Anti-nationalism has gone too far, selling out NZ just for the beating the chest moment. Oh, look how powerful we are, we can sell assets, hand profit streams to foreigners, stuff up and still make a living (please ignore the stats on growing poverty, skilled exodus, aging, jail pop., etc).
It must be so wonderful be a right winger knowing that they are stronger because NZ is weaker.
Just thinking logically here, if you buy this asset you expect a return so as to recoup your investment. Over time you end up owning it outright and taking a return. So if the asset was used for colllateral to a loan for Chch, and the profits used to pay off the loan by the people of Christchurch, they could have the money plus retain ownership. Why sell?
“When a child is afraid in her own home, have you ever wanted to help?
Now you can, by filling out the form and becoming a Guardian Angel.
Being a Guardian Angel means giving $30 or more each month to help families like Sophie’s through the services of Presbyterian Support Family Works. It is just a dollar a day.
For over 120 years Presbyterian Support has been caring for New Zealanders in need. We keep a low profile, so most people do not realise we are the largest provider of social services outside government.
Family Works is our way of helping families with children under 17, through services like counselling, social work, parenting support and family violence programmes.
We help children and families under enormous pressure. You can help them too by filling in the form right now and becoming a Guardian Angel today.
What’s more, all your Guardian Angel gifts will go to help children and families in your part of the country, through the Family Works staff in your region.
This appeal is urgent, because many families are forced to wait for the help they desperately need today.”
I’ve heard of leaving things to the private sector because they’re supposedly more efficient but this is beyond the pale Paula ‘hate the benes’ Bennett. Presbyterian Support has to come to the rescue of children in this country which should be CYFS’s job under your leadership – wow, sponsor to protect a child for just $1 per day – as per CV: hand me a Tui.
If CYFS and WINZ are in such bad shape before the Budget I can’t wait to view the results of NACT’s surgical ward rounds on the 19th.
Nice one Paula, make beneficiaries crawl by reducing access to much needed food grants and now leave children to the mercy of violence in the home because a non-state organisation feels it cannot ignore the yawning chasm in provision of services to counselling, social work, parenting support and family violence programmes.
Hang your head in shame you gutless, attention-seeking worm.
All the cutesy, apron-clad visits to food kitchens to do the crocodile teary Kodak moments cannot disguise that you’re completely useless at your job, couldn’t give a toss about anyone because people’s personal details can be splashed across the papers if the mood takes you and are a complete sell-out so that you get a nice pat on the head from your dear leader Key – fuck, what do you get if you roll over and let him scratch your stomach?
You hear of how a scientist, mathematician, musician, comes from a family of, even extended family of like minded individuals. That the family acts as a sponge for information that then discharges into the next generation. And what of that information, why are the facts, reasoning about those facts, the experiences of others who have learnt those facts so useful to society? Yet so hard to maintain, so hard to recreate from nothing. Why are Maori so left out of the way a Pakeha world works? Are the traditions in some successful Pakeha families hard to grow in Maori families and extended families? How is information maintained? By society rewarding their use, by society valuing the virtue of deep knowledge. Is there a linkage then between Maori poverty and skilled citizen flight to other world economies? That something in the kiwi shouting culture hates a smart arse? Is just jealous of learning, fearful even, of other families having wealth besides monetary considerations? That surface poverty, not keeping up with the neighbours outward display of conformity isn’t just loathing rich pricks, but also smart ones too? Do kiwis just love to knock? Is that why our economy sucks, and sucking more every month? Five cars torched, a scene more of LA, why? Were the cars targeted because they are too noisy? My street could do with a visit. Or is it 100% pure random nastiness. Maybe a gang moving in, dragging the neighbourhood down to buy up homes on the cheap. Gangs who put the homes in their girlfriends name and then hand them a noisy car to insure the street becomes a nightmare for any old people living there. Do we have laws against age discrimination? Why are our cars now so much a part of our kiwi culture? Sorry, woken again by the death cries of a car culture passing peak oil. Why are we kiwis so mindless? Is that what we are rewarded for because we don’t reward real intellect? Not that I would know anything about that, word bro.
“New ACT leader Don Brash has rejected claims by Hone Harawira that he is a racist, and has in turn attacked Mr Harawira for seeking preference for Maori based on race.
“I find that grossly offensive. I think being called racist is almost the worst kind of insult,” Dr Brash said. “To me a racist is someone who wants to discriminate against particular people. Well, my concern is that the Maori Party actually wants to create a privileged group of New Zealanders. ”
– um, Don, you just attacked Harawira’s former party and your current governing partner.
No Bored. He is not. He’s a sharp crafty dangerous man. We should not be conned into thinking he ‘s just an old buffoon . This revival of the far Right may and could mean disaster for the working people of Aotearoa . And the underpriviledged will disappear into the forgotten and don’t care poor.
In which he says that FPP isn’t the go because it doesn’t feel quite right in his view that a party could get 21 % of the vote and only get 2 seats. He doesn’t like mmp though, for reasons unexplained.
He likes the Supplementary system because it lets small parties have some token representation, and more importantly, lists allow the great and good like himself to enter parliament without having to bother with demeaning things like candidate selection panels. For reals. That’s what he reckons.
This is a man who seems to accept that we should look like a democracy, but that democracy itself is a bit of a hindrance.
Looking at that description of supplementary member, I think I prefer MMP.
But I also wouldn’t be wholly opposed to SM if it retained the current 70/50 split we have with MMP. 90/30 just puts way too much power in the FPP system for electorates. Unless that two was also changed to STV voting, to greatly increase the chances of minor parties winning electorate seats.
The electorate seats should be STV voting no matter what system you use. I still prefer MMP, SM looks like an attempt by the right to gerrymander the voting in their favour.
Maybe they need to make retirement compulsory at 70. And anyone in power is tested every year from 65 for senility or dementia.
Even the Americans with all their paranoia and insanity don’t let anyone hold the ultimate reins for more than 2 terms. And then their power is very limited.
And if you want to see what grumpy old men can do look at the OLD Russia!!
I have wondered too just how much longer the Maori can kow-tow to Brash and his mates Co/Viper . The adulation expressed by Turia towards Brash makes me cringe.She has completely forgot that Key was involved with Brash regarding Kiwi/Iwi . If the Maori party does not withdraw their support now that Brash is back it only shows their double standards, and that the baubles of office are much more important that justice for Maori.
We now have 3 supposedly rising politicians, that have publicly stated something about peak oil
John Banks – reading ‘The Oil Crash and You’ on his talk back show in 2002 (ish) http://oilcrash.com/articles/running.htm
Don Brash “But the real issue last week was about bio-diesel and the world running out of fossil fuels. That was the point of the photo op, and I went there to make that point, it is the world walking the plank frankly, not Don Brash…” http://oilcrash.com/articles/natnl_01.htm
And Hone calling for a cross party group to discuss peak oil and climate change. http://thestandard.org.nz/the-knife-edge/
Oh and all the above are thanks my fucking efforts … again I told you and them so )
And just to spice up our borring lives
Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool
With any luck Key will be flying through all this stuff, I just hope he stops off in Hawaii on his way home … breath deep John [I won’t delete it, but that last comment is perilously close to Kiwiblog territory. Please don’t go there. — r0b]
How many teachers does a $500,000 by-election cost months out from an election? A casual 13 or so, better let Hone know…
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike as only being tangentially related to the topic.
You’re also banned for 2 weeks for starting a diversion troll off the topic in a post. ]
Don’t excuse it as an act of democracy, its political posturing. He could easily ascertain the mandate of his electorate with polling and constituent meetings that neednt cost nearly as much.
Don’t excuse it as an act of democracy, its political posturing.
Who are you to say, Jared? He’s operating within the rules of Parliament and following clear precedent. The only ones trying to beat it up as an issue are those who are doing their own political posturing eh.
NZ needs more of a number of skilled professions.
No question there.
But in perspective, a career in teaching starts with the 3 year Bachelors, and the year in a classroom before you can be qualified. So in reality, we are only seeing the outcome of policies surrounding improving the rates of teachers getting qualified from 3-5 years ago.
If you want to get really picky, then wasteful and pandering to your supporters isn’t purely a concept of the right, interest free student loans have cost the nation dearly, and if Labour had actually followed through with their universal student allowance we would have really been in trouble.
And if you want to get really really really picky, at the moment there is a sincere glut of recent teaching graduates who are finding it difficult to land jobs. There is a lack of experienced teachers, not beginning teachers.
The lack of teachers has been the 9 year boggie man, at least for the last 18 years, I distinctly remember Labour bitching about the lack of teachers after 9 years of National, then …. 9 years later National was bitching about the lack of teachers after Labour had been in.
But the people are so fucking stupid, they eat this shit … then the idiots go out and vote? go figure ???
It is Tweedledum and Tweedledummer, every politician since maybe MJS (?) have been selfish self serving lairs. They haven’t got a decent bone in their collective bodies.
Lets see just one of the slack sos stand up and tell the truth about Kiwi Saver.
Come on Ben you’re lurking around this blog
And Jarad is right, lets see if 4 years after the last election there is a rush of new teachers, thanks to National’s teacher drive to fell last elections ‘bitches’
I mean, they have made the profession so appealing.
And now the TV is dribbling the Benlarden BS again.
Is their no end to humans stupidity or gullibility? ….. no, and that is what politicians live for.
May 2, 2011: Bad News for listeners to “The Panel”
Many people have been concerned about the increasing dominance of Jim Mora’s programme by ideologues from the hard right (Michelle Boag, John Barnett, John Bishop, David Farrar, Stephen Franks) or even worse, by the complacent, the dithery and the ill-informed (Peter Elliott, Gary McCormick, Neil Miller, Tim Watkin).
Today’s guests on The Panel are Dr. Michael Bassett and Law Society head Jonathan Krebs. Bassett, who is notorious for his indiscriminate hurling of invective, a couple of years ago on The Panel called Nicky Hager a holocaust-denier (Mora sat silently and did not even demur). Krebs became a laughing-stock when he went ballistic about the not guilty verdict for the Waihopai Three, nearly blowing a gasket on live radio.
So, all things considered, today’s Panel should be interesting and informed. Not.
Well, yes, but Hone has been somewhat upstaged by events in Pakistan. It’s carnival time in the Panel studio, with only Jonathan Krebs spoiling the mood a little by noting that this was an assassination, with no legal justification. Bassett’s response was a contemptuous guffaw.
Bassett then went on to ask why, if the U.S. is “intervening for humanitarian reasons” in Libya, it is not “doing something about Mugabe”. Mora, for his part, suggested they should “go into” Syria.
No one suggested the obvious: why don’t they “go into” the most brutal and flagrant human rights in the area: Israel?
It’s carnival time in the Panel studio, with only Jonathan Krebs spoiling the mood a little by noting that this was an assassination, with no legal justification. Bassett’s response was a contemptuous guffaw.
Bassett then went on to ask why, if the U.S. is “intervening for humanitarian reasons” in Libya, it is not “doing something about Mugabe”. Mora, for his part, suggested they should “go into” Syria.
No one suggested the obvious: why don’t they “go into” the most brutal and flagrant human rights in the area: Israel?
Quoto al 100% Morrissey! You are completely correct. On Campbell Live, the festival of rejoicing continues.. Is there no analysis to be had? Noooooooo… Let’s take it all at face value. Grr..
The programs panel and presenters then gushed platitudes about decrepit old Don Brash and generally put the boot into Phil in yet another attempt to discredit the Labour Party. The biased opinions and lack of firing neurons have ensured their ratings have fallen to an all time low of only 53,000 viewers. Clearly not enough to justify the continued funding of such a shit program.
Sean Plunket is another National Party champion who is showing his true colours on TV3. On Saturday, he grilled Phil Goff not about current policies, but about internal Labour Party machinations in 1996.
And I note that Plunket has failed to respond to the British activist George Galloway, who publicly called out Plunket on some ignorant things he said last year….
It’s still a big worry Morrissey . Even Labour Party followers are begining to believe it.
However this morning I attended meeting where the speaker was Rev Linsay Cumberpatch a well known human rights advocate . The Rev Cumberpatch was full of praise for Phil Goff .In fact he was at a loss to understand the negative comments regarding Phil Goff.
I must say I agree with this statement . I have observed Phil for sometime and have always been very impressed at his handling of policy .
Renting? Is your landlord gang connected? Provide gushing references, financial information, and let a landlord representative visit the property to check its in good order? So why aren’t you provided with the same curtsey? Who is your landlord, do they have gang connections, are rental properties more likely to be burgled? Which landlords have a track record for poorly secured premises? Why don’t landlords have to cover contents insurance and so give tenants some confidence that landlords are on the up and up? Where did you think gangs put their laundered drug profits?
I wouldn’t worry about it too much – ZeeBop has a bee in his bonnet at the moment about gangs for some reason…
I imagine that land-gang-lords would have the same desire as a normal landlord ie for tenants that were reliable in paying, not likely to cause damage and not likely to move out because they have been burgled.
Re-letting is expensive and finding good tenants hard – why rob your own place when you can rob the place next door and you don’t have to go though the hassle? Plus you will have to fix doors/ windows etc unless you want it looking like an obvious inside job…
A discreet diplomatic lunch, a free trip to Washington and assurance of “assistance” from the US Embassy in Wellington have been used to blunt the Green Party’s “radical positions on many issues”, a leaked American diplomatic cable reveals.
The Americans seduced Green co-leaders Metiria Turei and Russel Norman, the latter with a free trip to Washington, and managed, over a lunch, to get a commitment from list MP Kennedy Graham “to turn (to the embassy) for any assistance he may need in the future.”
The cables show the views & interpretations of the US diplomats who wrote the cables.
The 2006 murders of infant twins Chris and Cru Kahui drew a cable for McCormick, saying it “highlighted the growing problem of welfare dependency, drug and alcohol addiction and child neglect within the Maori community”.
He said the Kahui family had hid “behind a traditional Maori grieving custom” to stonewall police investigations.
McCormick noted Maori Party leader Pita Sharples expressed “open indignation at the actions of the Kahui family and his efforts to address social problems within Maori have broadened his political appeal.”
They seem pretty wide of the mark on some NZ issues, and who knows, The Greens, Graham etc, may just have taken the free lunch & visit, smiled politely and made fiendly noises, without really shifting their political views, or subsequently turning to the US Embassy for help..
Yeah I noticed Stuff’s “Green party” headline. While interesting, to my minf the real oil (about Pharmac & copyright treaties) was buried way down the article. MSM spin – blatant as ever.
In 2004, US Ambassador Charles Swindells said the embassy was “attempting to make inroads against a government mindset that is hostile to the drug industry” and tried to “educate New Zealanders on the benefits of gaining access to a wider range of effective pharmaceuticals.”
The embassy noted an unexpected side effect from Pharmac, which it said denied cutting-edge drugs to New Zealanders: “Ironically, New Zealand presents a small but optimal environment for clinical trials of pharmaceuticals because of its population’s lack of exposure to newer medicines”.
Because Pharmac so doesn’t review teh literature on the efficiency of new drugs in order to see if the price tag is actually worth it compared to older, already known to work + extent of side effect drugs. And neither does the drug industry engage in unethical marketing, nor fail to disclose fully the side effects of new drugs.
Because Pharmac so doesn’t review teh literature on the efficiency of new drugs in order to see if the price tag is actually worth it compared to older, already known to work + extent of side effect drugs
As much as I appreciate Pharmac’s ability to source drugs at good prices, I’m not so keen on their evaluation methods for the new drugs. The appear to do a cost-benefit analysis in terms of cost to the health system vs benefits to the health system, rather than including benefits to the patient’s quality of life e.g. in terms of the ability to hold down a job or perform other societal functions normally.
“Useful idiot” Kathryn Ryan is easy meat for Matthew Hooton
A few minutes ago I heard Matthew “Machiavelli” Hooton try it on with Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan—and he got away with it. He said that lawyer Annette Sykes, a Mana Party candidate, “celebrated the 9/11 attacks.” That’s a lie, and Hooton was obviously trying to see just how far he could push Ryan. Her befuddled silence must have heartened him enormously.
Clearly Hooton’s key strategy is the tried and true National Party one of just telling lies, and seeing how long they can get away with it.
Trying to implant the notion that the new Mana party is “extremist”, Hooton is evidently going to stop at nothing. As long as he can get away with bamboozling useful idiots like Kathryn Ryan, it is quite effective.
Depressed and disappointed, I sent Ms. Ryan the following e-mail…
Why did you not challenge Matthew Hooton’s wild allegation?
Dear Kathryn,
You sat silently as Matthew Hooton, a notorious liar, smeared Annette Sykes by saying that she “celebrated the 9/11 attacks.”
Did you not think of asking him to back up his outlandish allegation?
“Are you comfortable with someone like Annette Sykes being so involved, I mean remember what she said around the time of 9/11 where she laughed and effectively applauded and clapped when those planes went into the towers on 9/11? I mean are you comfortable being a party in parliament having someone like that there?”
“When I first saw the planes fly into the towers I jumped for joy, I was so happy that at long last capitalism was under attack. Until, it suddenly dawned on me, what about all those poor pizza delivery boys, those poor firemen, those poor policemen, those poor lift-operators, all those poor cleaners, all those other poor workers who are forced to work for and were trying to save those greedy and horrible capitalists!? My heart and head was so confused – happy that some capitalists had been killed and very, very sad for all those who had died while working for them.”
It sounds bogus to me, no matter what you think of her politics I don’t think she’s thick enough to say something like that on the public record.
Your “information” comes from the looniest reaches of the far right blogosphere. The words you quote were “transcribed by a member of that audience”—i.e. they were made up.
A report of the comments was tabled in Parliament by New Zealand First MP Ron Mark in 2002, and they have been referred to since in parliamentary debate and in the media. I can’t find any evidence of her ever having denied making the statements – which you think you would if you had been accused in parliament of jumping for joy over the murder of several thousand people.
No update yet from various right wing lunatics who claimed he was dead years ago.
When the Hollow men came out, Hooten was fairly clear that he didn’t approve of the deliberate race baiting approach chosen by National; even though he went along with it and kept quiet.
It is a very rare thing in life to get a second chance to do the right thing.
OBL is just a scapegoat, we all know 911 was an inside job. It’s been proven by sciencey. And if he’d been wearing a tin foil burqa like me, the CIA would never have found him.
You may think you’re being funny, VoR, but it’s true.. the official 9/11 story stinks on ice. Further, OBL has probably been dead since at least 2002, like it or not!
And deep in the darkest recesses of the Beehive National Party Staffers are busily making lists of bad news to be released publicly under the extraordinary cover that will be provided by news that Osama Bin Laden has been killed.
Any thoughts for the approximately 1500 US troops and the countless civilian dead in Afghanistan to avenge the 3000 or so westerners killed on 11/9/2001.
So you believe in a state of “Hell” then joe.
Suggests you are a god fearing individual.
May come as a surprise to you but there are three groups of followers of this god.
Your type of language doesn’t bode well for the hopes of peace and reconciliation amongst the three.
Oh the wonderful, measured words of that very learned man that is Michael Bassett.
Former Labour MP for Te Atatu, and cabinet minister and now expert on things NZ.
Sadly now occupying time on Mora’s Afternoon on RNZ. He tries so hard to sound reasonable but then drops his guard and we get the bigot and the nasty little ACT apologist coming through.
Apparently Campbell Live has a ‘special’ report from Paul Henry at Times Square in New York. I have thought TV3 news was going down the tubes in spectacular fashion for awhile, particularly with that nasty toad Duncan Garner spinning for the Nat-Act twats, but Paul fricking Henry? This is the last goddamn straw. I am never watching TV3 news again.
Hmmm, wikileaks cables show just how much the US government, with scant regard for NZ sovereignty, was pushing the NZ government to adopt the internet/digital copyright laws, 3 strikes etc:
The cables are from 2005 & through to the NAct term in government.
And in 2005, there was a detailed break down of the costs of implementing the law, with the US offering a financial bribe for it to the NZ government Drew Wilson, in the above linked article pon the cables, says:
A diplomatic cable that was sent clear back in 2005 shows that the US was offering up money to put in new copyright laws. The cable was very detailed about the budget cost at the time…
Wilson ends the article by saying:
Overall, I think it is infuriating the way the US has conducted themselves on copyright on the international stage. In New Zealand, they are even pushing the country to implement laws even the US wouldn’t dare pass themselves because of it’s over-restrictiveness.
…
I’ll be blunt on this matter. If the US waltzes in to your country and demands the country implement a three strikes law, do yourselves a favour, grow a spine and tell the US to “[insert adjective here] off”.
On Capitol Hill they call them lobbyists, unelected pressure groups.
Not a lot different, it would seem, is about to be manifested in the Beehive.
Did the Prime Minister tell the gathered press today that he was expecting
a visit from Dr Brash to discuss how the ACT party is to be considered in
government? WTF? How far away is this from the Knights of the Round Table
having a regular formal audience?
In the Herald: “Kurariki was convicted of manslaughter in 2002 for his role as a lookout in the killing of pizza delivery man Michael Choy. Kurariki, who was 12 at the time, was released from jail in 2008.”
Well. Convicted of manslaughter as the lookout? But the Herald and other MSM have repeatedly named him as “NZ’s youngest killer.” And how well do we know the others who actually did the killing?
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luis Gómez Romero, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, Constitutional Law and Legal Theory, University of Wollongong Fifty years ago, Australian feminist Anne Summers denounced “the ideology of sexism” governing over so many women’s lives. Unfortunately, sexism is as lethal today as it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jose Antonio Lara-Hernandez, Senior Researcher in Architecture, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images The COVID-19 pandemic and the hybrid work patterns it fostered have changed the way we think about office space, and central business districts in general. While fears ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dale Boccabella, Associate Professor of Taxation Law, UNSW Sydney There’s a good reason your local volunteer-run netball club doesn’t pay tax. In Australia, various nonprofit organisations are exempt from paying income tax, including those that do charitable work, such as churches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Creative Writing and English Literature, Flinders University NetflixComedy is opening up spaces for silences to be broken and trauma stories to be told. In 2018, Hannah Gadsby started a revolution with Nanette, asking audiences to rethink ...
The workplace can be a minefield of bad comms and passive aggression. Kinksters can help you navigate it. A friend and colleague recently gave me a compliment I loved. They told me I’d always been good at emotional communication and making people feel comfortable. “But I feel like it’s really ...
Even if some students are now just texting on their laptops. Stewart Sowman-Lund writes in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Councils from Horowhenua, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and Wellington City will meet this Friday to work together on a plan for a Greater Wellington region water deal. ...
Renowned musician, advocate, and proud born and raised daughter of Tauranga, Ria Hall, is announcing her candidacy for Mayor of Tauranga and Pāpāmoa Ward for the upcoming election on July 20th. ...
The new Aotearoa histories curriculum is rich with potential. There’s still work to be done, but the education minister’s criticisms about ‘balance’ miss the mark, argues primary school teacher Jessie Moss. In 2015, Ōtorohanga College students presented to parliament a petition signed by more than 10,000 people calling for a ...
For too long our so-called national bird has maintained its stranglehold on the economy of regional New Zealand. Thanks to the fast track legislation, we will have our revenge. Theories abound on what ails New Zealand’s economy. National leader Chris Luxon has posited that we’re negative, wet, whiny, and inward-looking; ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 6 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
For the past 12 years, Georgia-Rose Brown has balanced on the brink of making an Olympic Games – but always landed gracefully on the wrong side. Reaching the Olympics is a dream the gymnast has harboured since she was a six-year-old; a dream that would dwindle every four years, yet ...
Late one afternoon in March 1860 a man in a thin green velveteen jacket and a wide-awake hat arrived on foot at a sheep station named Glenmark, about 65 kilometres north of Christchurch. The man was in his mid-fifties but he looked older. Several people who met him that day ...
If building one of Auckland’s possible waterfront stadiums was funded privately, it would need to hold a sold-out Ed Sherran concert every weekday for 25 years. That’s Rob Hamlin’s finding – he’s a senior marketing lecturer at the University of Otago. “It’s not going to happen; forget about it,” he ...
Comment: The debate over the future relationship between news and social media is bringing us closer to a long-overdue reckoning. Social media isn’t trying to kill journalism, because social media has never really cared about journalism. Social media is resolutely in the attention business. News propels some attention — perhaps ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A new Commonwealth Prac Payment will provide students with $319.50 a week when they are on clinical and professional placements. The payment will be means tested and start from July 1 next year, which ...
Asia Pacific Report About 500 people honoured Palestinian journalists in the heart of the New Zealand city of Auckland today for their brave coverage of Israel’s War on Gaza, now in its seventh month with almost 35,000 people killed, mostly women and children. Marking the annual May 3 World Press ...
The Government Communications Security Bureau denies hosting a foreign spying capability flagged by the watchdog, differentiating it from the system recently criticised. ...
RNZ News A group of academic staff at New Zealand’s largest university have expressed concern at the administration’s move to block a protest encampment that was planned to take place on campus calling for support for the rights of Palestinians. This week, the University of Auckland warned that while it ...
Genterwocky After a hard days marching, Sir Doocey calls in at the Village Tavern For a pint of ale and a pork pie. The grim villagers stare at him. “Do not be travelling on the forest road,” warns a crusty old beak. “And why is that, antique peasant?” Grins Sir ...
Political conferences after a party returns to power are usually a chance for some healthy, even unhealthy backslapping. Yet National Party president Sylvia Wood’s address to its mainland representatives on Saturday hardly contained the unalloyed delight that one might have expected following National’s escape from the wilderness of opposition. Yes, ...
Comment: Almost half the world is voting in national elections this year and artificial intelligence is the elephant in the room. There are genuine fears AI-generated or AI-edited deepfakes will potentially manipulate election outcomes not just in the US and UK, but critically in countries such as India. For that ...
Ahead of the reality franchise’s return to New Zealand, allow us to introduce the eight brides and grooms. Chuck on a veil and tie back your man bun, because it’s time to say “I do” to a new season of Married at First Sight NZ. The reality TV “social experiment” ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Norton, Professor in the Practice of Higher Education Policy, Australian National University Every year on June 1, student debt in Australia is indexed to inflation. In 2023, high inflation pushed the indexation rate to 7.1%, the highest since 1990. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Anti-nationalism has gone too far, selling out NZ just for the beating the chest moment. Oh, look how powerful we are, we can sell assets, hand profit streams to foreigners, stuff up and still make a living (please ignore the stats on growing poverty, skilled exodus, aging, jail pop., etc).
It must be so wonderful be a right winger knowing that they are stronger because NZ is weaker.
The bastards are at it again, any opportunity….asset sales.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4948667/Chch-door-open-for-asset-sales
Just thinking logically here, if you buy this asset you expect a return so as to recoup your investment. Over time you end up owning it outright and taking a return. So if the asset was used for colllateral to a loan for Chch, and the profits used to pay off the loan by the people of Christchurch, they could have the money plus retain ownership. Why sell?
“When a child is afraid in her own home, have you ever wanted to help?
Now you can, by filling out the form and becoming a Guardian Angel.
Being a Guardian Angel means giving $30 or more each month to help families like Sophie’s through the services of Presbyterian Support Family Works. It is just a dollar a day.
For over 120 years Presbyterian Support has been caring for New Zealanders in need. We keep a low profile, so most people do not realise we are the largest provider of social services outside government.
Family Works is our way of helping families with children under 17, through services like counselling, social work, parenting support and family violence programmes.
We help children and families under enormous pressure. You can help them too by filling in the form right now and becoming a Guardian Angel today.
What’s more, all your Guardian Angel gifts will go to help children and families in your part of the country, through the Family Works staff in your region.
This appeal is urgent, because many families are forced to wait for the help they desperately need today.”
I’ve heard of leaving things to the private sector because they’re supposedly more efficient but this is beyond the pale Paula ‘hate the benes’ Bennett. Presbyterian Support has to come to the rescue of children in this country which should be CYFS’s job under your leadership – wow, sponsor to protect a child for just $1 per day – as per CV: hand me a Tui.
If CYFS and WINZ are in such bad shape before the Budget I can’t wait to view the results of NACT’s surgical ward rounds on the 19th.
Nice one Paula, make beneficiaries crawl by reducing access to much needed food grants and now leave children to the mercy of violence in the home because a non-state organisation feels it cannot ignore the yawning chasm in provision of services to counselling, social work, parenting support and family violence programmes.
Hang your head in shame you gutless, attention-seeking worm.
All the cutesy, apron-clad visits to food kitchens to do the crocodile teary Kodak moments cannot disguise that you’re completely useless at your job, couldn’t give a toss about anyone because people’s personal details can be splashed across the papers if the mood takes you and are a complete sell-out so that you get a nice pat on the head from your dear leader Key – fuck, what do you get if you roll over and let him scratch your stomach?
http://www.angel.org.nz/
fuck, what do you get if you roll over and let him scratch your stomach?
Ask Jeanette Fitzsimons, she was Helen’s tickle me Elmo doll
Mission Australia
Arkansas Faith and Families Foundation
Big Society
And now with our very own Angel I can see where this is going…….
You hear of how a scientist, mathematician, musician, comes from a family of, even extended family of like minded individuals. That the family acts as a sponge for information that then discharges into the next generation. And what of that information, why are the facts, reasoning about those facts, the experiences of others who have learnt those facts so useful to society? Yet so hard to maintain, so hard to recreate from nothing. Why are Maori so left out of the way a Pakeha world works? Are the traditions in some successful Pakeha families hard to grow in Maori families and extended families? How is information maintained? By society rewarding their use, by society valuing the virtue of deep knowledge. Is there a linkage then between Maori poverty and skilled citizen flight to other world economies? That something in the kiwi shouting culture hates a smart arse? Is just jealous of learning, fearful even, of other families having wealth besides monetary considerations? That surface poverty, not keeping up with the neighbours outward display of conformity isn’t just loathing rich pricks, but also smart ones too? Do kiwis just love to knock? Is that why our economy sucks, and sucking more every month? Five cars torched, a scene more of LA, why? Were the cars targeted because they are too noisy? My street could do with a visit. Or is it 100% pure random nastiness. Maybe a gang moving in, dragging the neighbourhood down to buy up homes on the cheap. Gangs who put the homes in their girlfriends name and then hand them a noisy car to insure the street becomes a nightmare for any old people living there. Do we have laws against age discrimination? Why are our cars now so much a part of our kiwi culture? Sorry, woken again by the death cries of a car culture passing peak oil. Why are we kiwis so mindless? Is that what we are rewarded for because we don’t reward real intellect? Not that I would know anything about that, word bro.
Don Brash: confused old man
“New ACT leader Don Brash has rejected claims by Hone Harawira that he is a racist, and has in turn attacked Mr Harawira for seeking preference for Maori based on race.
“I find that grossly offensive. I think being called racist is almost the worst kind of insult,” Dr Brash said. “To me a racist is someone who wants to discriminate against particular people. Well, my concern is that the Maori Party actually wants to create a privileged group of New Zealanders. ”
– um, Don, you just attacked Harawira’s former party and your current governing partner.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4948683/Brash-labels-racist-claim-offensive
Not confused, just a fuckwit.
A rich, devious,fuckwit
No Bored. He is not. He’s a sharp crafty dangerous man. We should not be conned into thinking he ‘s just an old buffoon . This revival of the far Right may and could mean disaster for the working people of Aotearoa . And the underpriviledged will disappear into the forgotten and don’t care poor.
How is Don to know? They all look the same to him.
It’s true about the fuckwit thing.
Here it is again:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10722785
In which he says that FPP isn’t the go because it doesn’t feel quite right in his view that a party could get 21 % of the vote and only get 2 seats. He doesn’t like mmp though, for reasons unexplained.
He likes the Supplementary system because it lets small parties have some token representation, and more importantly, lists allow the great and good like himself to enter parliament without having to bother with demeaning things like candidate selection panels. For reals. That’s what he reckons.
This is a man who seems to accept that we should look like a democracy, but that democracy itself is a bit of a hindrance.
Fuckwit.
Looking at that description of supplementary member, I think I prefer MMP.
But I also wouldn’t be wholly opposed to SM if it retained the current 70/50 split we have with MMP. 90/30 just puts way too much power in the FPP system for electorates. Unless that two was also changed to STV voting, to greatly increase the chances of minor parties winning electorate seats.
The electorate seats should be STV voting no matter what system you use. I still prefer MMP, SM looks like an attempt by the right to gerrymander the voting in their favour.
Maybe they need to make retirement compulsory at 70. And anyone in power is tested every year from 65 for senility or dementia.
Even the Americans with all their paranoia and insanity don’t let anyone hold the ultimate reins for more than 2 terms. And then their power is very limited.
And if you want to see what grumpy old men can do look at the OLD Russia!!
Grumpy Fuckwit.
Bet the Maori Party is looking forwards to the next 3 years cosying up in bed with Brash.
What fucking sell outs.
I have wondered too just how much longer the Maori can kow-tow to Brash and his mates Co/Viper . The adulation expressed by Turia towards Brash makes me cringe.She has completely forgot that Key was involved with Brash regarding Kiwi/Iwi . If the Maori party does not withdraw their support now that Brash is back it only shows their double standards, and that the baubles of office are much more important that justice for Maori.
Whenever Brash opens his mouth it reminds me of that saying that when you find yourself in a hole you should stop digging.
Just keep him talking.
Don Brash… the Donad Trump of NZpolitics. ha ha ha ha a ha ha ha ha ha ha so funny both of them
We now have 3 supposedly rising politicians, that have publicly stated something about peak oil
John Banks – reading ‘The Oil Crash and You’ on his talk back show in 2002 (ish)
http://oilcrash.com/articles/running.htm
Don Brash “But the real issue last week was about bio-diesel and the world running out of fossil fuels. That was the point of the photo op, and I went there to make that point, it is the world walking the plank frankly, not Don Brash…”
http://oilcrash.com/articles/natnl_01.htm
And Hone calling for a cross party group to discuss peak oil and climate change.
http://thestandard.org.nz/the-knife-edge/
Oh and all the above are thanks my fucking efforts … again I told you and them so )
And just to spice up our borring lives
Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool
With any luck Key will be flying through all this stuff, I just hope he stops off in Hawaii on his way home … breath deep John
[I won’t delete it, but that last comment is perilously close to Kiwiblog territory. Please don’t go there. — r0b]
How many teachers does a $500,000 by-election cost months out from an election? A casual 13 or so, better let Hone know…
[lprent: Moved to OpenMike as only being tangentially related to the topic.
You’re also banned for 2 weeks for starting a diversion troll off the topic in a post. ]
That’s a one off charge, and worth more to democracy than, say, a bunch of BMW limos. Tax cuts for these 47 is 4.5 million every year…
Don’t excuse it as an act of democracy, its political posturing. He could easily ascertain the mandate of his electorate with polling and constituent meetings that neednt cost nearly as much.
Don’t excuse it as an act of democracy, its political posturing.
Who are you to say, Jared? He’s operating within the rules of Parliament and following clear precedent. The only ones trying to beat it up as an issue are those who are doing their own political posturing eh.
Considering how quick the left is to criticise subjectively “wasteful” political expenditure the irony is certainly not lost here.
So Jared do you agree that NZ needs more teachers?
Do you also agree that recent tax cuts for the wealthy has prevented expenditure on such worthwhile areas to occur?
NZ needs more of a number of skilled professions.
No question there.
But in perspective, a career in teaching starts with the 3 year Bachelors, and the year in a classroom before you can be qualified. So in reality, we are only seeing the outcome of policies surrounding improving the rates of teachers getting qualified from 3-5 years ago.
If you want to get really picky, then wasteful and pandering to your supporters isn’t purely a concept of the right, interest free student loans have cost the nation dearly, and if Labour had actually followed through with their universal student allowance we would have really been in trouble.
And if you want to get really really really picky, at the moment there is a sincere glut of recent teaching graduates who are finding it difficult to land jobs. There is a lack of experienced teachers, not beginning teachers.
The lack of teachers has been the 9 year boggie man, at least for the last 18 years, I distinctly remember Labour bitching about the lack of teachers after 9 years of National, then …. 9 years later National was bitching about the lack of teachers after Labour had been in.
But the people are so fucking stupid, they eat this shit … then the idiots go out and vote? go figure ???
It is Tweedledum and Tweedledummer, every politician since maybe MJS (?) have been selfish self serving lairs. They haven’t got a decent bone in their collective bodies.
Lets see just one of the slack sos stand up and tell the truth about Kiwi Saver.
Come on Ben you’re lurking around this blog
And Jarad is right, lets see if 4 years after the last election there is a rush of new teachers, thanks to National’s teacher drive to fell last elections ‘bitches’
I mean, they have made the profession so appealing.
And now the TV is dribbling the Benlarden BS again.
Is their no end to humans stupidity or gullibility? ….. no, and that is what politicians live for.
May 2, 2011: Bad News for listeners to “The Panel”
Many people have been concerned about the increasing dominance of Jim Mora’s programme by ideologues from the hard right (Michelle Boag, John Barnett, John Bishop, David Farrar, Stephen Franks) or even worse, by the complacent, the dithery and the ill-informed (Peter Elliott, Gary McCormick, Neil Miller, Tim Watkin).
Today’s guests on The Panel are Dr. Michael Bassett and Law Society head Jonathan Krebs. Bassett, who is notorious for his indiscriminate hurling of invective, a couple of years ago on The Panel called Nicky Hager a holocaust-denier (Mora sat silently and did not even demur). Krebs became a laughing-stock when he went ballistic about the not guilty verdict for the Waihopai Three, nearly blowing a gasket on live radio.
So, all things considered, today’s Panel should be interesting and informed. Not.
I haven’t been listening, but let me guess, ‘Hone is uppity’.
Amirite?
Well, yes, but Hone has been somewhat upstaged by events in Pakistan. It’s carnival time in the Panel studio, with only Jonathan Krebs spoiling the mood a little by noting that this was an assassination, with no legal justification. Bassett’s response was a contemptuous guffaw.
Bassett then went on to ask why, if the U.S. is “intervening for humanitarian reasons” in Libya, it is not “doing something about Mugabe”. Mora, for his part, suggested they should “go into” Syria.
No one suggested the obvious: why don’t they “go into” the most brutal and flagrant human rights in the area: Israel?
Quoto al 100% Morrissey! You are completely correct. On Campbell Live, the festival of rejoicing continues.. Is there no analysis to be had? Noooooooo… Let’s take it all at face value. Grr..
Asshole of the Week Award – Duncan Garner
http://thejackalman.blogspot.com/2011/05/asshole-of-week-award.html
The programs panel and presenters then gushed platitudes about decrepit old Don Brash and generally put the boot into Phil in yet another attempt to discredit the Labour Party. The biased opinions and lack of firing neurons have ensured their ratings have fallen to an all time low of only 53,000 viewers. Clearly not enough to justify the continued funding of such a shit program.
Sean Plunket is another National Party champion who is showing his true colours on TV3. On Saturday, he grilled Phil Goff not about current policies, but about internal Labour Party machinations in 1996.
And I note that Plunket has failed to respond to the British activist George Galloway, who publicly called out Plunket on some ignorant things he said last year….
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/george-galloway-invites-interview-by-sean-plunket-of-tv3s-the-nation-2/
It’s still a big worry Morrissey . Even Labour Party followers are begining to believe it.
However this morning I attended meeting where the speaker was Rev Linsay Cumberpatch a well known human rights advocate . The Rev Cumberpatch was full of praise for Phil Goff .In fact he was at a loss to understand the negative comments regarding Phil Goff.
I must say I agree with this statement . I have observed Phil for sometime and have always been very impressed at his handling of policy .
So Welcome to TV3, NZ’s Fox News/propaganda. Yay!
Note that in the photo of John Key meets Brent Impey, it is Impey who has the power handshake over Key’s. “You are in my control John.”
And don’t forget the $45 million this present government gave them Todd.
Renting? Is your landlord gang connected? Provide gushing references, financial information, and let a landlord representative visit the property to check its in good order? So why aren’t you provided with the same curtsey? Who is your landlord, do they have gang connections, are rental properties more likely to be burgled? Which landlords have a track record for poorly secured premises? Why don’t landlords have to cover contents insurance and so give tenants some confidence that landlords are on the up and up? Where did you think gangs put their laundered drug profits?
I never even considered that a landlord would specifically allow their tenants to be burgled.
I guess going through a rental agency would help to protect against this.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much – ZeeBop has a bee in his bonnet at the moment about gangs for some reason…
I imagine that land-gang-lords would have the same desire as a normal landlord ie for tenants that were reliable in paying, not likely to cause damage and not likely to move out because they have been burgled.
Re-letting is expensive and finding good tenants hard – why rob your own place when you can rob the place next door and you don’t have to go though the hassle? Plus you will have to fix doors/ windows etc unless you want it looking like an obvious inside job…
Likely? – no.
This says more about US attempts to interfer in NZZ democratic proceses than it does about the Greens, maori, Aucklanders & so-called “welfare dependency”.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4949637/Green-Party-lunch-revealed-in-Wikileaks-cable
The cables show the views & interpretations of the US diplomats who wrote the cables.
They seem pretty wide of the mark on some NZ issues, and who knows, The Greens, Graham etc, may just have taken the free lunch & visit, smiled politely and made fiendly noises, without really shifting their political views, or subsequently turning to the US Embassy for help..
Yeah I noticed Stuff’s “Green party” headline. While interesting, to my minf the real oil (about Pharmac & copyright treaties) was buried way down the article. MSM spin – blatant as ever.
Because Pharmac so doesn’t review teh literature on the efficiency of new drugs in order to see if the price tag is actually worth it compared to older, already known to work + extent of side effect drugs. And neither does the drug industry engage in unethical marketing, nor fail to disclose fully the side effects of new drugs.
As much as I appreciate Pharmac’s ability to source drugs at good prices, I’m not so keen on their evaluation methods for the new drugs. The appear to do a cost-benefit analysis in terms of cost to the health system vs benefits to the health system, rather than including benefits to the patient’s quality of life e.g. in terms of the ability to hold down a job or perform other societal functions normally.
“Useful idiot” Kathryn Ryan is easy meat for Matthew Hooton
A few minutes ago I heard Matthew “Machiavelli” Hooton try it on with Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan—and he got away with it. He said that lawyer Annette Sykes, a Mana Party candidate, “celebrated the 9/11 attacks.” That’s a lie, and Hooton was obviously trying to see just how far he could push Ryan. Her befuddled silence must have heartened him enormously.
Clearly Hooton’s key strategy is the tried and true National Party one of just telling lies, and seeing how long they can get away with it.
Trying to implant the notion that the new Mana party is “extremist”, Hooton is evidently going to stop at nothing. As long as he can get away with bamboozling useful idiots like Kathryn Ryan, it is quite effective.
Depressed and disappointed, I sent Ms. Ryan the following e-mail…
Why did you not challenge Matthew Hooton’s wild allegation?
Dear Kathryn,
You sat silently as Matthew Hooton, a notorious liar, smeared Annette Sykes by saying that she “celebrated the 9/11 attacks.”
Did you not think of asking him to back up his outlandish allegation?
Yours in wonderment,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
Morrisey
Yu better take up this issue with Duncan Garner as well,
http://business.scoop.co.nz/2011/04/30/hone-harawira-on-the-nation/
“Are you comfortable with someone like Annette Sykes being so involved, I mean remember what she said around the time of 9/11 where she laughed and effectively applauded and clapped when those planes went into the towers on 9/11? I mean are you comfortable being a party in parliament having someone like that there?”
I don’t believe Annette Sykes either said or did any of those things. Garner was probably rehashing what he’d heard Hooton say.
What you believe is neither here nor there. surely, if she did either (or both) Hooten and Garner would have a record.
So where is it then?
The quote I’ve seen republished on blogs is…
“When I first saw the planes fly into the towers I jumped for joy, I was so happy that at long last capitalism was under attack. Until, it suddenly dawned on me, what about all those poor pizza delivery boys, those poor firemen, those poor policemen, those poor lift-operators, all those poor cleaners, all those other poor workers who are forced to work for and were trying to save those greedy and horrible capitalists!? My heart and head was so confused – happy that some capitalists had been killed and very, very sad for all those who had died while working for them.”
It sounds bogus to me, no matter what you think of her politics I don’t think she’s thick enough to say something like that on the public record.
Your “information” comes from the looniest reaches of the far right blogosphere. The words you quote were “transcribed by a member of that audience”—i.e. they were made up.
http://pc.blogspot.com/2005/12/keith-locke-exposed-again.html
I found it here
http://blog.greens.org.nz/index.php/2005/05/31/united-in-terrorism/#comment-709
and here.
http://www.vdig.net/hansard/archive.jsp?y=2002&m=10&d=08&o=229&p=230
I’m sure we’ll get some clarification from Annette regarding what she actually said.
A report of the comments was tabled in Parliament by New Zealand First MP Ron Mark in 2002, and they have been referred to since in parliamentary debate and in the media. I can’t find any evidence of her ever having denied making the statements – which you think you would if you had been accused in parliament of jumping for joy over the murder of several thousand people.
I’ve heard all sorts of nasty things about you Matthew and I’ve never heard you deny them. Thus they must be true right?
Which reminds me. The rumour is you’re doing PR for Brash which surprised me because I didn’t think you were a race-baiter. Is that true?
No update yet from various right wing lunatics who claimed he was dead years ago.
When the Hollow men came out, Hooten was fairly clear that he didn’t approve of the deliberate race baiting approach chosen by National; even though he went along with it and kept quiet.
It is a very rare thing in life to get a second chance to do the right thing.
What? It’s “neither here nor there” whether or not I believe the word of a notorious liar?
I would have thought that establishing one recognizes the unreliability of the likes of Hooton and Garner was essential.
Would be hilarious if it is true. A party over before it starts.
The funniest thing will be to have Hooten hauled up on charges for this.
Wow. What charges would they be?
Seen this folks?
Penny Bright
http://waterpressure.wordpress.com
NO SELLOFF OF CHRISTCHURCH’S PUBLICLY-OWNED ASSETS!
[deleted]
[lprent: You’re cutting and pasting far too much – use quote and link. Next time I see it you’re going to get a months holiday. ]
Talking heads say OBL is dead, perhaps.
Be sure to pass on my condolensces to Annette Sykes
condolensces… condolences ya dopey fuck, … condolences….just be sure to pass them on
Kind of like Elvis?
On the 1st of May 1945 it was announced that H**ler was dead, theatre much.
OBL is just a scapegoat, we all know 911 was an inside job. It’s been proven by sciencey. And if he’d been wearing a tin foil burqa like me, the CIA would never have found him.
Careful you are inviting Eve to start frothing all over the interwebs.
Too late, HS, too late:
http://thestandard.org.nz/osama-bin-laden-dead/#comment-325957
Can I be the first to start the rumour that Osama surrendered, but was executed anyway to stop the truth coming out? Thanx.
You may think you’re being funny, VoR, but it’s true.. the official 9/11 story stinks on ice. Further, OBL has probably been dead since at least 2002, like it or not!
And deep in the darkest recesses of the Beehive National Party Staffers are busily making lists of bad news to be released publicly under the extraordinary cover that will be provided by news that Osama Bin Laden has been killed.
Great day for the world, thoughts with his victims at this point.
Any thoughts for the approximately 1500 US troops and the countless civilian dead in Afghanistan to avenge the 3000 or so westerners killed on 11/9/2001.
yeh… ain’t it grand to see one of the world’s worst mass muderers brought down at last.
And a great day that Pakistan sides with the USA to bring bin Laden down. No matter how long it takes, justice will be done.
I hope he rots in Hell.
George Bush left office a long time ago.
No, Hone has it on good advice that Don Brash is the ultimate bogeyman.
So you believe in a state of “Hell” then joe.
Suggests you are a god fearing individual.
May come as a surprise to you but there are three groups of followers of this god.
Your type of language doesn’t bode well for the hopes of peace and reconciliation amongst the three.
whatever…
I’m still delighted that this mass murdering scumbag now exists only in the past tense.
OBL is nothing but a bedtime story used to scare children into behaving like good little serfs.
Disgraceful the sight of people in the US celebrating a death…bloodthirsty ghouls.
Bet they wont be celebrating so much when more blood is spilled in the name of his scary-ness.
Stupid witch hunt, Stupid war, Evil Government.
Oh the wonderful, measured words of that very learned man that is Michael Bassett.
Former Labour MP for Te Atatu, and cabinet minister and now expert on things NZ.
Sadly now occupying time on Mora’s Afternoon on RNZ. He tries so hard to sound reasonable but then drops his guard and we get the bigot and the nasty little ACT apologist coming through.
Apparently Campbell Live has a ‘special’ report from Paul Henry at Times Square in New York. I have thought TV3 news was going down the tubes in spectacular fashion for awhile, particularly with that nasty toad Duncan Garner spinning for the Nat-Act twats, but Paul fricking Henry? This is the last goddamn straw. I am never watching TV3 news again.
diddums
Hmmm, wikileaks cables show just how much the US government, with scant regard for NZ sovereignty, was pushing the NZ government to adopt the internet/digital copyright laws, 3 strikes etc:
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/93326/new-zealands-three-strikes-law-was-pushed-bought-and-paid-for-by-the-us-wikileaks/
The cables are from 2005 & through to the NAct term in government.
And in 2005, there was a detailed break down of the costs of implementing the law, with the US offering a financial bribe for it to the NZ government Drew Wilson, in the above linked article pon the cables, says:
Wilson ends the article by saying:
On Capitol Hill they call them lobbyists, unelected pressure groups.
Not a lot different, it would seem, is about to be manifested in the Beehive.
Did the Prime Minister tell the gathered press today that he was expecting
a visit from Dr Brash to discuss how the ACT party is to be considered in
government? WTF? How far away is this from the Knights of the Round Table
having a regular formal audience?
In the Herald: “Kurariki was convicted of manslaughter in 2002 for his role as a lookout in the killing of pizza delivery man Michael Choy. Kurariki, who was 12 at the time, was released from jail in 2008.”
Well. Convicted of manslaughter as the lookout? But the Herald and other MSM have repeatedly named him as “NZ’s youngest killer.” And how well do we know the others who actually did the killing?
Having insomnia and playing with an anagram generator – this is too precious not to share:
Paula Bennett’s anagram name is PETULANT BEAN!
And one more, I just can’t help myself:
Rodney Hide’s anagram name is OY! HINDERED