If there is a vote to change the flag, we will be saddled with even more costs as the present flag will have to be replaced with the beach towel everywhere.
That won’t be cheap.
It’s a big IF Paul. We have a fairly solid chunk of society opposed to something that affects their sense of national identity. People from all political camps are opposed to change – I like it, it’s quite a good leveller. We are experiencing a moment of unity for once in our increasingly divided land.
Maybe have faith that we can pull this off?
Here’s a question for readers. As much as I dislike our current flag, mainly for reasons that Te Reo Putake pointed in his butchers apron post in regard to the Union Jack symbolism of colonial oppression (and descending from people who fought against that flag) I am still voting to retain it because a) the alternative is nothing but an ugly sport logo and b) I will not contribute to the Key Vanity Project.
Would I be a hypocrite to print out our flag and attach it to my front fence as fingers up to Key?
I don’t think putting up the current flag on your fence would be hypocritical at all, Rosie. For a lot of people its simply the dead rat option. Not ideal, but better than letting Key have his way.
A couple of good things have come out of this referendum. One of them has been the discussion about the current flag’s provenance and historical meaning. The other has been the tarnishing of John Key’s image. I’m looking forward to him waking up a loser on the day the result is announced.
No, I’m not voting. Though I was impressed by the arguments you and others put up on the Butcher’s Apron post. However, I’m confident the change will be rejected by those that do actually vote. I still think that the lower the turnout, the worse it makes National look.
I agree with Sabine. Not voting in the first referendum was a reasonable approach, not voting in this one could mean we end up with that hideous alternative. By keeping the flag we have we may get a chance to get a new one in a few years but if it is changed now we’re stuck with the tacky beach towel.
Key is not worried about the voter turnout, only that he wins. If only 60% of those eligible to vote do so but those who vote for change have a larger % of that 60% then they win.
I believe the polls indicating support for the status quo are being deliberately manipulated to lull opponents of the flag change into a false sense of confidence. I don’t trust the Government and their celebrity and media shills. TRP and others who don’t intend to vote need to rethink their strategy – a very high turnout and rejection of the proposed flag will send the most compelling message to John Key that cannot be spun.
Might just do that. I was inspired by the street in Invercargill where each resident is flying the NZ flag in their front garden.
And yes, it is the dead rat option. I have no affiliation or attachment to our current flag but am happy to see it be flown as a symbol of resistance against Key.
Yes when you get down to it
Its the top down not the bottom up wanting this therefore in principle its not democratic no matter what the machinery or chicanery
Its not going to happen, evidence being I saw someone driving a holden around yesterday with NZ flags flying above both windows and blasting KISS at full volume. The natives are restless.
But a new flag will offer commercial opportunities. The guy who designed one of the contenders has already made a decent sum in sales.
We probably should change our flag every three years after the election. The first year the public’s attention could be taken up with deciding on colours and shapes etc. and that will keep us busy and amused so we won’t even care if our house, or the neighbour’s falls down or costs more than their life savings to repair and they commit suicide, or whatever.
And the rights to the commercial opportunities using the flag should be held by government. Now we have a commercial government it can profit from our brands. The past governments could not get their heads around owning the Kiwi brand, or buying it off the shoe polish people and since then there has been a USA airline using it and no doubt others.
The new flag would go well on men’s and women’s underpants, shorts, and of course tea towels, beach towels, sun shades for cars etc. Just a few places it could be used, perhaps tattoos as well, look good on white patriot guys for instance.
The flag will be changed sometime in the future IMO, and hopefully under an improved process that will result in a flag design that many will accept and will be far superior than our current option. If we vote for this flag, the chance of another change when nz moves towards being a republic will be lost, at least by supporting the current flag there will be another opportunity for change.
Also many selected names that are used under the change the flag campaign comment on the need to change but none have come out that this is their 1st choice, and that this is the best design we can come up with, all we get is that the existing flag is confusing when we play against Australian teams.
This one’s for you Cowboy. You raised the issue of staff resignations at Todd Barclays office last week. Bill English is putting on the front that he aint bovvered about his former seat and it’s all ok:
Have you been speaking with people in your electorate and getting a feel for how they view this and is there any suspicion about Barclay being an unsuitable MP to represent his constituents?
There’s no way Boy Wonder’s appointment was a risk free strategy, that was obvious and pointed out at the time. The local Queenstown paper gave him a good smacking at the time.
The Nat electorate committee stood by the appointment at the time in the face of some pretty strong questioning. Now they are resigning. Generational change? Yeah, but the electorate isn’t getting younger. Biggest export here is our young, and especially in Queenstown. Most of Barclay’s generation here can’t, or don’t, vote in New Zealand.
There might be an opportunity for a non Nat candidate who can get the confidence of both Queenstown, and it’s environmental constraints, and the prudent conservative business practice of rural Southland. It would be a very special candidate, but it could easily go.
Would have to be someone with exceptional and broad name recognition in and well around Queenstown (eg extending out to Gore and beyond), to have any chance.
There might be an opportunity for a non Nat candidate who can get the confidence of both Queenstown, and it’s environmental constraints, and the prudent conservative business practice of rural Southland. It would be a very special candidate, but it could easily go.
Oh! That was meant to be quoting Graeme and the rest of my comment disappeared. I was wondering about a NZ First candidate for the electorate. They pulled it off in Northland. May be able to do in the South?
It’s not really a party thing, more the right person. A business orientated Green could easily pull Queenstown and Te Anau, but Gore and Lumsden could be a different story. But you never know, had a farmer mate complementing James Shaw for a comment about farmers focusing on profitability rather than production. Shaw’s comment related more to emissions than finances, but the sound bite went both ways.
The electorate is used to having a top notch MP. Queenstown has been represented by Warren Cooper, David Parker and Bill English. Jackie Dean never really got any respect here and there was relief when Bill ended up as MP through boundary change.
There’s huge growth here right now and another change must be coming soon. Could see a return to a Central Otago electorate. That would be an interesting demographic / political mix
Thanks Graeme. Thats interesting. Always good to get the local perspective. Interesting to hear feedback from locals too, like your farmer friend.
As an aside, I partially listened to a radio interview today about education and what changes have occurred in the last thirty years as education shifted towards a marketable commodity. Turns out the person they were interviewing was James Shaw. The language he used made him sound very accessible. I see what you are saying about a Green of a business orientated persuasion being a possibility for certain parts of your electorate.
Thanks for the shout out. Sorry been too busy today to follow events.
I am in the electorate and don’t know anyone who is particularly happy about having such an inexperienced individual as our MP but people down here have given him the benefit of the doubt to date.
What’s interesting is the Southland Times seem to be all over this like a dog with a bone so they obviously know there is plenty of discontent behind the scenes. I know some of the resignees who are all highly regarded so there is obviously something badly amiss. The feeling is he is putting building towards his personal cabinet ambitions ahead of being prepared to take a stand on local issues.
He has a 14k majority so it would take a massive swing to unseat him but he got those votes by default. Now there is an actual measure of his ability and character and his vote will be based on his merit, which appears to be negligible.
Labour ran a seemingly good candidate, Liz Craig, a health professional as I recall, I was surprised at the time she didn’t get closer. Someone like that could do well again given the shambles in the southern DHB.
NZ first are pushing the regional theme and should be a beneficiary of those true blue Nats that would never vote labour. If they get a strong rural focused candidate they should do well im picking but whether that transfers through to Queenstown appeal is the issue?
“The feeling is he is putting building towards his personal cabinet ambitions ahead of being prepared to take a stand on local issues.”
That wouldn’t surprise me, he is a kid after all, of a self interested persuasion. That kind of principle something salt of the earth types have no time for.
Hey I’m not saying that Littles in the pocket but its funny that Little says on one hand he can’t remember meeting with them but he later remembers that he didn’t discuss political donations or it didn’t influence their current position on Keytruda?
Its not like john Keys ever accused of forgetting things
What on earth has not being in someone’s pocket got to do with memory recall?
You’re continuing the sly allegations, just on a different issue.
“I’m not quite sure whether drug companies were represented there,” said Little. That really says a lot about the impact that the drug company lobbyists made upon Little.
A person who never takes bribes does not have to remember if he took a bribe on a particular occasion. A person who knows why he has a position on a particular issue also knows he wasn’t influenced by someone’s views.
And don’t compare Key’s long list of lies, obfuscation and loose use of language with Andrew Little. That’s truly desperate condemnation by association.
A person who never takes bribes does not have to remember if he took a bribe on a particular occasion. A person who knows why he has a position on a particular issue also knows he wasn’t influenced by someone’s views.
What innuendo? Little was at a meeting with Big Medicine (that market Keytruda) he can’t remember but does know they didn’t talk money and six months later Labour kicks up a stink about funding Keytruda
What happened at this meeting to distinguish it from any other dinner meeting?
was he helicoptered in?
were they global industry presidents rather than typical lobbyists?
did he request an extensive detour to the other end of town in order to attend the funtion?
Is his partner director of one of the companies, and therefore there’d be a conflict of interest for him to remember?
Was his meeting used in company advertising brochures contrary to party policy?
did he happen to replace a bottle of wine labelled “Labour Leader’s Lambrusco” that turned out to be part owned by his supposedly blind trust?
Were there 100,000-odd shares in pharmaceutical companies that he forgot to declare?
Note that I was asking if there was anything particularly memorable about the meeting.
see, tories, especially key, seem to forget things that should be very memorable. Key does it a lot.
Little seems to have a fairly good memory, but I’d expect he has a lot of similar meetings
I asked Little that. He put on his best imitation of a Sergeant Schultz face and told me “I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!” .
Seems about right. I doubt if he is ever going to answer your questions.
Wow, The Herald is going into overdrive for the change the flag lobby and of course thier boss, John Key, They have even got some lame Aussie outfit’s corny advert on board today. No doubt part of the Crosby Textors dirty politics brigade.
I read a sly twisted piece of RW maliciousness on some wrapping newspaper of recent vintage. Liam Hehir, solicitor, writes for Fairfax and gets into quite a few papers as a result. What a cheap way of getting political coverage for a party to reach people of their mindset and beliefs. It is interesting to note at the end of the Opinion piece that there is no description of the writer, his expertise or interests, that would underpin the value of his thoughts, and the right the newspaper has extended to use its publication to broadcast them to us all. http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/77118558/opinion-right-wing-resistance-agenda-reprehensible
This one is about some guys in black jackets calling themselves the ‘Right Wing Resistance’ handing out brochures about their favourite hates. There are two columns noting their targets and Hehir’s opinions and suppositions about their characters and mentality. And he takes the opportunity to comment on their prejudice against Jews, because that opens the way to an attack on the Labour Party. The ‘RW Resistance even took the time to make positive reference to infamous anti-Semitic slur used against Key by a Labour candidate in the last election.’
I looked this up on Google and note this is an example of how much can be made of something small so that it registers as large, and then can be alluded to in vague terms for the next decade if not longer. Note that ‘the Labour candidate’ is of Jewish descent himself.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/251915/candidate-warned-over-shylock-slur The candidate, [Steven Gibson] who is of Jewish descent himself, has apologised and said on Monday he didn’t actually understand what the term Shylock referred to, and was repeating what a constituent had said about Mr Key in the context of a bad deal.
“I was only repeating what a constituent had said to me. And it’s only now that I realise the connotations of it. To me it was like a Shakesperian reference. I’m sorry people have been offended and I’ll take the post down – that’s all I can do.”
Hehir in this Firing Line piece manages to fit in a snide comment about The Standard. The “RW Resistance is also dead set” against the PM changing the flag to a “brand label”, and their “overall themes and prose style” shared much more with the anonymous commenters on the Left-wing blog, The Standard than the centre-Right, Kiwiblog. Then followed some more musings of his tainted RW beliefs about attitudes of “your garden variety left-liberal”.
” I would go as far as saying that the politically correct mafia on the left perpetuates a form of bigotry on its own because it alienates and “otherises” those who do not share their ways of thinking and speaking about the world.”
“But without freedom of thought, speech, and expression, no other freedom can exist. Bigots and hateful people in general will make fools of themselves, and again, our freedom to speak means that we can and definitely should challenge and outsmart them. But the idea of being so self-righteous that we think we deserve to be authority figures in all of this is soul-crushing.”
You need to be a bit more realistic if you don’t want to be written off as a nut. Within the next few years our bankrupt ultra-right government will come for the health system. Most New Zealanders are opposed to that. But gulags are not part of our political tradition.
While you’re probably out to create mischief here, TLS, I will say that I agree with some core aspects of that activist’s critique. But it’s important to emphasise that we’re talking about a particular niche section of the Left – the Uber-Politically Correct faction: largely synonymous (I’ve increasingly come to realise) with the Authoritarian Left.
Probably associated most with certain (Rik from The Young Ones-style) middle class Uni students and that small faction of younger feminists (particularly in my own city of Wellington), newly-armed with First Class Gender Studies Degrees and seemingly more than keen to adopt the Trotskyite modus operandi of the 1970s Radical Lesbian Feminist Movement – an inherently aggressive approach, divisive/destructive Entryist tactics, the use of cult-like techniques for control and exclusion, with a healthy dose of self-martyrdom thrown in for good measure.
We’ve seen some pretty obvious examples on social media over the last few years, with various insane mob-job pile-ons, the angrily self-righteous working themselves up into a mouth-frothing fervour as they attack some unlucky woman journalist or erstwhile left-wing commentator for not strictly following their dogmatic sensibilities. By no means pleasant.
One of the more recent examples being the nasty and quite bizarre personal attack on Sacha Dylan on a Hard News thread. This most liberal and progressive of blokes was deemed Unsafe, Notorious, Misogynist and almost persona non grata (big black mark down on the old McCarthyite Blacklist run by these nutjobs) for committing the heinous crime of calling someone “a twat” a few times on Twitter.
Personally, I think these New McCarthyites with their teen-like pettiness and uber-precious self-martyrdom tendencies have been far too indulged by both the broader feminist movement and the broader Left in general.
So, there you go, TLS, you’ve got your bite. But I wouldn’t have bitten if I hadn’t thought it needed to be said. And it’s good to see sections of the Left drawing a line and moving into push-back territory.
The ‘mischief’ I am trying to cause is to trying to get the Left looking honestly into the reasons it has been out of Govt. for 3 terms heading for a 4th….
I agree with much of what you say, but I disagree that it is a niche issue. Having been a staunch and active Leftie since 1960, I can tell you there was a distinct trend from the early 1990’s on for the whole of LW culture to become more dogmatic and stridently intolerant of differing views.
It doesn’t need to be overt to be stifling. It only needs to be the subtle pressure of knowing that some ideas are not up for question, and anyone doing so will meet with an automatic condemnation.
For me, and many others I know, the Left simply became an unpleasant place to be.
I think that has a massive amount to do with the reason why the LW is failing to win back support, and why the Left cannot generate a new vision and the leaders to sell it…but obviously not many here want to hear that.
Yeah, hubristic stoats always claim they were pheasants……once. Rob Campbell…….Ports of Auckland and serial director. In my VUW days that guy frightened the shit out of me. Unease, maybe two decades prematurely. Only explanation – a vainglorious wanker – then or now. A la Trollwyn.
It doesn’t need to be overt to be stifling. It only needs to be the subtle pressure of knowing that some ideas are not up for question, and anyone doing so will meet with an automatic condemnation.
There is an element of truth in that and it started well before the early 1990s.
I dropped out of [old] Labour in the 1980s because of it. Some of those ardent feminists of the 70s and 80s were bullies who isolated anyone who wasn’t prepared to strictly conform to their narrow views. When I returned to Labour 15 years later, I found most of them had either moved on of their own volition or had been ‘encouraged’ to move on. The current L.P. is now a much more tolerant and broad-based party with a pleasingly large number of ethnic minorities actively involved. I’m proud to be a member of the [new] Labour Party.
A Sword’ masterfully wielded ! Provoking The Lost Sheep to prattle on about how she/he was a liar/wanker then/now……a la Mad Dog Prebble, The Norton-ish Bassett, the suffocating up his own arse Moore.
Listen up Lost Sheep……if you wanna come home ya better show some respect……mouthing your own dick ain’t respect !
“Quote: “Somehow young workers need to be both agile and traditional, team players and self-motivating, in search of a good job and willing to work a job that isn’t paid at all. To be grateful, and, most importantly, to wait their turn.”
“they are synergistic attacks on millennials, Gen Y and Gen X. They’re almost elegant in their efficiency: their motivator is youth’s use of public space, already diminished as the public square makes the declension to the shopping mall. They increase the price of already valuable properties further, and accelerate gentrification.
They also act as part of a wider attack on wages and conditions in hospitality, perhaps the single most critical source of well-paid employment for the young. They then deny those same workers the chance of a civic social life after they’ve finished their shifts, or even the chance to get something to eat.” Quote end.
Quote: “”The whole stretch from Darlinghurst to Surry Hills seemed to be empty, the greasy spoons shut, a couple of bars of last resort unpatronised apart from their gaming rooms. These are exempt from the lockout – they can remain open as long as patrons only gamble and don’t drink. I walked all the way to the casino, which is exempt from everything – early closing and plastic glasses and no entries and all the other shackles of the legislation – even though it’s one of the most violent venues in the state. If opponents want to have the lockout revoked, the surest method is not to campaign against the laws but to insist they cover the casino. But even The Star’s bars were almost deserted. The city couldn’t have been emptier if it were under curfew. Quote End.
They’re predicting seriously diminishing demand for both. In other words, people won’t be making shit (unless massive amounts are stockpiled somewhere, and I’m talking a significant percentage of world demand).
It may be partly to do with competitive edges – POSCO was widely expected to be closed about a decade ago as China outstripped their cost of production – but they upteched and reversed the decline and two Chaebol shipbuilders stepped in to consolidate Korea’s position as cost effective softa ship builder.
This is one of a cluster of large heavy industry start-ups in the Middle East and central Asia that, destabilising events permitting, may yet change the face of the region.
Send him to the Hague! Tony Benn on Blair’s ‘war crimes’
Long after his war-mongering, opportunist son has been consigned to a distasteful memory, Tony Benn will still be honoured for his courage and his integrity…
You apparently have a lot of expertise in technical stuff to do with the Internet.
Are you able to tell me how easy it would be to manipulate up votes and down votes in Georges Word Press YourNZ Blog?
Somebody did it a few weeks ago … and I would like to know if that sort of viral technology can continue to be utilized within the blog once it has been uploaded on there?
Donald Trump actually seems decent in comparison to Nevil “Breivik” Gibson, Jordan Williams, Barry Corbett, Michael Bassett, Neil Miller, John Bishop, David Farrar, Stephen Franks, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, Jacqueline Rowarth, Tau Henare, ad nauseam….. The Panel, RNZ National, Wednesday 2 March 2016
Jim Mora, Jeremy Hansen, Ellen Reid, Zara Potts
About 4:25 p.m., following a discussion about the Super Tuesday voting with Professor Steve Hoadley from Auckland University, host Jim Mora read out a listener’s response….
JIM MORA: “Is it possible,” asks Neil, “to have someone on your program who SUPPORTS Donald Trump?”
JEREMY HANSEN: Ha ha ha ha!
ELLEN REID:[in a mock peremptory tone] No it’s not possible, Neil. Go away.
JIM MORA:[nervously] Ha ha ha. We do not instruct any of our guests what to say about Donald Trump, but I don’t think we have had anyone on who would admit to supporting him.
From that little exchange, one might infer that, morally, the guests on this program were of a higher than average calibre. Sadly, however, that doesn’t survive any serious scrutiny. Long-time sufferers of The Panel may not have actually heard any of the guests endorse Donald Trump, but plenty of them have made obnoxious and vicious statements live on air, without the giggling, sighing host uttering a word of demur….
Oh Audrey…….you crone and baggage. It was never a simple fucking vote. It was always the man-child pulling his pud’. And you and ilk waiting waiting waiting with gobs expectantly wide open.
You’re a disgraceful suck-arse. Can’t help it. So fuck off with your haughty shit. No one owes any explanations to you as an archetype of everything that’s pathetic about the New Zealand MSM.
You do realise that you and ilk are laughed at in places where quality is thick on the ground. Khandallah Man you ! Fuck you’re barely literate.
Yeah, but doesn’t Murdoch own a large piece of the Herald, any paper owned by him is not worth the paper it’s printed on, it costs News Corp (Sydney morning Telegraph)
$30M a year to spread his bull shit.
After his first cabinet meeting as top dog, Chris ‘Chippy’ Hipkins gave his first speech from the podium as Prime Minister. Since his election as Labour leader he has been clear that the government’s agenda would be pared back to “bread and butter issues”. So the decision to can ...
Hipkins says the Government was doing “too much too fast”. Now it’s praying clearing the decks will also clear the way to a better election result. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: He’s done it. New PM Chris Hipkins has ‘cleared the decks’ of all manner of flotsam and ...
A deeply-statistically-flawed poll the other day reported that 43.8 percent do not trust the National Party leader. I say deeply-statistically-flawed because it can be empirically proven that this data is non-correct.Let me show my working.The Newshub-Reid Research poll asks 1,000 random New Zealanders what they reckon. Thus we can infer ...
Hipkins held his expected bonfire of the policies today, ditching the RNZ/TVNZ merger, punting hate speech legislation to the Law Commission (which basicly means it will never happen), and dumping the "bougie dole" social insurance scheme. But along the way, he also shitcanned a key part of the government's emissions ...
Fonterra’s farmers will be relieved that prices in the Global Dairy Trade auction this week have rebounded – up 3.2% across the board. It is the first rise since December 6 The index had fallen 2.8% on January 3 and 0.1% on January 17, to kick off 2023 on a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Announcements on the provision of aid – to Auckland, Turkey and Syria – are recorded on the Beehive website today along with a statement from the PM about his flying visit to Australia. This was Chris Hipkins’ first overseas visit since he took office, enabling him ...
There’s a 19th century flavour to National’s “social investment” strategy, in that it aims to seek capital from philanthropists and charitable organisations – some of them having their own religious agendas- to fund and deliver the provision of social services. Beyond that point, the details are remarkably scarce. Regardless, “social ...
Karl du Fresne writes – The jury has returned its verdict, and it’s emphatic. New Zealanders want the country’s name left as it is. In a Newshub-Reid Research poll, respondents were asked what they thought New Zealand should be known as. Fifty-two percent wanted the country to be ...
Poorly-managed diabetes results in amputations and other expensive hospital treatments – an example of how charging patients to access their medication ends up costing more in the long run. Photo: Getty ImagesTLDR: The phrase ‘penny wise and pound foolish’ is one that applies across much of the Government’s approach to ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes- In recent decades the Labour Party has lost its traditional connection with working-class voters, becoming more of a middle-class party of liberalism. This is especially true of Labour’s historic connection with working-class Māori. This is a constituency that the party used to monopolise. ...
In recent decades the Labour Party has lost its traditional connection with working class voters, becoming more of a middle class party of liberalism. This is especially true of Labour’s historic connection with working class Māori. This is a constituency that the party used to monopolise. But ever since the ...
Hi,I wanted to thank everyone who responded to A New Day, a New Cease & Desistover the last five days or so. So many readers have brushed up against MLMs — and they’re something I want to push further into. Did I hear from good old Jonathan Callinan, the ...
As the planet continues to cook, extreme weather events like those we experienced over the last two weeks are set to become more frequent. How we plan our cities to mitigate the risks of climate change will inevitably be more salient going forward, and that will only increase over time. ...
TLDR: For paying subscribers, here’s the key scoops, breaking news and key links I’ve picked up this morning, as at 6.40 am, including:the Reserve Bank of Australia hiked its official cash rate to a 10-year high and warned of more hikes to come, which was more hawkish than expected; RBABP ...
A year ago this week we saw the headline “Mask-wearing 17-year-old egged by aggressive convoy protesters”. As the protestors settled in for their long campout in opposition to vaccination requirements they demonstrated their commitment to standing up for the rights of the individual by verbally abusing, and throwing eggs at, ...
Chris Hipkins has become New Zealand’s 41st prime minister following Ardern’s unexpected resignation—perhaps the bold and unpredictable move Labour needed to improve its election chances. Just six days into his premiership and Labour had its first lead over National in thirteen weeks. National has had a largely uninterrupted run of ...
Good people can come into your life imperceptibly. It can seem they’re just there one day being remarkable. Nat Torkington, for instance.We were both online from the early days, I’m assuming that’s where we first connected; maybe in the UseNet newsgroups, or maybe later through Public Address.But it was when ...
One of New Zealand’s biggest electricity generators, Genesis Energy, has given the go-ahead for a large solar farm near Lauriston on the Canterbury Plains, an hour’s drive south of Christchurch. It is part of Genesis’ strategy of replacing thermal baseload with renewable generation – a mix of wind and solar. ...
Buzz from the Beehive We found just one fresh announcement on the Beehive website this morning, when we made our first visit since 4 February. It was posted in the name of Nanaia Mahuta, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, and explained why she was not at Waitangi at the weekend. ...
Hipkins is doing the right thing for New Zealanders already living in Australia, but there’s now a growing risk of a fresh surge of net emigration of frustrated young Kiwis across the Tasman. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Employers here in Aotearoa are desperate to keep their best-trained, most-productive ...
This post contains two guest posts from readers, both of which were sent to us after the flooding on Friday 27 January, both of which discuss how we handle our stormwater. This is a guest post from Ed Clayton, who’s written for us before about Auckland’s relationship with freshwater, ...
TLDR: For paying subscribers, here’s the key breaking news, scoops and links I’ve found since 4 am this morning, as of 7 am, including:A 7.8 magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,200 in Turkey near its border with Syria; ReutersMetService has warned a new cyclone is forming north of Aotearoa that ...
The politics of Waitangi and the Treaty evident over the weekend have moved into a new space. The politics of Waitangi and the Treaty evident over the weekend have moved into a new space. There is a new wave of Maori activism, which sees the Treaty as a living ...
Originally published by The Hill After decades of failure to pass major federal climate legislation, Congress finally broke through last year with the Inflation Reduction Act and its close to $400 billion in clean energy investments. Energy modeling experts estimated that these provisions would help the U.S. cut its carbon pollution ...
Apology Accepted? “I dropped the ball on Friday, I was too slow to be seen …The communications weren’t fast enough – including mine. I’m sorry for that.”–Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.HOW OFTEN do politicians apologise? Sincerely apologise? Not offer voters the weasel words: “If my actions have offended anyone, then I ...
At first blush, Christopher Luxon’s comment at the parliamentary powhiri at Waitangi this year sounded tone deaf. The Leader of the Opposition in talking about the Treaty of Waitangi described New Zealand as “a little experiment”. It seemed to diminish the treaty and the very idea of our nation. Yet ...
THE (new) Prime Minister said nobody understands what co-governance means, later modified to that there were so many varying interpretations that there was no common understanding. BRIAN EASTON writes: Co-governance cannot be derived from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It does not use the word. It ...
A brief postscript to yesterday’s newsletter…Watching the predawn speeches just now, the reverence of those speaking and the respectful nature of those listening under umbrellas in the dark. I felt a great sadness at the words from Christopher Luxon last evening still in my head. The singing in the dark accompanied ...
by Don Franks While on holiday,I stayed a few days in Scotland with a friend who showed me one of the country’s great working-class achievements. It was a few miles out of central Edinburgh, a huge cantilever bridge across the river Forth. The Forth Bridge was the first major structure ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic and ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 29, 2023 thru Sat, Feb 4, 2023. Story of the Week Social change more important than physical tipping points1.5-degree Goal not plausible Photo: CLICCS / Universität Hamburg Limiting global ...
So Long - And Thanks For All The Fish: In the two-and-a-bit years since Jacinda Ardern’s electoral triumph of 2020, virtually every decision she made had gone politically awry. In the minds of many thousands of voters a chilling metamorphosis had taken place. The Faerie Queen had become the Wicked ...
Look at us here on our beautiful islands in the South Pacific at the start of 2023, we have come so far.Ten days ago we saw a Māori Governor General swearing in our new PM and our first Pasifika Deputy PM, ahead of this year’s parliament where they will be ...
The Herald’s headline writers are at it again! A sensible and balanced piece by Liam Dann on the battle against inflation carries a headline that suggests that NZ is doing worse than the rest of the world. Check it out and see for yourself if I am right. Is this ...
Photo by Anna Demianenko on UnsplashTLDR: Here’s my longer reads and listens for the weekend for sharing with The Kaka’s paying subscribers. I’ve opened this one up for all to give everyone a taste of the sorts of extras you get as a full paying subscriber.Subscribe nowDeeper reads and listens ...
Hello from the middle of a long weekend where I’m letting the last few days unspool, not ready, not yet, to give words to the hardest of what we heard.Instead, today, here are some good words from other people.Mother CourageWhen I wrote last year about Mum and Dad’s move to ...
Workers Now is a new slate of candidates contesting this year’s general election. James Robb and Don Franks are the people behind this initiative and they are hoping to put the spotlight on working people’s interests. Both are seasoned activists who have campaigned for workers’ rights over many decades. Here is ...
Buzz from the Beehive Politicians keen to curry favour with Māori tribal leaders have headed north for Waitangi weekend. More than a few million dollars of public funding are headed north, too. Not all of this money is being trumpeted on the Beehive website, the Government’s official website. ...
Insurers face claims of over $500 million for cars, homes and property damaged in the floods. They are already putting up premiums and pulling insurance from properties deemed at high risk of flooding. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: This week in the podcast of our weekly hoon webinar for paying subscribers, ...
Our Cranky Uncle Game can already be played in eight languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. About 15 more languages are in the works at various stages of completion or have been offered to be done. To kick off the new year, we checked with how ...
The (new) Prime Minister said nobody understands what co-governance means, later modified to that there were so many varying interpretations that there was no common understanding.Co-governance cannot be derived from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It does not use the word. It refers to ‘government’ on ...
It’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump on this link for our chat about the week’s news with special guests Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick and Auckland City Councillor Julie Fairey, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which ...
In March last year, in a panic over rising petrol prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government made a poor decision, "temporarily" cutting fuel excise tax by 25 cents a litre. Of course, it turned out not to be temporary at all, having been extended in May, July, ...
This month’s open thread for climate related topics. Please be constructive, polite, and succinct. The post Unforced variations: Feb 2023 first appeared on RealClimate. ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two fresh press releases had been posted when we checked the Beehive website at noon, both of them posted yesterday. In one statement, in the runup to Waitangi Day, Maori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis drew attention to happenings on a Northland battle site in 1845. ...
It’s that time of the week again when I’m on the site for an hour for a chat in an Ask Me Anything with paying subscribers to The Kaka. Jump in for a chat on anything, including:Auckland’s catastrophic floods, which are set to cost insurers and the Government well over ...
Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers (left) has published a 6,000 word manifesto called ‘Capitalism after the Crises’ arguing for ‘values-based capitalism’. Yet here in NZ we hear the same stale old rhetoric unchanged from the 1990s and early 2000s. Photo: Getty ImagesTLDR: The rest of the world is talking about inflation ...
A couple of weeks ago, after NCEA results came out, my son’s enrolment at Auckland Uni for this year was confirmed - he is doing a BSc majoring in Statistics. Well that is the plan now, who knows what will take his interest once he starts.I spent a bit of ...
Kia ora. What a week! We hope you’ve all come through last weekend’s extreme weather event relatively dry and safe. Header image: stormwater ponds at Hobsonville Point. Image via Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland There’s been a storm of information and debate since the worst of the flooding ...
Hi,At 4.43pm yesterday it arrived — a cease and desist letter from the guy I mentioned in my last newsletter. I’d written an article about “WEWE”, a global multi-level marketing scam making in-roads into New Zealand. MLMs are terrible for many of the same reasons megachurches are terrible, and I ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic ...
Open access notables Via PNAS, Ceylan, Anderson & Wood present a paper squarely in the center of the Skeptical Science wheelhouse: Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased. The signficance statement is obvious catnip: Misinformation is a worldwide concern carrying socioeconomic and political consequences. What drives ...
Mark White from the Left free speech organisation Plebity looks at the disturbing trend of ‘book burning’ on US campuses In the abstract, people mostly agree that book banning is a bad thing. The Nazis did us the favor of being very clear about it and literally burning books, but ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has undergone a stern baptisim of fire in his first week in his new job, but it doesn’t get any easier. Next week, he has a vital meeting in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, where he has to establish ...
As PM Chris Hipkins says, it’s a “no brainer” to extend the fuel tax cut, half price public subsidy and the cut to the road user levy until mid-year. A no braoner if the prime purpose is to ease the burden on people struggling to cope with the cost of ...
Buzz from the Beehive Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours. The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues. His statement was headed ...
Poor Mike Hosking. He has revealed himself in his most recent diatribe to be one of those public figures who is defined, not by who he is, but by who he isn’t, or at least not by what he is for, but by what he is against. Jacinda’s departure has ...
New Zealand is the second least corrupt country on earth according to the latest Corruption Perception Index published yesterday by Transparency International. But how much does this reflect reality? The problem with being continually feted for world-leading political integrity – which the Beehive and government departments love to boast about ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Kia ora e te whānau. Today, we mark the anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi - and our commitment to working in partnership with Māori to deliver better outcomes and tackle the big issues, together. ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Work on the TVNZ/RNZ public media entity to stop; Radio NZ and NZ on Air to receive additional funding Social insurance scheme will not proceed this term The Human Rights (Incitement on Ground of Religious Belief) Amendment Bill to be withdrawn and not progressed this term. The matter to be ...
The Government is providing a $5 million package of emergency support to help businesses significantly affected by the recent flooding in Auckland. This includes: $3 million for flood recovery payments to help significantly affected businesses $1 million for mental wellbeing support through a boost to the First Steps programme $1 ...
The Government’s Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated to support people displaced by the severe flooding and landslips in the Auckland region, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. “TAS is now accepting registrations for people who cannot return to their homes and need assistance finding temporary accommodation. The team will work ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today held their first bilateral meeting in Canberra. It was Chris Hipkins’ first overseas visit since he took office, reflecting the close relationship between New Zealand and Australia. “New Zealand has no closer partner than Australia. I was pleased to ...
New Zealand will immediately provide humanitarian support to those affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by these earthquakes. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones affected,” ...
An historic Northland pā site with links to Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika is to be handed back to iwi, after collaboration by government, private landowners and local hapū. “It is fitting that the ceremony for the return of the Pākinga Pā site is during Waitangi weekend,” said Regional Development Minister ...
The Government is investing in a suite of initiatives to unlock Māori and Pacific resources, talent and knowledge across the science and research sector, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Two new funds – He tipu ka hua and He aka ka toro – set to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for India tomorrow as she continues to reconnect Aotearoa New Zealand to the world. The visit will begin in New Delhi where the Foreign Minister will meet with the Vice President Hon Jagdeep Dhankar and her Indian Government counterparts, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
The Government is supporting one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant historic sites, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, as it continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. “The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a taonga that we should protect and look after. This additional support will mean people can continue to ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
There’s a storm a’brewing on Treasure Island, and Alex and Jane are here to break it all down. The fans are rocked by a new team member, and the faves face the consequences of their Dame’s early morning strolls. Matty McLean is playing his heart out, Susan’s eyelids are inverted ...
It’s only week two, but already our fans and faves are feeling the strain. Tara Ward power ranks. Like a pair of Josh Kronfeld’s undies sent out to sea, our Treasure Island castaways have found themselves bobbing around on choppy waters. This was a tense week that saw one contestant ...
Chris Hipkins’ policy purge gives far more insight into how he will govern than the reshuffle he announced last week. Hate speech, biofuels, media mergers and social insurance have been dumped in the worthy, but not important bin, writes political editor Jo Moir. The front bench under Chris Hipkins’ leadership ...
You might be able to solve a delivery problem by cutting the number of packages you send. But is that enough, wonders Toby Manhire. If there’s one thing Chris Hipkins isn’t afraid of, it’s repeating himself to make the point. The first three sentences of his statement unveiling the policy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sathana Dushyanthen, Academic Specialist & Lecturer in Cancer Sciences & Digital Health| Superstar of STEM| Science Communicator, The University of Melbourne CDC/Unsplash Australians aged 18 and over will be eligible for a COVID booster from February 20 if they have ...
The state-owned radio broadcaster will keep its independence and get a cash injection after the Government scrapped the proposal to merge it with TVNZ Normal transmission has resumed for the country’s media industry. RNZ and TVNZ will remain as separate entities and the bogeyman of a monolithic public media entity ...
The EMA is relieved the Government has dedicated $5m to support Auckland businesses impacted by the recent flooding. Chief Executive Brett O’Riley says that is consistent with discussions the EMA and the Auckland Business Roundtable had been having with ...
The prime minister has unveiled what he calls a ‘new direction’ for the Labour government, and it involves launching a wrecking ball into Jacinda Ardern’s extensive policy programme. Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from parliament.We knew something was coming, but we perhaps weren’t expecting quite so much policy carnage at parliament ...
Organisations directly affected by this afternoon’s announcement that the media merger will not go ahead have issued statements in response, with a common thread of welcoming clarity after months of uncertainty and speculation. RNZ chair Jim Mather said: “Media in New Zealand is being challenged by rapidly changing commercial models, the ...
The decision to halt legislation that would bring religious grounds into existing hate speech rules, pending a referral to the Law Commission, has been rebuked by Amnesty International NZ. “We are deeply disappointed and frustrated that the government is taking so long to strengthen the country’s legislation against incitement to ...
The biggest private sector union in Aotearoa New Zealand, E tū, is concerned by the Prime Minister’s announcement today that the New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme (NZIIS) will be delayed indefinitely. The announcement was part of the new Prime ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has welcomed the Government’s decision to take the proposed social insurance scheme off the table for the rest of this parliament but has warned against bringing back similar proposals in future. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, ...
NZ On Air welcomes the decision from Cabinet today providing certainty for the public media sector. “Our funding strategy is flexible and future-focused, and we are able to quickly respond both to audience and media environment changes, without being ...
In an email to staff distributed shortly after Chris Hipkins’ announcement that the media merger will be scrapped, RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson has said: “It is good to have clarity after recent uncertainty.” The boost in funding for RNZ, details of which are to be determined, was “an endorsement ...
Pāmu is committed to reducing its climate impact through emissions reduction and strengthening climate resilience through adaption. Doubling down on its commitment , the state-owned enterprise has now signed a second sustainability-linked loan, ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is delighted at the news that the TVNZ/RNZ media merger is to be scrapped. Taxpayers' Union Executive Director, Jordan Williams, said: “Our former Chairman, a former TVNZ board member, Barrie Saunders was among the first ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin O’Connor, Professor of Cultural Economy, University of South Australia Federal Labor is engaged in urgent reform, making up for the “lost decade” under the Coalition. The Voice, industrial relations, climate change, universities, health, Asian-Pacific diplomacy, research and development are all undergoing ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins has announced the end of the planned merger of TVNZ and RNZ. It’s been in the works for more than three years and was set to be up and running this year. However, speaking at a post-cabinet press conference this afternoon, Hipkins confirmed it would not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julia Talbot-Jones, Senior lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Shutterstock/Dr Ajay Kumar Singh As New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins embarks on reprioritising policies to focus on “bread and butter issues”, the details of the contentious ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Labour’s reorientation to working class MāoriPolitical scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. In recent decades the Labour Party has lost its traditional connection with working class voters, becoming more of a middle class party of liberalism. This is especially true of Labour’s historic connection with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney Shutterstock ChatGPT has taken the world by storm. Within two months of its release it reached 100 million active users, making it the fastest-growing consumer application ever launched. Users are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bill Madden, Adjunct Professor, Australian Centre for Health Law Research, School of Law, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock This week’s ABC Four Corners investigation revealed the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), or tribunals determining such complaints, allowed a number ...
It appears the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ will indeed be scrapped in under an hour’s time. A source from within the media industry has told Te Ao Māori News that the planned entity has been abandoned by the government as new prime minister Chris Hipkins attempts to reign ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Bianca de Marchi/AAP The New South Wales government has embraced a sweeping set of reforms to the state’s massive poker machine business. These reforms are centred on ...
At a magnitude of 7.8, this week’s horrific earthquake near the Turkish border was 177 times stronger than Christchurch’s in 2011. This week an extremely large earthquake occurred in the southeast of Turkey, near the border with Syria. Data from seismometers which measure shaking of the ground caused by ...
In the life-cycle of a reader we bet it’s the childhood reading memories that matter most. Here are Unity’s bestselling books for January.AUCKLAND1 Sleepy Kiwi by Kat Quin (Tikitibu, $20, babies) A bold, black and white board book for newborns and up.2 Midnight Adventures of Ruru and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hal Pawson, Professor of Housing Research and Policy, and Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock The Albanese government’s housing package moved a step closer to delivery with the recent release of draft legislation. The bills are expected ...
It’s Wednesday, February 8 and welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates – coming to you today from Wellington. I’m Stewart Sowman-Lund, reach me on [email protected] What you need to know Chris Hipkins will chair the first meeting of his new cabinet. He will front a post-cabinet press ...
It’s been a rough ride since Louisa Opeteia hopped out of bed to find herself standing in a rising tide, but she’s grateful for the little things: a hot meal and the helping hands of friends, family and kind strangers.Friday morning, January 27. Louisa Opetaia of Māngere noticed the ...
Paved-over rivers, covered-up shorelines and filled-in wetlands reemerged during Auckland’s devastating deluge – taking the city 200 years back into the past.Tāmaki Makaurau’s recent flooding has stirred up plenty of kōrero about our biggest city. Architecture and urban planning professor Timothy Welch reminded us that we built Auckland in ...
PM Chris Hipkins is back in Wellington after his big day in Canberra. He’s chairing the first meeting of his new cabinet after last week’s reshuffle. That reshuffle saw ministers like Andrew Little and Peeni Henare demoted, while newer players like Ayesha Verrall soared up the ranks. According to the ...
Whittaker’s are putting five special “Ed-ition” blocks of their classic milk chocolate on Trade Me, with all proceeds going to help the Auckland flood relief. What makes it a special Ed-ition? The fact that pop star Ed Sheeran has come onboard, providing a selfie for the packaging and signing the ...
In the digital age, online activity can be a conduit for abusive behaviours. But secure digital tools can also offer a lifeline for victims. It’s no secret that New Zealand has a family violence epidemic, with one third of women physically or sexually assaulted by a partner over their lifetimes. ...
Thousands of people mistakenly paid the government’s cost of living payment have chosen not to repay it. And while the department responsible for sending out that money won’t say whether it’s disappointed by the lack of repayments, the prime minister was happy to express his views. Stuff has today revealed ...
A pair of Auckland councillors have leveraged the city’s flood disaster to protest government’s legislation enabling more medium density housing. Hayden Donnell says our elected representatives would be better off pointing the finger at themselves. As residents across her ward worked to clean out their waterlogged houses, Mt Eden-Puketāpapa councillor ...
Researchers from the University of Otago are “strongly” recommending the $5 fee to get a prescription filled be removed as a “simple way to reduce health inequities”. A new study has found removing the fee could significantly reduce the number of hospital admissions and length of hospital stays. The findings, published ...
We’ve known since the earliest moments of Chris Hipkins’ premiership that some of the unwieldy policy agenda of Jacinda Ardern was up for the chop. And now, about two weeks since being sworn in, the prime minister has confirmed the chopping block will be on display at today’s 3pm post-cabinet ...
The death toll for the quake that hit Turkey and Northern Syria may reach 20,000. For Syrians, the quake has struck a population already overwhelmed by the impacts of war, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full ...
Norton, a leading Cyber Safety brand of Gen, today published the New Zealand findings from a global study about online dating, associated scams, and attitudes about online stalking. The 2023 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report (NCSIR), conducted online ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University The United States’ shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend points to international security affairs being on a knife edge. It follows ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Liknaitzky, Head of Clinical Psychedelic Research, Monash University Collaborative care teams will need to be established for safe treatment.Author provided A few days ago, the Australian drug regulator – the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) – surprised experts around the world ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kimberley Crofts, Doctoral Student, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock The decline of the coal industry means 17 mines in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will close over the next two decades. More than 130,000 hectares of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Jefferson, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock The first signs were the half-eaten lunches coming home from high school. This was in stark contrast to the primary school years, where the box looked as if a demolition ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern Queensland Disney When it was released 25 years ago, James Cameron’s Titanic was enormous. It made stars of its two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Reviews overwhelmingly heaped ...
AI writing tools are free, easy to use and already everywhere. But is it cheating to use them to help write an essay? Shanti Mathias spoke to New Zealand academics about AI’s place in education.When California company Open AI released its ChatGPT tool to the public last November, social ...
Chris Hipkins’ first overseas trip as prime minister heralded few surprises. But, as Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from Canberra, that’s exactly what he will have wanted. It’s been just two weeks since Chris Hipkins was sworn in as prime minister, a fortnight that has seen him deal with devastating flooding, formalise ...
The Green Party wants the government to double the maximum amount it is paying out to flood-affected Aucklanders, through the Civil Defence payments. ...
Felicity Goodyear-Smith looks back at just how political the issue of abortion was in New Zealand On Wednesday March 25, 2020 New Zealand moved to nationwide self-isolation in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Unless essential, there were to be no face-to-face primary care consultations. I work full-time as a professor of general ...
From purging possums and saving kiwi, to leading the Tui and turning out for the Blues, rugby record breaker Krysten Cottrell has a fascinating combination of careers, Suzanne McFadden discovers. Krysten Cottrell spends her week deep in the bush of the Kaweka Range, searching for dead rats and possums - and then ...
The money the health system has to fight Covid-19 in the first half of 2023 is less than half of what it had in the second half of 2022, Marc Daalder reports Staff on the Covid-19 response have been terminated or quietly reassigned to other health issues as funding to ...
Bow and arrow hunting There was a certain time of year I really used to live for: camping over the Christmas break. I was 15 in the Christmas of 1976 and up to that point I'd shot a heap of goats and smaller game, but the thought of maybe getting ...
International education used to be a massive earner for New Zealand. With the borders finally open, are foreign students returning? Macleans College in East Auckland used to have more international students than any other school in the country. Then, the pandemic hit and turned it upside down. Principal Steve Hargreaves doesn't ...
Meg Parsons and Iresh Jayawardena explain why managing climate risk is a complex social justice issue Commentary and coverage of the floods in Auckland has so far focused on the severity of the flood, loss of life and injuries, damage to buildings, homes, roads and other infrastructure, on the number of people ...
A successful Minister for Auckland could foreshadow a substantially revised Cities and Regions government focusOpinion: There’s little doubt Auckland is in need of substantial ministering. It’s not just the biblical-scale deluge and resulting significant damage the region has experienced. It’s the historical sins of omission and some of commission ...
Chris Hipkins’ first offshore trip as leader went without a hitch, albeit with a low bar to clear. The challenge now is ensuring that Australian rhetoric around expat rights becomes reality, while Hipkins himself needs to figure out his own foreign policy agenda. Sam Sachdeva reports, in Canberra. Given the ...
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. ...
By Ian Chute in Suva Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) board chairman Ajay Bhai Amrit says he has receipts to prove former FBC chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum received an annual package of $387,790 including benefits and entitlements. He said this worked out to $32,315 a month and that the board ...
PNG Post-Courier PNG Defence Force Commander Major-General Mark Goina says “appropriate force” will be dealt to the gunmen who ambushed and wounded two soldiers in Saugurap, Enga Province, last week. In a statement Major-General Goina said: “A section from the PNGDF contingent deployed in Enga Province were on routine duty, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team. In this podcast Michelle and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe.Lukas Coch/AAP Australia’s cash rate has hit 3.35%, after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the ninth time in a row – and signalled ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Della Bosca, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney Shutterstock While the days of overt climate denial are mostly over, there’s a distinct form of denial emerging in its stead. You may have experienced ...
A potential cyclone that could bring more severe wet weather to the upper North Island is now forecast to form a day earlier, Stuff reports. Due to ideal cyclone-formation conditions over the Coral Sea, a low south of the Solomon Islands has a high chance of turning into a cyclone ...
If there is a vote to change the flag, we will be saddled with even more costs as the present flag will have to be replaced with the beach towel everywhere.
That won’t be cheap.
It’s a big IF Paul. We have a fairly solid chunk of society opposed to something that affects their sense of national identity. People from all political camps are opposed to change – I like it, it’s quite a good leveller. We are experiencing a moment of unity for once in our increasingly divided land.
Maybe have faith that we can pull this off?
Here’s a question for readers. As much as I dislike our current flag, mainly for reasons that Te Reo Putake pointed in his butchers apron post in regard to the Union Jack symbolism of colonial oppression (and descending from people who fought against that flag) I am still voting to retain it because a) the alternative is nothing but an ugly sport logo and b) I will not contribute to the Key Vanity Project.
Would I be a hypocrite to print out our flag and attach it to my front fence as fingers up to Key?
I don’t think putting up the current flag on your fence would be hypocritical at all, Rosie. For a lot of people its simply the dead rat option. Not ideal, but better than letting Key have his way.
A couple of good things have come out of this referendum. One of them has been the discussion about the current flag’s provenance and historical meaning. The other has been the tarnishing of John Key’s image. I’m looking forward to him waking up a loser on the day the result is announced.
Well i hope that you are going to vote.
No one is going to win by abstaining.
No, I’m not voting. Though I was impressed by the arguments you and others put up on the Butcher’s Apron post. However, I’m confident the change will be rejected by those that do actually vote. I still think that the lower the turnout, the worse it makes National look.
no you are effectively giving your vote to National.
but what evs, its your choice.
I agree with Sabine. Not voting in the first referendum was a reasonable approach, not voting in this one could mean we end up with that hideous alternative. By keeping the flag we have we may get a chance to get a new one in a few years but if it is changed now we’re stuck with the tacky beach towel.
yes. Agree totally Karen.
Ditto
For some reason I feel compelled to add my voice (again) to the chorus of people basically pleading with you at this stage to vote.
Key is not worried about the voter turnout, only that he wins. If only 60% of those eligible to vote do so but those who vote for change have a larger % of that 60% then they win.
I believe the polls indicating support for the status quo are being deliberately manipulated to lull opponents of the flag change into a false sense of confidence. I don’t trust the Government and their celebrity and media shills. TRP and others who don’t intend to vote need to rethink their strategy – a very high turnout and rejection of the proposed flag will send the most compelling message to John Key that cannot be spun.
Here here Southern man.
There are quite a few people that fly the NZ Flag at the moment, in front of their houses, on their cars.
Its your flag, fly it.
No one has an issue with the All Black Silver Fern when rugby is on.
John Key has no one but himself to blame for this charade.
Cheers trp and Sabine.
Might just do that. I was inspired by the street in Invercargill where each resident is flying the NZ flag in their front garden.
And yes, it is the dead rat option. I have no affiliation or attachment to our current flag but am happy to see it be flown as a symbol of resistance against Key.
Yes when you get down to it
Its the top down not the bottom up wanting this therefore in principle its not democratic no matter what the machinery or chicanery
Its not going to happen, evidence being I saw someone driving a holden around yesterday with NZ flags flying above both windows and blasting KISS at full volume. The natives are restless.
What an awesome spectacle.
“NZ flags flying above both windows and blasting KISS at full volume.” – Love it!
But a new flag will offer commercial opportunities. The guy who designed one of the contenders has already made a decent sum in sales.
We probably should change our flag every three years after the election. The first year the public’s attention could be taken up with deciding on colours and shapes etc. and that will keep us busy and amused so we won’t even care if our house, or the neighbour’s falls down or costs more than their life savings to repair and they commit suicide, or whatever.
And the rights to the commercial opportunities using the flag should be held by government. Now we have a commercial government it can profit from our brands. The past governments could not get their heads around owning the Kiwi brand, or buying it off the shoe polish people and since then there has been a USA airline using it and no doubt others.
The new flag would go well on men’s and women’s underpants, shorts, and of course tea towels, beach towels, sun shades for cars etc. Just a few places it could be used, perhaps tattoos as well, look good on white patriot guys for instance.
/satire
The flag will be changed sometime in the future IMO, and hopefully under an improved process that will result in a flag design that many will accept and will be far superior than our current option. If we vote for this flag, the chance of another change when nz moves towards being a republic will be lost, at least by supporting the current flag there will be another opportunity for change.
Also many selected names that are used under the change the flag campaign comment on the need to change but none have come out that this is their 1st choice, and that this is the best design we can come up with, all we get is that the existing flag is confusing when we play against Australian teams.
This one’s for you Cowboy. You raised the issue of staff resignations at Todd Barclays office last week. Bill English is putting on the front that he aint bovvered about his former seat and it’s all ok:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/297819/bill-english-unfazed-by-staff-resignations
Have you been speaking with people in your electorate and getting a feel for how they view this and is there any suspicion about Barclay being an unsuitable MP to represent his constituents?
There’s no way Boy Wonder’s appointment was a risk free strategy, that was obvious and pointed out at the time. The local Queenstown paper gave him a good smacking at the time.
http://www.scene.co.nz/queenstowns-clueless-shooin-mp-says-mayor-who/316733a1.page?print=yes
The Nat electorate committee stood by the appointment at the time in the face of some pretty strong questioning. Now they are resigning. Generational change? Yeah, but the electorate isn’t getting younger. Biggest export here is our young, and especially in Queenstown. Most of Barclay’s generation here can’t, or don’t, vote in New Zealand.
There might be an opportunity for a non Nat candidate who can get the confidence of both Queenstown, and it’s environmental constraints, and the prudent conservative business practice of rural Southland. It would be a very special candidate, but it could easily go.
Would have to be someone with exceptional and broad name recognition in and well around Queenstown (eg extending out to Gore and beyond), to have any chance.
Shadbolt managed it – might be worth picking his brains.
Invercargill and Southland are not the same constituencies. Although Shadbolt is pretty conservative these days so who knows.
There might be an opportunity for a non Nat candidate who can get the confidence of both Queenstown, and it’s environmental constraints, and the prudent conservative business practice of rural Southland. It would be a very special candidate, but it could easily go.
Oh! That was meant to be quoting Graeme and the rest of my comment disappeared. I was wondering about a NZ First candidate for the electorate. They pulled it off in Northland. May be able to do in the South?
It’s not really a party thing, more the right person. A business orientated Green could easily pull Queenstown and Te Anau, but Gore and Lumsden could be a different story. But you never know, had a farmer mate complementing James Shaw for a comment about farmers focusing on profitability rather than production. Shaw’s comment related more to emissions than finances, but the sound bite went both ways.
The electorate is used to having a top notch MP. Queenstown has been represented by Warren Cooper, David Parker and Bill English. Jackie Dean never really got any respect here and there was relief when Bill ended up as MP through boundary change.
There’s huge growth here right now and another change must be coming soon. Could see a return to a Central Otago electorate. That would be an interesting demographic / political mix
Thanks Graeme. Thats interesting. Always good to get the local perspective. Interesting to hear feedback from locals too, like your farmer friend.
As an aside, I partially listened to a radio interview today about education and what changes have occurred in the last thirty years as education shifted towards a marketable commodity. Turns out the person they were interviewing was James Shaw. The language he used made him sound very accessible. I see what you are saying about a Green of a business orientated persuasion being a possibility for certain parts of your electorate.
Wait and see I guess.
Southland Times did another piece today, Bill in damage control mode… transition… yada yada…
Comments are revealing.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/77431028/cluthasouthland-electorate-resignations-part-of-transition-to-new-mp-bill-english
Hi Rosie
Thanks for the shout out. Sorry been too busy today to follow events.
I am in the electorate and don’t know anyone who is particularly happy about having such an inexperienced individual as our MP but people down here have given him the benefit of the doubt to date.
What’s interesting is the Southland Times seem to be all over this like a dog with a bone so they obviously know there is plenty of discontent behind the scenes. I know some of the resignees who are all highly regarded so there is obviously something badly amiss. The feeling is he is putting building towards his personal cabinet ambitions ahead of being prepared to take a stand on local issues.
He has a 14k majority so it would take a massive swing to unseat him but he got those votes by default. Now there is an actual measure of his ability and character and his vote will be based on his merit, which appears to be negligible.
Labour ran a seemingly good candidate, Liz Craig, a health professional as I recall, I was surprised at the time she didn’t get closer. Someone like that could do well again given the shambles in the southern DHB.
NZ first are pushing the regional theme and should be a beneficiary of those true blue Nats that would never vote labour. If they get a strong rural focused candidate they should do well im picking but whether that transfers through to Queenstown appeal is the issue?
Cheers for the view cowboy.
“The feeling is he is putting building towards his personal cabinet ambitions ahead of being prepared to take a stand on local issues.”
That wouldn’t surprise me, he is a kid after all, of a self interested persuasion. That kind of principle something salt of the earth types have no time for.
Keep us up to date of any new developments.
I see Slater’s done his PR job for Judith today. Just the gang sticking together I guess.
@Repateet
There is a bit more to that arse licking post than meets the eye.
Today is going to be a great day … just wait and see.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/77406691/andrew-little-dines-with-drug-company-executives-months-before-adopting-keytruda-stance
Oh I’m sure Judith Collins will be very forgiving and understanding over this, she won’t hold any grudges or be looking for payback
I mean sure it look a little suspicious but I’m sure its nothing 🙂
So, PR, do your job properly, and instead of hinting at impropriety, in the words of Bob Dyan, “Why don’t you just come out once and scream it?”
Then, we can answer your sleazy half-masked allegations and condemn them to the dustbin of history.
BTW, this has been a thread in yesterday’s Daily Review 01/03/2016.
Hey I’m not saying that Littles in the pocket but its funny that Little says on one hand he can’t remember meeting with them but he later remembers that he didn’t discuss political donations or it didn’t influence their current position on Keytruda?
Its not like john Keys ever accused of forgetting things
I’m not sure John Key’s ever been accused of remembering a damned thing…
bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
true that.
Bollocks, PR. You insinuate.
What on earth has not being in someone’s pocket got to do with memory recall?
You’re continuing the sly allegations, just on a different issue.
“I’m not quite sure whether drug companies were represented there,” said Little. That really says a lot about the impact that the drug company lobbyists made upon Little.
A person who never takes bribes does not have to remember if he took a bribe on a particular occasion. A person who knows why he has a position on a particular issue also knows he wasn’t influenced by someone’s views.
And don’t compare Key’s long list of lies, obfuscation and loose use of language with Andrew Little. That’s truly desperate condemnation by association.
Faboo.
Damned right.
I’m sure it’ll come to nothing 🙂
So does debating with you. 🙂
But others do read what is written.
And this moving hand, having writ, shall indeed move on……………..
Is Andrew Little married to someone who stands to benefit financially from a close relationship with foreign bsinesspeople?
Is Andrew Little the leader of a party that stands to benefit financially from a close relationship with Big Medicine?
When we see the audit of Cabinet Club we’ll humour your innuendo.
bets on whether that happens.
If only we could place that bet on one of Sky City’s new pokies…
Wouldn’t take the money tainted as it is, coming from addiction, money-laundering and desperation.
What innuendo? Little was at a meeting with Big Medicine (that market Keytruda) he can’t remember but does know they didn’t talk money and six months later Labour kicks up a stink about funding Keytruda
Theres absolutely nothing dodgy about that at all
What happened at this meeting to distinguish it from any other dinner meeting?
was he helicoptered in?
were they global industry presidents rather than typical lobbyists?
did he request an extensive detour to the other end of town in order to attend the funtion?
Is his partner director of one of the companies, and therefore there’d be a conflict of interest for him to remember?
Was his meeting used in company advertising brochures contrary to party policy?
did he happen to replace a bottle of wine labelled “Labour Leader’s Lambrusco” that turned out to be part owned by his supposedly blind trust?
Were there 100,000-odd shares in pharmaceutical companies that he forgot to declare?
Shame that politics doesn’t work that way eh 🙂
Actually, it does.
Note that I was asking if there was anything particularly memorable about the meeting.
see, tories, especially key, seem to forget things that should be very memorable. Key does it a lot.
Little seems to have a fairly good memory, but I’d expect he has a lot of similar meetings
I asked Little that. He put on his best imitation of a Sergeant Schultz face and told me “I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!” .
Seems about right. I doubt if he is ever going to answer your questions.
So, to recap, Little did not immediately remember a meeting that seems to have had pretty much nothing particularly memorable about it.
Key, on the other hand, can’t remember how a mate managed to walk randomly into being head of one of our intelligence services.
Good questions, McFlock, but beyond PR’s PR writ, and wit, to answer.
No.
Wow, The Herald is going into overdrive for the change the flag lobby and of course thier boss, John Key, They have even got some lame Aussie outfit’s corny advert on board today. No doubt part of the Crosby Textors dirty politics brigade.
Who’s next Granny?
RNZ flag poll running at 7-1 against change currently.
Still best not to take it for granted. I’ll be doing my bit & voting for the current flag.
agreed
I read a sly twisted piece of RW maliciousness on some wrapping newspaper of recent vintage. Liam Hehir, solicitor, writes for Fairfax and gets into quite a few papers as a result. What a cheap way of getting political coverage for a party to reach people of their mindset and beliefs. It is interesting to note at the end of the Opinion piece that there is no description of the writer, his expertise or interests, that would underpin the value of his thoughts, and the right the newspaper has extended to use its publication to broadcast them to us all.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/opinion/77118558/opinion-right-wing-resistance-agenda-reprehensible
This one is about some guys in black jackets calling themselves the ‘Right Wing Resistance’ handing out brochures about their favourite hates. There are two columns noting their targets and Hehir’s opinions and suppositions about their characters and mentality. And he takes the opportunity to comment on their prejudice against Jews, because that opens the way to an attack on the Labour Party. The ‘RW Resistance even took the time to make positive reference to infamous anti-Semitic slur used against Key by a Labour candidate in the last election.’
I looked this up on Google and note this is an example of how much can be made of something small so that it registers as large, and then can be alluded to in vague terms for the next decade if not longer. Note that ‘the Labour candidate’ is of Jewish descent himself.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/251915/candidate-warned-over-shylock-slur
The candidate, [Steven Gibson] who is of Jewish descent himself, has apologised and said on Monday he didn’t actually understand what the term Shylock referred to, and was repeating what a constituent had said about Mr Key in the context of a bad deal.
“I was only repeating what a constituent had said to me. And it’s only now that I realise the connotations of it. To me it was like a Shakesperian reference. I’m sorry people have been offended and I’ll take the post down – that’s all I can do.”
Hehir in this Firing Line piece manages to fit in a snide comment about The Standard. The “RW Resistance is also dead set” against the PM changing the flag to a “brand label”, and their “overall themes and prose style” shared much more with the anonymous commenters on the Left-wing blog, The Standard than the centre-Right, Kiwiblog. Then followed some more musings of his tainted RW beliefs about attitudes of “your garden variety left-liberal”.
How about having a go at Opinion writing yourself now you have got interested in The Standard. It’s a democracy, everyone has a chance to speak!
Here is some NCEA-guided advice.
http://www.studyit.org.nz/subjects/english/english3/4/subjectcontent/opinionwriting.html
Yes Greywarshark. Read that spiteful piece by Liam Hehir in our local paper. Not his first pro Key piece either.
Maybe even the Far Left is beginning to understand the crushing effect of the dogmatic and intolerant shift in LW culture over the last few years….
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-this-radical-activist-is-disillusioned-by-the-toxic-culture-of-the-left-a6895211.html
” I would go as far as saying that the politically correct mafia on the left perpetuates a form of bigotry on its own because it alienates and “otherises” those who do not share their ways of thinking and speaking about the world.”
“But without freedom of thought, speech, and expression, no other freedom can exist. Bigots and hateful people in general will make fools of themselves, and again, our freedom to speak means that we can and definitely should challenge and outsmart them. But the idea of being so self-righteous that we think we deserve to be authority figures in all of this is soul-crushing.”
I saw ‘far left’ then switched off. You sound like a conspiracy nut.
I saw “politically correct” and switched off. Dog whistle or really lazy thinking.
Sheep should be wary of blowing dog whistles…
You need to be a bit more realistic if you don’t want to be written off as a nut. Within the next few years our bankrupt ultra-right government will come for the health system. Most New Zealanders are opposed to that. But gulags are not part of our political tradition.
Keep stealing our stuff and they will be.
Whos going to the gulags? Torys or poor people?
It’ll start with a raid on the NWO offices to check the paperwork, then rounding up anyone who’s submitted invoices.
D’oh!
NZ’s poor are in Gulags already.
While you’re probably out to create mischief here, TLS, I will say that I agree with some core aspects of that activist’s critique. But it’s important to emphasise that we’re talking about a particular niche section of the Left – the Uber-Politically Correct faction: largely synonymous (I’ve increasingly come to realise) with the Authoritarian Left.
Probably associated most with certain (Rik from The Young Ones-style) middle class Uni students and that small faction of younger feminists (particularly in my own city of Wellington), newly-armed with First Class Gender Studies Degrees and seemingly more than keen to adopt the Trotskyite modus operandi of the 1970s Radical Lesbian Feminist Movement – an inherently aggressive approach, divisive/destructive Entryist tactics, the use of cult-like techniques for control and exclusion, with a healthy dose of self-martyrdom thrown in for good measure.
We’ve seen some pretty obvious examples on social media over the last few years, with various insane mob-job pile-ons, the angrily self-righteous working themselves up into a mouth-frothing fervour as they attack some unlucky woman journalist or erstwhile left-wing commentator for not strictly following their dogmatic sensibilities. By no means pleasant.
One of the more recent examples being the nasty and quite bizarre personal attack on Sacha Dylan on a Hard News thread. This most liberal and progressive of blokes was deemed Unsafe, Notorious, Misogynist and almost persona non grata (big black mark down on the old McCarthyite Blacklist run by these nutjobs) for committing the heinous crime of calling someone “a twat” a few times on Twitter.
Personally, I think these New McCarthyites with their teen-like pettiness and uber-precious self-martyrdom tendencies have been far too indulged by both the broader feminist movement and the broader Left in general.
So, there you go, TLS, you’ve got your bite. But I wouldn’t have bitten if I hadn’t thought it needed to be said. And it’s good to see sections of the Left drawing a line and moving into push-back territory.
The ‘mischief’ I am trying to cause is to trying to get the Left looking honestly into the reasons it has been out of Govt. for 3 terms heading for a 4th….
I agree with much of what you say, but I disagree that it is a niche issue. Having been a staunch and active Leftie since 1960, I can tell you there was a distinct trend from the early 1990’s on for the whole of LW culture to become more dogmatic and stridently intolerant of differing views.
It doesn’t need to be overt to be stifling. It only needs to be the subtle pressure of knowing that some ideas are not up for question, and anyone doing so will meet with an automatic condemnation.
For me, and many others I know, the Left simply became an unpleasant place to be.
I think that has a massive amount to do with the reason why the LW is failing to win back support, and why the Left cannot generate a new vision and the leaders to sell it…but obviously not many here want to hear that.
lolz
Compared to whom?
Yeah, hubristic stoats always claim they were pheasants……once. Rob Campbell…….Ports of Auckland and serial director. In my VUW days that guy frightened the shit out of me. Unease, maybe two decades prematurely. Only explanation – a vainglorious wanker – then or now. A la Trollwyn.
“there was a distinct trend from the early 1990’s on for the whole of LW culture to become more dogmatic and stridently intolerant of differing views”
Assuming that was the case, why do you think it happened then? Had anything else of political note occurred, say, from the mid-80s to the mid-90s?
What generally precedes radicalisation?
Or is it all just mercurial intellectual ‘fashion’ that is behind this kind of thing?
(BTW, I’m not conceding the truth of your claim, just following the questions that arise from it.)
There is an element of truth in that and it started well before the early 1990s.
I dropped out of [old] Labour in the 1980s because of it. Some of those ardent feminists of the 70s and 80s were bullies who isolated anyone who wasn’t prepared to strictly conform to their narrow views. When I returned to Labour 15 years later, I found most of them had either moved on of their own volition or had been ‘encouraged’ to move on. The current L.P. is now a much more tolerant and broad-based party with a pleasingly large number of ethnic minorities actively involved. I’m proud to be a member of the [new] Labour Party.
A Sword’ masterfully wielded ! Provoking The Lost Sheep to prattle on about how she/he was a liar/wanker then/now……a la Mad Dog Prebble, The Norton-ish Bassett, the suffocating up his own arse Moore.
Listen up Lost Sheep……if you wanna come home ya better show some respect……mouthing your own dick ain’t respect !
Oh I call folks twats all the time. (not to their face, don’t worry) Should I stop?
might be some truth in there
the article is about australia, but could very well be nz or many other places in the anglo saxon world.
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/march/1456750800/richard-cooke/boomer-supremacy
“Quote: “Somehow young workers need to be both agile and traditional, team players and self-motivating, in search of a good job and willing to work a job that isn’t paid at all. To be grateful, and, most importantly, to wait their turn.”
“they are synergistic attacks on millennials, Gen Y and Gen X. They’re almost elegant in their efficiency: their motivator is youth’s use of public space, already diminished as the public square makes the declension to the shopping mall. They increase the price of already valuable properties further, and accelerate gentrification.
They also act as part of a wider attack on wages and conditions in hospitality, perhaps the single most critical source of well-paid employment for the young. They then deny those same workers the chance of a civic social life after they’ve finished their shifts, or even the chance to get something to eat.” Quote end.
Quote: “”The whole stretch from Darlinghurst to Surry Hills seemed to be empty, the greasy spoons shut, a couple of bars of last resort unpatronised apart from their gaming rooms. These are exempt from the lockout – they can remain open as long as patrons only gamble and don’t drink. I walked all the way to the casino, which is exempt from everything – early closing and plastic glasses and no entries and all the other shackles of the legislation – even though it’s one of the most violent venues in the state. If opponents want to have the lockout revoked, the surest method is not to campaign against the laws but to insist they cover the casino. But even The Star’s bars were almost deserted. The city couldn’t have been emptier if it were under curfew. Quote End.
China just laid off 1.8 million people. If commodity prices weren’t enough of a sign, the growth in China’s economy is pretty much at an end.
And look at from which sectors: coal and steel.
They’re predicting seriously diminishing demand for both. In other words, people won’t be making shit (unless massive amounts are stockpiled somewhere, and I’m talking a significant percentage of world demand).
It is also response to us countervailing duties,such as the 266% duty on steel.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-01/u-s-said-to-impose-266-tariff-on-imports-of-steel-from-china
ah, very interesting.
It may be partly to do with competitive edges – POSCO was widely expected to be closed about a decade ago as China outstripped their cost of production – but they upteched and reversed the decline and two Chaebol shipbuilders stepped in to consolidate Korea’s position as cost effective softa ship builder.
http://presstv.ir/Detail/2016/03/01/453260/South-Korea-to-build-steel-mill-in-Iran
This is one of a cluster of large heavy industry start-ups in the Middle East and central Asia that, destabilising events permitting, may yet change the face of the region.
Send him to the Hague! Tony Benn on Blair’s ‘war crimes’
Long after his war-mongering, opportunist son has been consigned to a distasteful memory, Tony Benn will still be honoured for his courage and his integrity…
@Prentice
You apparently have a lot of expertise in technical stuff to do with the Internet.
Are you able to tell me how easy it would be to manipulate up votes and down votes in Georges Word Press YourNZ Blog?
Somebody did it a few weeks ago … and I would like to know if that sort of viral technology can continue to be utilized within the blog once it has been uploaded on there?
Many thanks for your time.
Donald Trump actually seems decent in comparison to Nevil “Breivik” Gibson, Jordan Williams, Barry Corbett, Michael Bassett, Neil Miller, John Bishop, David Farrar, Stephen Franks, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, Jacqueline Rowarth, Tau Henare, ad nauseam…..
The Panel, RNZ National, Wednesday 2 March 2016
Jim Mora, Jeremy Hansen, Ellen Reid, Zara Potts
About 4:25 p.m., following a discussion about the Super Tuesday voting with Professor Steve Hoadley from Auckland University, host Jim Mora read out a listener’s response….
JIM MORA: “Is it possible,” asks Neil, “to have someone on your program who SUPPORTS Donald Trump?”
JEREMY HANSEN: Ha ha ha ha!
ELLEN REID: [in a mock peremptory tone] No it’s not possible, Neil. Go away.
JIM MORA: [nervously] Ha ha ha. We do not instruct any of our guests what to say about Donald Trump, but I don’t think we have had anyone on who would admit to supporting him.
From that little exchange, one might infer that, morally, the guests on this program were of a higher than average calibre. Sadly, however, that doesn’t survive any serious scrutiny. Long-time sufferers of The Panel may not have actually heard any of the guests endorse Donald Trump, but plenty of them have made obnoxious and vicious statements live on air, without the giggling, sighing host uttering a word of demur….
Ellen reid
Symptomatic of NZs problems
I wonder who is paying for all the Key flag badges its supporters are wearing in parliament and actually should they be allowed in the house?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11596250
Oh Audrey…….you crone and baggage. It was never a simple fucking vote. It was always the man-child pulling his pud’. And you and ilk waiting waiting waiting with gobs expectantly wide open.
You’re a disgraceful suck-arse. Can’t help it. So fuck off with your haughty shit. No one owes any explanations to you as an archetype of everything that’s pathetic about the New Zealand MSM.
You do realise that you and ilk are laughed at in places where quality is thick on the ground. Khandallah Man you ! Fuck you’re barely literate.
Is Audrey Young a member of the National Party or something?
The lack of objectivity is off the planet.
Yeah, but doesn’t Murdoch own a large piece of the Herald, any paper owned by him is not worth the paper it’s printed on, it costs News Corp (Sydney morning Telegraph)
$30M a year to spread his bull shit.