what I do.
*shuffles modestly
Oh my goodness! ANOTHER Public Servant doing their job.
Golly gosh, this could become a trend….an actual thing…
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier fronts up to the Education Select Committee and tells them…this legislation has the potential to allow schools to exclude children with disabilities (especially autism) from schools….by forcing them into one of the brandspanking new On Line Schools.
Interview here….http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201826003/online-schools-could-become-dumping-ground-ombudsman
and oooh look! Its on Natrad….more publicly paid people doing their job!
I am starting to feel a tiny little bit of optimism for the future. These are high profile government appointees speaking out on some of the most important issue facing New Zealand’s most vulnerable.
THIS…is how things will change.
Latest Roy Morgan has Labour’s support down at 23%. Lowest in 2 years, National at 49.5% matching the lastest CB poll.
I wonder what Labour’s UMR polling is showing? Will Andy release the numbers?
I doubt it. I don’t think little has commented on this one or the CB one.
Its been proven conclusively that the public polls are wrong and Labours private polls are correct 🙂
True fact
Yip David Little has an internal poll showing Labour to be at least 40%.
He will release that poll any moment now…
He should probably poll more then his own caucus if he wants a better figure 😉
Only 4 of his caucus voted for him so a lower than 23% result would be expected.
It could be argued this result assumes an unrealistic 92.5% turnout for the hypothetical election and therefore is not representative.
Lower turnouts favour the national party. are you saying 23% might be an overstatement of labours support?
lol….no Im saying that if polls are a true (within MoE) representation of voter intention then it would be reasonable to expect a non response that equates with real life participation……this poll states a non selection rate of 6.5% (unchanged) whereas the last election had a non selection rate of 23%…..obviously their sample is not representative.
“sell themselves” – perfect expression, framu. Makes you think though, about the buyers and their motivations.
edit – idjit – wrong button
Interesting that the shipping interests have taken the opportunity of the debacle of essential roads rendered impassable also train transport, to point out the bleeding obvious that sea transport is the new black. It may be the time to breach the wall of determined ignorance that the National government puts up to important faults in their choice of governance of the country which includes emphasis on roads which in a stretched out country, is very expensive and inefficient. Also they made the point about how sea transport would reduce our carbon footprint.
The New Zealand Shipping Federation says the government needs to take the resilience of ports seriously as the Kaikoura earthquake has shown the vulnerability of roading – and consider what their role is when auditing them. Annabel Young is the Executive Director of the NZ Shipping Federation. Canterbury University Professor of Geological Sciences Tim Davies, says improving and increasing the transport network through coastal shipping is essential.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201826002
Spot the difference.
lprent
Is it possible to again be able to search or does it take too much capacity?
The capacity issue is all my side. I simply haven’t had time to finish the code.
Looking forward to xmas.
Well I will take the opportunity to wish you (early) a Merry Christmas and good relaxing times with Lyn and some nice cool beers and time to do what you fancy for once.
🙂 relaxing. I wish.
Between now and the 4th on Jan when I head back to work to carry on the current project, I will be fitting in
1. One more day on the current project
2. Two weeks work in Italy.
3. 4 days work on the current project (and jetlag).
4. Family xmas in Auckland
5. Family Birthday in ChCh
6. Family New Years in Auckland.
7. Maybe a couple of days of downtime….
But I will have sometime in the evenings after I get to Italy…
And I suspect a good holiday when it starts cooling down again in March/April
Well all I can say is – that it doesn’t sound boring. And two weeks work in Italy sounds exotic but I fear that it might be like the period my son spent in Paris. In a narrow concrete room lined with computers and people facing the walls, opening out onto a grey concrete corridor – or that’s the picture in my mind. Not an ooh la la in sight. So hope you have time for a chianti – ciao and kia kaha.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/87030493/hamilton-city-councillor-siggi-henry-accuses-health-officials-of-fluoride-spin-brainwashing
“Because they [scientists] think they are so smarty-pants, they think they can say whatever they like and we should just take it.”
“The more educated you are in a field, the narrower your thinking becomes. I’m not hot on these academics…sitting on comfy chairs up on their hill. I’ve studied this subject for over 20 years, I know a little bit more than they do.”
Stick to your guns Siggi!
It sticks to your gums, Siggi!
.
.The wheel of Fortune
. It seems that when there is insecurity within the populace people flock to Conservative Politicans. Looking tor the blanket. And the Rhetoric.
Trump in USA. Cameron in the UK. Both deep Conservatives
The wheel spins and it turns out that the Conservatives know only one thing – and that is how to look after their own income and glamour. They thank the voters who voted them into power by putting Austerity packages on the PAYE middle class and on the very poor.
While the Politicians blatantly fiddle with their Tax Avoidance schemes.
Conservatives always have the best rhetoric – full of empty promise. They also have ostentatious wealth. Glamour Glamour Glamour.
So in time, but always too late, the Voters disown the Conservative hoax and walk to the center left, because they know that Labour / Greens / and like minded, care for the Community.
All I can say is :
. With all the support that all the Main Stream Media gives to National Party hacks; with all the money Bill English borrows; with all the efforts of the wandering trolls who suck up to John Key …
With all that, why is New Zealand in a death spiral? Why will the present young generation from cradle to grave receive nothing but excessive burden from Mr Key?
Because Mr Key does exactly what the greed of Corporations and Media want. He is an actor; a hoax; a shallow wealthy being building up Casinos. As does Trump.
He and his mates simply do not care. They care not about our polluted water; not about our work or pay; not about our Education; not about our Health provision; not about our lack of infrastructure; not about our future.
New Zealand Conservatives have a lot to think over.
.
If the MSM support National so much why isn’t the latest poll being trumpeted all over Stuff, the nzherald, the radio or TV?
The normally excellent Lynn Freeman failed to do her job this morning.
RNZ National, Thursday 1 December 2016, 11:10 a.m.
I’m sure that many regular listeners will agree with me that Lynn Freeman is superior to the regular Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan. She’s more thoughtful, better and more widely read, and is prepared to challenge and refute the dodgy statements of people like Matthew Hooton. [1] But she’s not perfect: this morning she allowed “new technology expert” Andy Linton to repeat a bizarre and unfounded trope from a thoroughly discredited and unsuccessful election campaign. [2]
Disappointed, I sent her the following email…..
Andy Linton’s dismissal of Julian Assange
Dear Lynn,
I was disturbed to hear your technology correspondent Andy Linton recycling the Clinton campaign’s cynical propaganda against the dissident journalist Julian Assange. To compound his credulity, Andy Linton snickered when he suggested that “Assange’s agenda is to get out of the Ecuadorian embassy.”
I never fail to be appalled when I hear safe and complacent people deriving humour from the suffering of those who dare to tell the truth. Surely Andy Linton should be supporting Julian Assange, not laughing at his plight.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
[1] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14072015/#comment-1043304
[2] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2016/07/glenn_greenwald_on_donald_trump_the_dnc_hack_and_a_new_mccarthyism.html
.
. Hello Puckish
. I think that very few people have confidence in Polls nowadays. Because they rely on an ever reducing number of people who have landlines.
Also, the wide variety of polling results (consider USA recently) is disconcerting. Pollsters did not even correctly select who is the President to be.
But if you believe them – well fair enough.
.
“Because they rely on an ever reducing number of people who have landlines.”
No they don’t. Sounds like you are clutching at at straws, hoping the polls are really concealing the fact that David Little is fabulously popular.
Roy Morgan uses both landlines and mobiles.
If the recent CB or RM polls were favorable to Labour, it would have been headline news here. A little bit of discussion (denial) on the CB, but the disastrous – yes, 23% is a disaster- RM poll has passed through with merely a mention.
Some people are talking about it, but they seem to think the solution is for Labour to follow Corbynite UK Labour and lurch leftwards.
But if the UK polls are anything to go by, Corbyn is leading his party to a rout at the next General Election.
Nothing to do with the blatent disloyalty and undermining by the UK equivalent of the ABC’s of course.
.
.Hi mlpc
. Anyone who clutches at straws is doing a lot more than nice people like you.
. Where did you get David from? Confused eh?
. can you put me onto a man or lady who can explain Morgan’s wide of the mark Polls ?
Thanks
.
Yeah, yeah, I know his name is Andrew, but didn’t the Mayor of Kaikoura refer to him as David? It’s a mark of how poorly Little projects himself. You could argue that personalities shouldn’t matter, but the fact is that they do.
And you can choose to ignore Roy Morgan if you want, but the other polls don’t make things look much better for Labour.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2014/09/how_the_pollsters_did-2.html
Seems both the Colmar and the Roy Morgan under estimate the National vote – So I do no get where you are saying Morgans being wide of the mark – unless you think National is higher.
BTW OT – All the full stops?? – is your keyboard broken?
That Farrar chooses to test the efficacy of polls by comparing to the polls just before an election to the election result, and then somehow implying that they were just as effective a year earlier long before many people voting would have made up their mind – well that tells me:-
Either David Farrar is statistically a moron who doesn’t understand the maths of sample sizes and confidence
Or David Farrar is PR mouthpiece saying whatever is advantageous for his business
Or both.
That you choose to present this as something worth discussing, just makes you look ignorant and/or stupid.
Hi mlpc
. Why do you support so firmly National’s scandalous treatment of the ordinary person within New Zealand.
You know perfectly well that wages are too low for even doctors to purchase a house. And rents are too high for many people to afford anything but a hovel. Or even a shed.
You ram your wicked philosophy into the ordinary Kiwi by giving the Landords huge subsidies – taken from the Paye Tax Payers, minimum Wage Earners; Pensioners and Beneficiaries – while you use tax avoidance to live the life of Reilly.
The landlords of course get all manner of tax exemptions on top of their excessive exploitation.
You are great people MLPC. You truly are. I wonder why you disgust me to the core..
Your problem, OT, is that you obviously think the ordinary person is stupid, and that you know better than they do what is good for them.
You can’t understand why Labour is deeply unpopular, can you?
I can tell you. It is because the party has completely lost a connection with the ordinary person. It has a completely useless leadership. And it is so disparate that it has climbed into bed with another party whose policies are anathema to the interests of the ordinary working person.
I don’t care if I disgust you to the core. I care more about the ordinary working person than you do.
sorry, that should be desperate (i.e. “feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with”)
Joe Biggs is an Infowars reporter. This Pizzagate thing first sounded bizzare. Over the period of the last few weeks the information coming out is only reinforcing the idea that there is something very, very sinister to look into. At this point I’m actually trying to prove my normalicy bias correct, rather than the #Pizzagate. So far my attempts keep failing : (
Yesterday SGT Report had a video covering the disproportionate amount of childrening missing in Virginia. Now this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsH5_nUFS70
Hi mlpc.
Thankyou for your diagnosis of what you call my problem. Your certainty taints and swamps any discussion.
You don’t discuss. You just proclaim. – as if you were Almighty. Please turn your megaphone down. Right down to an angry endless Shout.
Your support for the ordinary man comes as a bit of a surprise mlpc. But I accept that you do everything better than me – and better than anyone anywhere.