I’d like to suggest a policy change to ban people who are trolling in a rather more subversive manner.
They link whore to their own sites, hijack threads and generally create dross all over this site in an attempt to dilute a theme or divert it.
You’ll find theses folk pick and choose the posts and leave the ones where it would be obvious they are a troll. I don’t mind debate or those who are openly trolls or being reactionary but the bloggers I’m referring to are making this site very boring with their endless pontificating, refusal to admit when they’ve been caught cold or just plain denial and ignorance when challenged.
I think itd make this site more focused on its core left of centre approach leaving these bloggers to their own and the many right wing sites like KB etc where their kindred spirits live.
We need a decent left sided site and this is superb at it but these folk appear to delight in filling it up with their endless so called moderate dribble.
[If it was left up to me to ban everyone who annoyed me The Standard would have only a few dozen commenters left after a month or two. And I’m the ‘nice’ moderator round here….RL]
I rarely read their comments. They just clutter up the place – like spam.
I feel differently, as I will read their first, at least… but if it gets into a long, tedious and above all repetitive argument, I will just skim subsequent posts. I also tend to skim anything that isn’t paragraphed, as I hate reading on screen, and will do it only for things that are interesting and clear…
I’m just happy the first post in Open Mike wasn’t what we all thought it would be.
(Just to clear up, this isn’t a left-leaning site. The best it comes to describing itself is that the contributors generally support the “broad labour movement” and gives a wiki-link definition, which is not at all definitively leftist. Still, as you say, it is a good site to read.)
and generally create dross all over this site in an attempt to dilute a theme or divert it
Do you mean dross like whingefests about people and comments that have nothing to do with the topic? If you want to help make this a decent site then try enriching it with worthwhile contributions.
If you prefer a circle jerk you might have more luck starting your own rather than trying to convert a blog that’s popular for it’s diversity.
Be aware that most “folk pick and choose the posts” they have time and interest for, and manage to ignore the rest without whinging.
Simon Power is the only Nat who comes out relatively cleanly in the DotCom residency story. He declined the property purchase requests. And Simon Power got out while his reputation was intact. He must have seen a lot of shenanigans to turn his back on the Nats.
I wonder how long the government and the FBI were talking about Dotcom before the arrest. It’s not at all beyond plausability that Power knew Dotcom was on a hitlist at that stage, so vetoing it was a no brainer really.
Perhaps with Napolitano here, we might soon see in NZ
1: Radiation body scanners – They have them, or are getting them in Oz
2: See something say something campaigns – Dont trust anyone other than your government messages
3: TSA style airport , hands in pants and all over your wife, kids and granny, “safety checks”
4: Inland TSA “road side” checks
When Homeland Security are sending lowly officials and air marshalls to Europe, why have we in little old NZ been sent the head of the department!
Notice how many references there are using such words as “undercover, anarchists and confidential source”
But hold on, I thought the first artcile I linked to said that AQ was the threat, with belly bombs etc..Oh wait on, we have to make sure people are really scared, because “anarchists” (read – white faces), are invovled, not just brown faces..
Fear everything, everyone, only trust your government!
Trust the government? Don’t be silly. Best thing to do is put in a tender for the supply of stage props security equipment . . . nice little earner, that, and doesn’t really matter if it works or not. http://youtu.be/-6QYz-kZTxU
Dunno WTF Janet Napolitano is doing over here – maybe to give John Key a cuddle for ensuring his citizens can be searched and surveiled at any time for any reason? Or pat his bottom when he goes all macho on that flotilla of refugees waiting just off-shore? Impose a immigration data-sharing protocol? Who knows? Skullduggery of some sort, no doubt.
Best to keep our wits about us. As the Dept of Homeland Security says, terrorists are everywhere. Like you say, fear everything, everyone, trust your government. Spooky.
is the FBI going to do anything about the looming extinction of the New Zealand native long finned eel.
Over fishing, pollution of waterways and depletion of habitat mean that the eel is nearly gone.
Only Northland Maori seem to be concerned.
How can the population in general be galvanised to save this fish?
Trishe Kahle from ‘I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit”. A socialist perspective on the global war on women and why the left can never afford to marginalise issues of womens’s oppression. Well worth a read imo.
… Sometimes, it’s an overt attack, such as when the Democrats led the charge on welfare “reforms” that targeted poor women and women of color. Politicians often try to pass welfare off as a budgeting issue—or a “waste” issue, but as welfare rights activist Johnnie Tillmon explained, “Welfare’s like a traffic accident. It can happen to anybody, but especially it happens to women. And that is why welfare is a women’s issue. For a lot of middle-class women in this country, Women’s Liberation is a matter of concern. For women on welfare it’s a matter of survival… But when the politicians talk about the “welfare cancer eating at our vitals,” they’re not talking about the aged, blind, and disabled. Nobody minds them. They’re the “deserving poor.” Politicians are talking about us¾the women who head up 99 percent of the A.F.D.C. families¾and our kids. We’re the “cancer,” the “undeserving poor.” Mothers and children.”….
…The 2011 happened. From Cairo to Madison, Karala India to Nigeria, working people around the world have taken a stand. Egypt, the second country to topple a long-term dictator in what has become known as the Arab Spring, is still fighting for its revolution. As Elizabeth Schulte noted: “in Egypt, Syria, Greece and other recent sites of revolt and rebellion, women and men mobilized and organized together in unprecedented ways. During struggles on this scale, workers’ ideas change–men’s ideas about women, and women’s ideas about men and also about themselves. In the process of confronting their shared and powerful enemy, such as the state and its police, men and women workers come to see their potential power as a united force.
Ideas like sexism are exposed for what they are–useless and destructive–not only because they are wrong, like misconceptions about what women are capable of, but because they divide the working class. They are exposed for their real purpose–to keep those at the top in power by dividing the masses below.”
I think that the divisive power lies in the link between liberalism and privilege rather than feminism per se. Take away the privilege, and in many instances liberalism becomes illiberal: you have a right to be a single mother, for instance, but only if you can provide for yourself. Given the conditions under which we live, with two incomes propping up a family, to be able to provide for yourself is increasingly to be privileged, and yet this is the ground upon which you are open to censure. This sort of divide arises on a number of levels, and to me it is one of the most pressing concerns with which the left is faced. In fact I would go so far as to say that while it is not addressed, the social liberal and economic justice sides of the left remain very much open to each others contempt. The conservative establishment that the liberal rails against is a dead horse – it no longer exists, and the actual conservative, often seen as dumb and uneducated by the liberal, is often poor and trying to cling to the few remnants of protection he or she has left. Meanwhile, liberal victories that are applauded among the urbane middle class at best mean nothing and are at worst a threat to the person who is finding it hard to keep a roof over her head. I am inclined to think that the broad acceptance of liberalism depends upon economic justice, since this is the precondition of choice having meaning.
Meanwhile, liberal victories that are applauded among the urbane middle class at best mean nothing and are at worst a threat to the person who is finding it hard to keep a roof over her head.
Sorry I’m lost. Can you give me an example of what you mean here please?
The anti-smacking bill is one example: the people most delighted by it were the people least likely to find themselves falsely accused under it, or to have such an accusation stick.
Legalised prostitution is to a small extent another; and I have read of people being denied the DPB, with the case worker suggesting they go on the game. Now I am sure that the case worker will have been overstepping the mark, and have been censured, but it remains that while such a move is legal, it is possible to deprive people of other means of support without depriving them utterly. I am not suggesting that prostitution should be illegal, I am suggesting that if anything is to be choice, alternative choices must also be genuinely viable. And alternative choices are not, in all cases genuinely viable, even where they are theoretically available. Which I think is one of the reasons why the working class left are often more socially conservative than the middle class left. In any case, you are not necessarily going to rejoice in minor liberal victories when you are staying with a man who beats you because that beats going on the DPB (where all of society can have a go at you) in your estimation. And if you look at the euthanasia thread, the fear is that it will be accompanied by a reduction in palliative and aged care; again removing viable alternatives. See what I mean?
I see what you mean, but I think “liberal victories” are certainly not necessarily minor for the people affected, nor do they necessarily come at the expense of the working class. I well remember how Maori and the LGBT people were treated when I was growing up. There are more than just socio-economic means of making lives a living hell.
“I am suggesting that if anything is to be choice, alternative choices must also be genuinely viable. And alternative choices are not, in all cases genuinely viable, even where they are theoretically available. I completely agree with you here.
I support euthanasia, but I have reservations about how such legislation would be misused especially in the current phase of neoliberalism. To me it’s like when they closed the psychiatric institutions. It definitely needed to be done, those places were cruel and inhumane. But all it turned into was a way of saving money, and the money saved was never used to help those suffering psychiatric distress. They were just dumped and left with virtually (or actually) no care. I’d like to see well-resourced palliative care services (and we don’t have that now) introduced simulatneously to any law change, as well as very tight controls. There is more and more pressure by the right to take resources away from those they consider “useless eaters”.
In some ways I shared your unease about the smacking bill being imposed on the working class by the middle class, even though I completely supported it. The middle class always smacked their kids less in my experience, even as a child. And if you have all the help and support in the world it’s much easier not to too. I know it felt to my mother that she was being judged and found wanting by her social “superiors”. That middle-cass busy-bodies were trying to tell her, a working class woman, how she should have raised her children. And they were. But that doesn’t mean that they weren’t right in the matter imo. And for all the offence caused, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence of parents being falsely accused, or unjustly criminalised for minor lapses. Every person deserves their human rights to be protected by the law. Surely no group needs to be left out.
I certainly do not think that all of the liberal victories have been minor, and would not like to see the gains gay people have made, for instance, undone. Same with feminist and race issues. But I also think that the conditions that make the difference between some x or others being liberating or oppressive need to be taken very seriously if we are not to go on being divided and ruled by the right. Take euthanasia, for example: if you were to permit it with a view to bringing palliative care up to scratch when economically possible, the pressure to do so would be significantly reduced by euthanasia’s availability. Those who were able to pay would not notice, and those who were not would probably not be heard. What is more, left wing parties are sorely tempted to support such moves without addressing the attendant conditions because it allows them to feel daring without scaring the economic horses. And even if no one has been falsely accused of slapping a child, some people, accustomed to being on the wrong end of the stick, have more reason than others to fear it.
Take euthanasia, for example: if you were to permit it with a view to bringing palliative care up to scratch when economically possible, the pressure to do so would be significantly reduced by euthanasia’s availability. Those who were able to pay would not notice, and those who were not would probably not be heard
I completely agree with you and the issue is very close to me right now. I have someone very dear to me contemplating suicide because she has a condition for which she needs a lot of home care, and is being forced prematurely into a resthome (she’s not elderly) because it’s cheaper to care for her there. She always supported euthanaisia and wanted the opportunity to have help when her condition progressed to a point she could no longer bear. But it’s economic pressure that is making it unbearable fo her now, not the condition itself. Pretty heart-breaking.
My heart goes out to your friend, Just Saying. You would think that policy makers would be able to take into account the fact that disabling illness is a terrible burden in itself, without compounding it by adding further burdens and humiliations. And as you say, she would not be contemplating suicide at this stage if it were not for these compounding factors – when you think of it, she is is really asking for very little, that would make a very big difference to her quality of life.
And even if no one has been falsely accused of slapping a child, some people, accustomed to being on the wrong end of the stick, have more reason than others to fear it.
I know of at least one woman who was afraid of having an accusation of such activities being used against her in a child custody case. (Whether she’d actually done it or not!)
Hi Vicky, yes custody cases and neighbourhood quarrels and the like raise those fears in people. I don’t know how to do those little smiling faces, so I cannot reply in kind.
Not exactly screams of confidence in the progress of NZ from the agricultural export market.
So if our exports take a big hit, the tax take slumps even further, the employment potential nosedives, the local economies get even weaker and so on and so on the inevitable cycle continues and JK will do what?
A: Add another $20 to a packet of smokes? (and lower overall tax take even further)
B: Double the Student loan repayments? (and lower the savings potential of the graduates)
C: Return the tax rates to 2008 levels ? ( tumbleweeds through the halls of commonsense)
Any increase in student loan payments will pretty much blow my budget out of the water. Not all graduates are in high paying jobs that wont even notice such an increase, like doctors, lawyers, engineers and so on.
The government is hell bent on making our universities and polytechs open only to the very wealthy, and the very poor (who can get scholarships and the scraps of support), those in the middle, or those who have spent most of their lives working and want to upskill or those who want to study part time because that’s only way they can afford to get a qualification (a student allowance/loan does not support a champagne lifestyle, despite what people might think), are told to piss off.
The universites will be loving this, for years they have wanted to keep out all the riff raff, and only let the children of the wealthy in, no mature students, no poor people (apart from those lucky to get scholarships), they might actually get there now.
Lots of students who didn’t vote are going to get a big surprise over this one. Yet another big change that National failed to talk about before the election.
Before the election many people realised that the cost of student loans – in particular the amounts that have to be written off due to many ex students not fulfilling their financial comitments – was a concern among many people.
If less people buggered off avoiding paying the loans that enabled them to have the education of their choice then the students who do honour their commitments wouldn’t have to carry the burden along with the country’s tax payers.
It’s probably a good thing, it might make people look at other viable career paths rather than head to Uni get average results and end up in a shitty job with a big loan.
Interestingly within my group of friends from high school (all early 30’s now) those of us that ended up in trades or started out at the bottom in a business are now earning considerably more than those that did degrees and chalked up big loans.
I think to many students get pushed towards uni when there are other options, Speaking for myself at high school the career advisor told me I shouldn’t take up the apprenticeship I had been offered and instead head to Uni. Personally I’m glad I didn’t heed that advice.
What about those who dont want to go to uni, or dont want to learn a trade either? Not everyone wants to have their head under a car bonnet all the time.
Like I said there are other options not just trades, depends on what you enjoy really. I’m in horticulture, one friend now runs the sport shop he started out at as the boy, another has his own car yard.
My advice is to find something you enjoy doing, be as good as you can possibly be at it and either find a company that rewards you for the work you put in or learn the business and work for yourself.
@CV – I tend to agree – especially under categories (i) and (v)
Under Section 162 of the Education Act (1989) a university is defined as having the following characteristics:
(i) They are primarily concerned with more advanced learning, the principal aim being to develop intellectual independence:
(ii) Their research and teaching are closely interdependent and most of their teaching is done by people who are active in advancing knowledge:
(iii) They meet international standards of research and teaching:
(iv) They are a repository of knowledge and expertise: and
(v) They accept a role as critic and conscience of society.
I am particularly struck by the irony in the claims that our uni’s must do better in international ratings in order to attract more international students and that is answer is seemingly to reduce the number of NZ students. Whose universities are they? They are our universities, and they are supposed to serve the people of NZ first and foremost.
The University Chancellors (aka aristocracy) have an agenda which is virtually indistinguishable from that of the neo liberals – the flowing article by Stephen Turner highlights some of the problems.
This afternoon I posted quite a long comment on how the unis (or rather education generally) have been captured by the neoliberal ethos, under the National elite education thread. It’s got stuck in moderation….too long maybe?
Good article by Sturm & Turner as well! Yes, the humanities (and much of the social sciences) have been somewhat undermined since the neoliberal turn in the 1980s, in favour of more voctionally-focused courses and subjects.
Funny. I often hear (elsewhere) complaints that the education system has been taken over by socialists who are brainwashing everyone.
…in favour of more voctionally-focused courses and subjects.
Shouldn’t the main aim of University be to train for vocations? I wouldn’t mind (on a selfish basis) if government funded me to go full time to University as a hobby, but that wouldn’t be a good use of public funds.
Actually, universities originally had a much broader focus than the vocational focus of technical colleges and later polytechnics. certainly that was the case prior to the rise of “neoliberalism” in the 1980s.
At some point they were considered places where the knowledge of humankind was fostered, taught and maintained. The ancient Greeks and Babylonians also had that broad notion of education. This is an idea of a critical, questioning approach to knowledge and learning. And, for those interested in participatory democracy, the idea is for such a broad notion of education being important for democracy to thrive, as well as providing a platform for innovation.
Bob Jones reckoned that the only course at University should be Philosophy. All other subjects should be taught in-situ by the employer. The plan would be to be taught how to think, analyse and communicate and would leave the graduate (graduand?) well ready to learn any subject.
Friends from way back reckoned that they learned far more outside the lecture rooms than in them.
what are you saying that your boss was wasting tax payers money when he did uni
well your right on that account all he’s dunne is sit on the fence split hairs for a living.
Precious few people (let alone students) are motivated by callings. In fact, in this mentally, technologically and socially cluttered, chaotic and fragmented world we live in, most of us wouldn’t recognise one if it was shouting through a megaphone at us.
We’re generally distracted by sideshows like the pursuit of ‘success’, ‘income’ and ‘jobs’ to notice – or give any credence to – callings.
“Still, small voice …” and all that.
But, I agree, university’s should be places where people are given an opportunity – through being given the mental, emotional space and time – to see if they do, indeed, have a vocation.
Student loans and the corresponding emphasis on income earning prospects are obstacles to discovering and pursuing vocations, of course.
And if universities are into brainwashing young people with socialism then they could certainly be criticised for not being very effective at what they are attempting to do.
I think that Universities are now measured by amount of Research done.
A friend was mentoring post graduate courses online but was made redundant because he was fulltime mentoring and not researching. (They re-employed him a year later because they could not manage the mentoring that he had been doing.)
I’m pleased to say both my daughters went overseas to work and paid off their sizable student loans within three years and still had some pretty good OE.
I don’t know what happens to people who stay here and never earn enough to get on top of their loan let alone pay it back, I presume it remains a debt against them. I don’t know at what stage they right loans off, but they say a substantial amount of value is written off each year. Maybe it’s just an revaluation estimate on the whole liability.
Before the election many people realised the cost of superannuation was a concern among many people
If fewer people were entitled to superannuation, stopped hiding their money, and didn’t get it while still working, the taxpayer wouldn’t have to carry an unnecessary burden.
Any other tax payouts you want to play this game with?
“The New Zealand dollar rose after better-than-expected US manufacturing data reignited investors optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track, boosting demand for growth-linked assets such as the kiwi”
So in the next day or so, look out from data which obcures, or confuses sentiments about the “investors optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track”
It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, does it?
Sometimes when the US$ falls so does the kiwi (when it’s driven by ‘fear’), other times when the US$ falls the kiwi goes up (when it’s driven by ‘poor data’).
In other words, its a media driven smokescreen obscuring the underlying speculative/manipulated nature of the currency markets.
Basically, with computerised High Frequency Trading algorithms in use by all the major investment banks, no major market movement occurs without their say so.
That’s right, and the media (owned), just plays along with the charade, so the people might feel the markets are in fact “market driven”, and while their private pensions, and indeed, sovereign nations investment vehicles continue to be fleeced, they remain in the dark!
Really it sums up the world we now live in, which is driven and dominated by smoke, mirrors, and flat out deceipt!
The artistry of it all is quite breathtaking sometimes. A soft trade here, a regime change there, the elite do have a certain undeniable nuance in their never ending performance of the Emporer’s New Clothes.
The Community Law Centres do an extraordinarily good job with limited resources. Given the cut back in legal aid their need is even more important. Yet this Government chooses to cut them back.
I agree that it’s important that Community Law Centres should be maintained.
But are there poorly performing centres using limited resources at the expense of the better ones?
The Ministry of Justice was not available to comment, but said in its consultation document there is a need to improve the consistency of community legal services and ensure the overall quality and range of services is lifted.
Are they cutting funding? Or trying to use funding as efficiently and effectively as possible?
So if someone is doing badly you just cut them? What the hell?
And what if part of the problem is that their low performance is a result of under-funding? Will they magically get better if you cut their budgets even further?
You are doing your normal trick of asking a pile of inane questions in an attempt to stuff up the thread. Please don’t do that. It is very frustrating and is one of the reasons why people pour scorn on you. You should ask your mate Coiffured Hair these questions and then enlighten us. We could then have a proper discussion.
I can say with some certainty that there will be no more resources for Community Law Centres but there is going to be a significant growth in need as the legal aid cuts hit. Bottom line is that ordinary people’s access to justice will be reduced.
They’re valid questions if you want to examine the whole issue. Are you against discussion and debate or something? Don’t Labour want to engage more with people? Or do they want to control the questions?
I agree that there are serious issues regarding funding of Community Law Centres and legal aid.
I don’t like the idea of 0800 as a replacement, but it may be a useful supplement, many quick queries may be able to be dealt with but face to face is often important.
If some Community Law Centres aren’t performing as well as others (all are on limited budgets) then shouldn’t that be examined? If they are not using their resources as efficiently as others they should at least be pushed to improve shouldn’t they?
Tendering is one way of forcing an evaluation of how resources are used. It can work, it can highlight poor administration, but it can also add an administration overhead that sucks meagre funds.
Isn’t there a lot more to this than one radio news report and you on a blog?
Greg Presland is far more Labour (chair of the Auckland Northland Regional Council of the Labour Party) than I am UF (5 minute member and ex one time candiate south of the Bombay Hills) and I get asked questions about UF frequently.
Greg asks me about UF, so it’s reasonable to expect him to talk about Labour.
Who? What? Where? I see no references to a Greg Presland anywhere.
I thought there were some pretty clear rules on outing a Standard contributor!
I for one like that the choice of anonymity is that of the commentator, not the choice of a thin skinned weathervane with views akin to somnambulism
Yeah Greg’s come out before on The Standard. What is interesting is how much daylight PG seems to want to get between himself and the one man political failure that is United Future.
I am no more “the Labour Party” than you are “Peter Dunne’s coiffure”.
What I don’t want to do is troll through 20 silly questions that you post every time to destroy the thread. I suggested that you should go out and learn something before hitting your keypad.
Try it. Add some substance and advance the discussion. Instead of gringing it to a halt with your silly questions.
Are some Community Law centres poorly performing? A similar scrutiny could be applied to the value and outcomes we get from government and parliament receiving funding for the latest brainstorm, repeated each term of (service?).
This strict measuring performance routine can’t be applied to everything in our lives. We are not workers in a factory doing piece work that can be measured easily and neither are Community Law. They are handling diverse people with diverse problems – no sense in trying to judge their efficacy with league tables is it! And the government’s rules and controls are ever increasing and harder to understand and cope with – so the idea of reducing assistance to an 0800 call or similar when there is no other affordable and reliable guide is anti people.
And what if services are cut? You seem to be into cutting services. If people like you had your way there would be nothing, except things that make a profit.
And what about the people who use those centers? They are largely those on lower incomes who are having problems with creditors, landlords, the courts system etc. Shall they just get knotted?
Back when I was a law student I used to volunteer at a community law centre. They do vital work, although in my experience they can sometimes be clogged by users on some sort of personal crusade. It’s been a decade since I volunteered – so they would have changed a bit since then, but they could work closer with Citizens Advice Bureaux, for example – especially around those process areas e.g. “How do I go to the privacy commission?”, “I’m being paid less than minimum wage, who can I see about that?”
An 0800 number is a bad, bad idea. Lots of people are emotionally vulnerable when they have a big legal problem and they need that face-to-face client care.
They want everyone to have an igovt login and do everything online. Now that’s okay for someone like me who is comfortable with using computers (and indeed, can afford a PC and broadband), but there’s a whole portion of the population (generally older, more conservative types), who won’t be so confident.
yeah that is such a good idea, because when you have been traumatised by crime and need advice on how to garner some visage of justice when the legal system has completely failed you, you really want to be chatting to a faceless voice and then another and another before being told to upload personal and confidential information into a central database. But hey, if it saves a couple of hundred thousand dollars what does it matter that victims get the sharp end driven in even further.
Morales did not say how much Red Electric would be compensated, but the nationalization decree says the state would negotiate an indemnization fee.
Morales said only $81 million had been invested in the grid since it was privatized in 1997.
The government, meanwhile, “invested $220 million in generation and others profited. For that reason, brothers and sisters, we have decided to nationalize electricity transmission,” he said.
This is not going to help Spain’s declining financial position.
But Morales did exactly the right thing for his people, stopping foreigners from pumping wealth out of his nation while giving nothing back to it’s backbone.
it must be nice to have a Government that actually considers the needs of its society, not just its creditors. Sure there are numerous issues on the ground, most of which can be squarely laid at the feet of the golden idol that is borne of capitalism’s unwavering greed.
This is not going to help Spain’s declining financial position
I don’t think Spain has the capacity for any gun boat diplomacy so I doubt Morales give a rats about her financial problems.
The Argentinean senate has backed the nationalising of Respols share of YPF so I expect we’ll see more of the same with their sights set on former state assets that the IMF forced countries to sell following debt defaults.
Latest non action by Jerry ‘No crisis” Brownlee – this time as Transport Minister thinking about roading – money needed there taken from other more-needed spending, rise in future petrol prices – still affordable while reliable wages are as constant as strobe lighting, and planning and implementation for alternative transport fuel – duh!
About his Christchurch accommodation problem I’ve been told it seems to be crisis level to people there. But the runner with the information baton is still on his way up the South Island to Wellington and will probably arrive this week. Either our colonial message system is very slow or Jerry’s brain is a bit of a laggard at perceiving and dealing with real problems to the people of Christchurch.
Apparently Wanganui Collegiate has received $800k from the Nacts govt this year to allow it to remain operational in 2012 while negotiating to become a state integrated school.
According to a Radio NZ news report this morning the Green Party stated oil prices could reach $5 per litre in the next 10 years. Ministry of Roading Gerry Brownlee described that figure and the assumptions behind it as questionable. Maybe it is a little questionable and maybe the figure needs to be revised downward. Something around $3.50 or higher would be a more conservative estimate.
However, is Brownlee trying to use that as justification for his massive road spending? If so, the assumptions behind his justifications are questionable.
Brownlee describes NZ as being a ‘dynamic economy, a growing economy’ and therefore needing roading investment. Er, no. Under 4 years of a National Government we have been a sluggish economy, a stagnant economy. Bill English couldn’t grow a lettuce, never mind an economy. Based on Brownlees stated justifications for extra roading, there is no justification.
A man from AA stated that motorists will manage fuel price increases in their existing budgets, that they will cope. Or in other words, he expects then to tread water as best they can.
So, once again, no justification there for Brownlees massive roading spend up.
I guess the approach from Brownlee is, if you come across something that challenges your poorly thought out plans, rubbish it and make something up in an attempt to justify your actions.
Many people still alive will remember when The Average NZ Family only had one car, stored it in a garage and cleaned it every week. Many could not afford a car. Bicycles were popular and widely used. Public transport was more economical. London is at present spending Billions of Euros upgrading it’s Underground railway. We are living in a very comfortable country (over all). Do not think that it will last for ever. WW I was supposed to be the “war to end all wars”. It took another war to recover from the Great Depression.
So often we do not realise that what we see is just the “tip of an iceberg”. Someone described lying in a British field with his girfriend, watching contrails forming in the sky and listening to the rattle of machine guns. They were watching the Battle of Britan being fought. Recently we lay under a table while the house rocked and watched the top of the chimney next door collapse. Christchurch’s CBD was being destroyed. People in town were being killed.
So often what you see are just the symptoms. Make sure you are not being complacent What is happening to the world economy? What is happening to the NZ economy? History does repeat itself.
Yeah you have got that right,my opinion,is that many of the wars that have been fought throughout history are on the basis of our ‘leaders’ having f**ked things up so badly and angered the population to the point of open rebellion,
WW1 in particular has in my family been described as the fear reaction of the European ruling classes as the Socialist message spread like a fire across old Europe…
Whatever you may think of a few people, some from Ohariu, protesting and trying to pressure MPs (I think they have every right to do that if reasonable), the so called People Power Ohariu, Ohariu Citizens Select Committee (isn’t that much the same thing) along with the Mana Party (or someone from it) have overstepped with their latest stunt.
I think that desecrating war memorials for political purposes is disgraceful and is likely to annoy a lot of people. Some may be more annoyed than they are about part asset sales, and this is likley to detract from the legitimate and reasonable protest of others.
Seems OK to me.
Did they cause destruction? No.
Did they cause disruption? No.
Did they connect the wars that were fought to defend democracy? Probably.
Good on ’em.
Nothing in there about them desecrating war memorials, Pete. What they did do was hang a flag from a single memorial (the Carillion in Buckle St), then take it down. Nah, the real offensive behaviour is an MP claiming to be driven by the local community on his website, but refusing to meet with his local community when he doesn’t want to do what his local community wants him to do. Peter Dunne, hypocrite.
Ps, Pete, in my youth I used to get drunk and then climb the outside of the Carillion, because the view of Welly from the top is outstanding. Was I desecrating the memorial, or just celebrating the freedom the soldiers died for?
There’s disappointment over a political protest in Wellington this morning.
A group opposed to the Government’s partial asset sales programme tied a banner to the National War Memorial that said ‘No Asset Sales.’
The Memorial’s Curator Paul Riley says it wasn’t the right location for the protest.
“It’s a sacred place the National War Memorial and it certainly is not the place to go around putting banners on scaffolding for a political cause. We’re trying to put security measures in place now to prevent it happening again.”
Mr Riley says the banner was pulled down just after 7am by contractors working on renovations to the building.
Wellington police have been notified of the incident.
I’d word it a bit more strongly than “disappointment”.
would this be the same war memorial that is so sacrosanct they want to drive a highway flyover through the middle of it instead of respectfully building a cut and cover tunnel and thus having a grander more ceremonial stage for the annual remembrance of lost lives and colonial lies.
A more erudite explanation than contained in Pete’s piece of faux outrage can be found in the Dom:
A forestry and conservation worker originally from Northland, McIntosh said the National War Memorial was chosen to emphasise the generations of New Zealanders who had fought hard to “make New Zealand what it is today”.
“Whilst living war veterans expressed their opposition to the sell-off of state assets on ANZAC Day, let’s not forget our Maori and Pakeha ancestors who struggled so hard to defend and possess this land in the wars of the 19th Century: to sell our farms, minerals and state assets overseas is to slight the memory of their struggle for this land.
Also pathetic is your “faux outrage” comment. I get criticised for not taking strong positions on things, and when I do the attacks continue, they just flip flop their lines.
Remember it is you who claimed that they ‘desecrated the memorials’, yet the truth is they did no such thing. And if you’d bothered to look at the photo in the Dom piece, you would have spotted that the banner isn’t even on the memorial, it’s on scaffolding being used by renovators.
So, Pete, like it or not, ‘faux outrage’ is an entirely appropriate phrase to use when dealing with your wilful and witless exaggerations in this case.
Both my grandfathers served during WW I. As it happens one returned to a job as engineer on the Mahingerangi power project, He also served in WW II and was still in the army when he died. My father was serving on J-Force and wasn’t here for his funeral.
And my other grandfather emigrated here and worked through WW II on the Monowai power station – while one son had his life wrecked serving on HMNZS Leander, and another son was buried in Italy.
I feel strongly about a handful of people who have ample opportunities to protest choosing to politicise the National War Memorial. I think it’s very poor.
Politicise now? Putting aside the observation that war is about as political as it gets, you haven’t been claiming politicisation until now. You’ve been claiming desecration.
The Memorial’s Curator Paul Riley said “It’s a sacred place the National War Memorial and it certainly is not the place to go around putting banners on scaffolding for a political cause.”
I think there will be quite a few people who will think “to divest of sacred or hallowed character ” is an appropriate description, also any of “defile, violate, dishonor, pollute, outrage”.
It wasn’t political (although I admit to having a good yack there with a young Nat and a Green candidate who were also supporting it).
And yes, if the RSA and DCC and everyone else who said anything about it thought it an appropriate use of the Cenotaph then it wasn’t desecratory. Similar was done at about 60 war memorials around the country, I didn’t hear of any complaints.
And yet none of those words apply to the putting of a banner on a piece of scaffolding. Just for fun, I googled Wellington War Memorial and desecration and, quelle surprise!, the only person in the entire country who thinks its a desecration is you, Pete.
Even the curator doesn’t agree with you, assuming you have quoted him accurately in your comment above.
Pompous Git those guys fought for freedom to protest and came back to this country to get a fair deal. the govt you support is only interested in those that are already rich such as Dotcon
Janet Napolitano the US Secretary of Homeland security is talking with John Key and the minister of customs. If this doesn’t scare you you have not been paying attention.
The Gormless Fool formerly known as Oleolebiscuitbarrell 17.1
If I hover my mouse over you link it says Heinrich Himmler is talking with John Key, I’m pretty sure that Heinrich committed suicide in 1945………… hmmmmmm plot thickens !!!
Before I was 21 years old I was taught by people from 4 different organisations “Lead by Example”.
They preached this standard and demonstrated it. They were good leaders. Would it be reasonable to expect a standard like that from our politicians? They sought the position. They are not doing us a favour. We are not priviledged to have them. They constantly have to justify their existance. They sought the position, why are they there? Are they there to serve us or or earn a large income. So many seem to have lost the plot.
Just heard from someone who knows someone. The proposed move of the Treaty of Waitangi and other consititutional documents from Archives New Zealand to the refurbished National Library building has been approved by Cabinet – although I understand they will stay under the care of Archives NZ staff.
Wow! Not the open letter! Its the very peculiar situation that the PM of NZ knew not even the name of Kim Dotcom until the day before the arrest. On tape. Yet a large circle of others did know him for ages even years. Very eird. If you haven’t seen this on Campbell Live do so. There will be pretty strange repercussions. I bet!
Could Chris Trotter be losing his prophetic political powers?
After a blistering attack on David Shearer in the Dominion Post last week it would seem, that in fact, Shearer isn’t doing too badly at all. At 34.6% in the Herald-digi poll Labour is clearly moving in a positive direction under Shearer’s leadership.
Perhaps, the voters do not really want those things that seem so important to Trotter: flowery rhetoric and “juicy red meat” policies.
Instead, maybe Shearer’s style and approach of appealing to all New Zealanders is just what will get Labour back into power.
Can we expect another “confession” of the “aw shucks I was wrong (again)” variety from Trotter in the near future?
Tend to agree with you Steve. It is intriguing that the apparent left is so keen to beat up on a Left Leader. Did it to Goff and now Shearer.Would make sense if it was the right attacking/denigrating but from the Left?
My view of it is Pol Pot could be head of the Labour Party at the moment and still be going up in popularity,
Slippery and National have ‘bought’ the last 2 election victory’s off of tax cuts and asset sales,but,as has been shown befor such incentives to vote for a particular party are only a temporary glue and the actions of National and its support party’s are making Shearer and labour look saintly by comparison…
Yes, Ianmac, or it’s also some of the Left being sucked into a game being played by another party and not necessarily the Right, trying to capitalise on their own leaders position.
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Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
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 ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
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 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 26 April appeared first on Newsroom. ...
You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
I’d like to suggest a policy change to ban people who are trolling in a rather more subversive manner.
They link whore to their own sites, hijack threads and generally create dross all over this site in an attempt to dilute a theme or divert it.
You’ll find theses folk pick and choose the posts and leave the ones where it would be obvious they are a troll. I don’t mind debate or those who are openly trolls or being reactionary but the bloggers I’m referring to are making this site very boring with their endless pontificating, refusal to admit when they’ve been caught cold or just plain denial and ignorance when challenged.
I think itd make this site more focused on its core left of centre approach leaving these bloggers to their own and the many right wing sites like KB etc where their kindred spirits live.
We need a decent left sided site and this is superb at it but these folk appear to delight in filling it up with their endless so called moderate dribble.
[If it was left up to me to ban everyone who annoyed me The Standard would have only a few dozen commenters left after a month or two. And I’m the ‘nice’ moderator round here….RL]
I rarely read their comments. They just clutter up the place – like spam.
I feel differently, as I will read their first, at least… but if it gets into a long, tedious and above all repetitive argument, I will just skim subsequent posts. I also tend to skim anything that isn’t paragraphed, as I hate reading on screen, and will do it only for things that are interesting and clear…
I’m just happy the first post in Open Mike wasn’t what we all thought it would be.
(Just to clear up, this isn’t a left-leaning site. The best it comes to describing itself is that the contributors generally support the “broad labour movement” and gives a wiki-link definition, which is not at all definitively leftist. Still, as you say, it is a good site to read.)
Linking to your own site is allowed here, as long as it’s on-topic.
and generally create dross all over this site in an attempt to dilute a theme or divert it
Do you mean dross like whingefests about people and comments that have nothing to do with the topic? If you want to help make this a decent site then try enriching it with worthwhile contributions.
If you prefer a circle jerk you might have more luck starting your own rather than trying to convert a blog that’s popular for it’s diversity.
Be aware that most “folk pick and choose the posts” they have time and interest for, and manage to ignore the rest without whinging.
man, pete gets grunty when people want to ban trolls….
We need better tr0lls.
Simon Power is the only Nat who comes out relatively cleanly in the DotCom residency story. He declined the property purchase requests. And Simon Power got out while his reputation was intact. He must have seen a lot of shenanigans to turn his back on the Nats.
+1
I wonder how long the government and the FBI were talking about Dotcom before the arrest. It’s not at all beyond plausability that Power knew Dotcom was on a hitlist at that stage, so vetoing it was a no brainer really.
This is how news editors control the average news readers mind, while controlling the narrative
Perhaps with Napolitano here, we might soon see in NZ
1: Radiation body scanners – They have them, or are getting them in Oz
2: See something say something campaigns – Dont trust anyone other than your government messages
3: TSA style airport , hands in pants and all over your wife, kids and granny, “safety checks”
4: Inland TSA “road side” checks
When Homeland Security are sending lowly officials and air marshalls to Europe, why have we in little old NZ been sent the head of the department!
Authorities say there was no danger to the public because their explosives were inoperable and were controlled by an undercover FBI employee.
Notice how many references there are using such words as “undercover, anarchists and confidential source”
But hold on, I thought the first artcile I linked to said that AQ was the threat, with belly bombs etc..Oh wait on, we have to make sure people are really scared, because “anarchists” (read – white faces), are invovled, not just brown faces..
Fear everything, everyone, only trust your government!
Trust the government? Don’t be silly. Best thing to do is put in a tender for the supply of
stage propssecurity equipment . . . nice little earner, that, and doesn’t really matter if it works or not. http://youtu.be/-6QYz-kZTxUDunno WTF Janet Napolitano is doing over here – maybe to give John Key a cuddle for ensuring his citizens can be searched and surveiled at any time for any reason? Or pat his bottom when he goes all macho on that flotilla of refugees waiting just off-shore? Impose a immigration data-sharing protocol? Who knows? Skullduggery of some sort, no doubt.
Best to keep our wits about us. As the Dept of Homeland Security says, terrorists are everywhere. Like you say, fear everything, everyone, trust your government. Spooky.
is the FBI going to do anything about the looming extinction of the New Zealand native long finned eel.
Over fishing, pollution of waterways and depletion of habitat mean that the eel is nearly gone.
Only Northland Maori seem to be concerned.
How can the population in general be galvanised to save this fish?
http://stillhavetoprotest.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/the-war-on-women-and-the-roots-of-womens-oppression/
Trishe Kahle from ‘I can’t believe we still have to protest this shit”. A socialist perspective on the global war on women and why the left can never afford to marginalise issues of womens’s oppression. Well worth a read imo.
… Sometimes, it’s an overt attack, such as when the Democrats led the charge on welfare “reforms” that targeted poor women and women of color. Politicians often try to pass welfare off as a budgeting issue—or a “waste” issue, but as welfare rights activist Johnnie Tillmon explained, “Welfare’s like a traffic accident. It can happen to anybody, but especially it happens to women. And that is why welfare is a women’s issue. For a lot of middle-class women in this country, Women’s Liberation is a matter of concern. For women on welfare it’s a matter of survival… But when the politicians talk about the “welfare cancer eating at our vitals,” they’re not talking about the aged, blind, and disabled. Nobody minds them. They’re the “deserving poor.” Politicians are talking about us¾the women who head up 99 percent of the A.F.D.C. families¾and our kids. We’re the “cancer,” the “undeserving poor.” Mothers and children.”….
…The 2011 happened. From Cairo to Madison, Karala India to Nigeria, working people around the world have taken a stand. Egypt, the second country to topple a long-term dictator in what has become known as the Arab Spring, is still fighting for its revolution. As Elizabeth Schulte noted: “in Egypt, Syria, Greece and other recent sites of revolt and rebellion, women and men mobilized and organized together in unprecedented ways. During struggles on this scale, workers’ ideas change–men’s ideas about women, and women’s ideas about men and also about themselves. In the process of confronting their shared and powerful enemy, such as the state and its police, men and women workers come to see their potential power as a united force.
Ideas like sexism are exposed for what they are–useless and destructive–not only because they are wrong, like misconceptions about what women are capable of, but because they divide the working class. They are exposed for their real purpose–to keep those at the top in power by dividing the masses below.”
I think that the divisive power lies in the link between liberalism and privilege rather than feminism per se. Take away the privilege, and in many instances liberalism becomes illiberal: you have a right to be a single mother, for instance, but only if you can provide for yourself. Given the conditions under which we live, with two incomes propping up a family, to be able to provide for yourself is increasingly to be privileged, and yet this is the ground upon which you are open to censure. This sort of divide arises on a number of levels, and to me it is one of the most pressing concerns with which the left is faced. In fact I would go so far as to say that while it is not addressed, the social liberal and economic justice sides of the left remain very much open to each others contempt. The conservative establishment that the liberal rails against is a dead horse – it no longer exists, and the actual conservative, often seen as dumb and uneducated by the liberal, is often poor and trying to cling to the few remnants of protection he or she has left. Meanwhile, liberal victories that are applauded among the urbane middle class at best mean nothing and are at worst a threat to the person who is finding it hard to keep a roof over her head. I am inclined to think that the broad acceptance of liberalism depends upon economic justice, since this is the precondition of choice having meaning.
Meanwhile, liberal victories that are applauded among the urbane middle class at best mean nothing and are at worst a threat to the person who is finding it hard to keep a roof over her head.
Sorry I’m lost. Can you give me an example of what you mean here please?
The anti-smacking bill is one example: the people most delighted by it were the people least likely to find themselves falsely accused under it, or to have such an accusation stick.
Legalised prostitution is to a small extent another; and I have read of people being denied the DPB, with the case worker suggesting they go on the game. Now I am sure that the case worker will have been overstepping the mark, and have been censured, but it remains that while such a move is legal, it is possible to deprive people of other means of support without depriving them utterly. I am not suggesting that prostitution should be illegal, I am suggesting that if anything is to be choice, alternative choices must also be genuinely viable. And alternative choices are not, in all cases genuinely viable, even where they are theoretically available. Which I think is one of the reasons why the working class left are often more socially conservative than the middle class left. In any case, you are not necessarily going to rejoice in minor liberal victories when you are staying with a man who beats you because that beats going on the DPB (where all of society can have a go at you) in your estimation. And if you look at the euthanasia thread, the fear is that it will be accompanied by a reduction in palliative and aged care; again removing viable alternatives. See what I mean?
I see what you mean, but I think “liberal victories” are certainly not necessarily minor for the people affected, nor do they necessarily come at the expense of the working class. I well remember how Maori and the LGBT people were treated when I was growing up. There are more than just socio-economic means of making lives a living hell.
“I am suggesting that if anything is to be choice, alternative choices must also be genuinely viable. And alternative choices are not, in all cases genuinely viable, even where they are theoretically available. I completely agree with you here.
I support euthanasia, but I have reservations about how such legislation would be misused especially in the current phase of neoliberalism. To me it’s like when they closed the psychiatric institutions. It definitely needed to be done, those places were cruel and inhumane. But all it turned into was a way of saving money, and the money saved was never used to help those suffering psychiatric distress. They were just dumped and left with virtually (or actually) no care. I’d like to see well-resourced palliative care services (and we don’t have that now) introduced simulatneously to any law change, as well as very tight controls. There is more and more pressure by the right to take resources away from those they consider “useless eaters”.
In some ways I shared your unease about the smacking bill being imposed on the working class by the middle class, even though I completely supported it. The middle class always smacked their kids less in my experience, even as a child. And if you have all the help and support in the world it’s much easier not to too. I know it felt to my mother that she was being judged and found wanting by her social “superiors”. That middle-cass busy-bodies were trying to tell her, a working class woman, how she should have raised her children. And they were. But that doesn’t mean that they weren’t right in the matter imo. And for all the offence caused, there doesn’t appear to be any evidence of parents being falsely accused, or unjustly criminalised for minor lapses. Every person deserves their human rights to be protected by the law. Surely no group needs to be left out.
I certainly do not think that all of the liberal victories have been minor, and would not like to see the gains gay people have made, for instance, undone. Same with feminist and race issues. But I also think that the conditions that make the difference between some x or others being liberating or oppressive need to be taken very seriously if we are not to go on being divided and ruled by the right. Take euthanasia, for example: if you were to permit it with a view to bringing palliative care up to scratch when economically possible, the pressure to do so would be significantly reduced by euthanasia’s availability. Those who were able to pay would not notice, and those who were not would probably not be heard. What is more, left wing parties are sorely tempted to support such moves without addressing the attendant conditions because it allows them to feel daring without scaring the economic horses. And even if no one has been falsely accused of slapping a child, some people, accustomed to being on the wrong end of the stick, have more reason than others to fear it.
Take euthanasia, for example: if you were to permit it with a view to bringing palliative care up to scratch when economically possible, the pressure to do so would be significantly reduced by euthanasia’s availability. Those who were able to pay would not notice, and those who were not would probably not be heard
I completely agree with you and the issue is very close to me right now. I have someone very dear to me contemplating suicide because she has a condition for which she needs a lot of home care, and is being forced prematurely into a resthome (she’s not elderly) because it’s cheaper to care for her there. She always supported euthanaisia and wanted the opportunity to have help when her condition progressed to a point she could no longer bear. But it’s economic pressure that is making it unbearable fo her now, not the condition itself. Pretty heart-breaking.
My heart goes out to your friend, Just Saying. You would think that policy makers would be able to take into account the fact that disabling illness is a terrible burden in itself, without compounding it by adding further burdens and humiliations. And as you say, she would not be contemplating suicide at this stage if it were not for these compounding factors – when you think of it, she is is really asking for very little, that would make a very big difference to her quality of life.
I know of at least one woman who was afraid of having an accusation of such activities being used against her in a child custody case. (Whether she’d actually done it or not!)
Reminds me of a sign I saw on the weekend’s protest.
I do, and I agree! 🙂
Hi Vicky, yes custody cases and neighbourhood quarrels and the like raise those fears in people. I don’t know how to do those little smiling faces, so I cannot reply in kind.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10802780
“there are so many other moving parts in the economy and the economic mix at the moment and obviously a big part of that’s the rebuild in Canterbury that’s got to get under way at some point in the next while you would think.”
Not exactly screams of confidence in the progress of NZ from the agricultural export market.
So if our exports take a big hit, the tax take slumps even further, the employment potential nosedives, the local economies get even weaker and so on and so on the inevitable cycle continues and JK will do what?
A: Add another $20 to a packet of smokes? (and lower overall tax take even further)
B: Double the Student loan repayments? (and lower the savings potential of the graduates)
C: Return the tax rates to 2008 levels ? ( tumbleweeds through the halls of commonsense)
Any increase in student loan payments will pretty much blow my budget out of the water. Not all graduates are in high paying jobs that wont even notice such an increase, like doctors, lawyers, engineers and so on.
The government is hell bent on making our universities and polytechs open only to the very wealthy, and the very poor (who can get scholarships and the scraps of support), those in the middle, or those who have spent most of their lives working and want to upskill or those who want to study part time because that’s only way they can afford to get a qualification (a student allowance/loan does not support a champagne lifestyle, despite what people might think), are told to piss off.
The universites will be loving this, for years they have wanted to keep out all the riff raff, and only let the children of the wealthy in, no mature students, no poor people (apart from those lucky to get scholarships), they might actually get there now.
Before the election I suspected National were up to something with regard to student loans. It’s all come out now:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6841106/Student-loan-borrowers-face-Budget-pay-cut
Lots of students who didn’t vote are going to get a big surprise over this one. Yet another big change that National failed to talk about before the election.
Before the election many people realised that the cost of student loans – in particular the amounts that have to be written off due to many ex students not fulfilling their financial comitments – was a concern among many people.
If less people buggered off avoiding paying the loans that enabled them to have the education of their choice then the students who do honour their commitments wouldn’t have to carry the burden along with the country’s tax payers.
Fancy words except our National government has no idea how to create $16-$20/hr jobs for said graduates you want to keep in the country.
It’s probably a good thing, it might make people look at other viable career paths rather than head to Uni get average results and end up in a shitty job with a big loan.
Interestingly within my group of friends from high school (all early 30’s now) those of us that ended up in trades or started out at the bottom in a business are now earning considerably more than those that did degrees and chalked up big loans.
I think to many students get pushed towards uni when there are other options, Speaking for myself at high school the career advisor told me I shouldn’t take up the apprenticeship I had been offered and instead head to Uni. Personally I’m glad I didn’t heed that advice.
What about those who dont want to go to uni, or dont want to learn a trade either? Not everyone wants to have their head under a car bonnet all the time.
Like I said there are other options not just trades, depends on what you enjoy really. I’m in horticulture, one friend now runs the sport shop he started out at as the boy, another has his own car yard.
My advice is to find something you enjoy doing, be as good as you can possibly be at it and either find a company that rewards you for the work you put in or learn the business and work for yourself.
My opinion is that universities are not serving our society fully right now.
@CV – I tend to agree – especially under categories (i) and (v)
I am particularly struck by the irony in the claims that our uni’s must do better in international ratings in order to attract more international students and that is answer is seemingly to reduce the number of NZ students. Whose universities are they? They are our universities, and they are supposed to serve the people of NZ first and foremost.
The University Chancellors (aka aristocracy) have an agenda which is virtually indistinguishable from that of the neo liberals – the flowing article by Stephen Turner highlights some of the problems.
http://www.arena.org.au/2011/06/the-idea-of-the-university/
This afternoon I posted quite a long comment on how the unis (or rather education generally) have been captured by the neoliberal ethos, under the National elite education thread. It’s got stuck in moderation….too long maybe?
Good article by Sturm & Turner as well! Yes, the humanities (and much of the social sciences) have been somewhat undermined since the neoliberal turn in the 1980s, in favour of more voctionally-focused courses and subjects.
Funny. I often hear (elsewhere) complaints that the education system has been taken over by socialists who are brainwashing everyone.
…in favour of more voctionally-focused courses and subjects.
Shouldn’t the main aim of University be to train for vocations? I wouldn’t mind (on a selfish basis) if government funded me to go full time to University as a hobby, but that wouldn’t be a good use of public funds.
Read the Section 162 of the Education Act (1989) again Pete.
Actually, universities originally had a much broader focus than the vocational focus of technical colleges and later polytechnics. certainly that was the case prior to the rise of “neoliberalism” in the 1980s.
At some point they were considered places where the knowledge of humankind was fostered, taught and maintained. The ancient Greeks and Babylonians also had that broad notion of education. This is an idea of a critical, questioning approach to knowledge and learning. And, for those interested in participatory democracy, the idea is for such a broad notion of education being important for democracy to thrive, as well as providing a platform for innovation.
Bob Jones reckoned that the only course at University should be Philosophy. All other subjects should be taught in-situ by the employer. The plan would be to be taught how to think, analyse and communicate and would leave the graduate (graduand?) well ready to learn any subject.
Friends from way back reckoned that they learned far more outside the lecture rooms than in them.
what are you saying that your boss was wasting tax payers money when he did uni
well your right on that account all he’s dunne is sit on the fence split hairs for a living.
A ‘vocation’ is a ‘calling’.
Precious few people (let alone students) are motivated by callings. In fact, in this mentally, technologically and socially cluttered, chaotic and fragmented world we live in, most of us wouldn’t recognise one if it was shouting through a megaphone at us.
We’re generally distracted by sideshows like the pursuit of ‘success’, ‘income’ and ‘jobs’ to notice – or give any credence to – callings.
“Still, small voice …” and all that.
But, I agree, university’s should be places where people are given an opportunity – through being given the mental, emotional space and time – to see if they do, indeed, have a vocation.
Student loans and the corresponding emphasis on income earning prospects are obstacles to discovering and pursuing vocations, of course.
And if universities are into brainwashing young people with socialism then they could certainly be criticised for not being very effective at what they are attempting to do.
Well as we now know, the Neo-Liberal university is the one that can get the most fee paying bums on seats. While cutting costs the most.
More fake competition, like the ports!
Bring back the University of New Zealand.
I think that Universities are now measured by amount of Research done.
A friend was mentoring post graduate courses online but was made redundant because he was fulltime mentoring and not researching. (They re-employed him a year later because they could not manage the mentoring that he had been doing.)
And aren’t our universities doing so much better for our country, and for our students, since this research based funding metric was introduced.
Not.
Wow. Is that possible? My two sons with about $100,000 debt between them would welcome the “how to”.
It means going overseas and not coming back.
I’m pleased to say both my daughters went overseas to work and paid off their sizable student loans within three years and still had some pretty good OE.
I don’t know what happens to people who stay here and never earn enough to get on top of their loan let alone pay it back, I presume it remains a debt against them. I don’t know at what stage they right loans off, but they say a substantial amount of value is written off each year. Maybe it’s just an revaluation estimate on the whole liability.
Before the election many people realised the cost of superannuation was a concern among many people
If fewer people were entitled to superannuation, stopped hiding their money, and didn’t get it while still working, the taxpayer wouldn’t have to carry an unnecessary burden.
Any other tax payouts you want to play this game with?
So the $NZ rises when the US data is bad, or they “QE”, and the $NZ also rises when the US data is favourable
“The New Zealand dollar rose after better-than-expected US manufacturing data reignited investors optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track, boosting demand for growth-linked assets such as the kiwi”
So in the next day or so, look out from data which obcures, or confuses sentiments about the “investors optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track”
It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, does it?
Sometimes when the US$ falls so does the kiwi (when it’s driven by ‘fear’), other times when the US$ falls the kiwi goes up (when it’s driven by ‘poor data’).
In other words, its a media driven smokescreen obscuring the underlying speculative/manipulated nature of the currency markets.
Basically, with computerised High Frequency Trading algorithms in use by all the major investment banks, no major market movement occurs without their say so.
That’s right, and the media (owned), just plays along with the charade, so the people might feel the markets are in fact “market driven”, and while their private pensions, and indeed, sovereign nations investment vehicles continue to be fleeced, they remain in the dark!
Really it sums up the world we now live in, which is driven and dominated by smoke, mirrors, and flat out deceipt!
The artistry of it all is quite breathtaking sometimes. A soft trade here, a regime change there, the elite do have a certain undeniable nuance in their never ending performance of the Emporer’s New Clothes.
The Government is considering closing down some Community Law Centres and replacing them with an 0800 phone number. Existing centres will be expected to tender for the work so there will be “winner” centres and “loser” centres.
The Community Law Centres do an extraordinarily good job with limited resources. Given the cut back in legal aid their need is even more important. Yet this Government chooses to cut them back.
Are they mad? What do they have against the poor?
I agree that it’s important that Community Law Centres should be maintained.
But are there poorly performing centres using limited resources at the expense of the better ones?
Are they cutting funding? Or trying to use funding as efficiently and effectively as possible?
So if someone is doing badly you just cut them? What the hell?
And what if part of the problem is that their low performance is a result of under-funding? Will they magically get better if you cut their budgets even further?
FFS get into the real world.
Dunno Pete
You are doing your normal trick of asking a pile of inane questions in an attempt to stuff up the thread. Please don’t do that. It is very frustrating and is one of the reasons why people pour scorn on you. You should ask your mate Coiffured Hair these questions and then enlighten us. We could then have a proper discussion.
I can say with some certainty that there will be no more resources for Community Law Centres but there is going to be a significant growth in need as the legal aid cuts hit. Bottom line is that ordinary people’s access to justice will be reduced.
They’re valid questions if you want to examine the whole issue. Are you against discussion and debate or something? Don’t Labour want to engage more with people? Or do they want to control the questions?
I agree that there are serious issues regarding funding of Community Law Centres and legal aid.
I don’t like the idea of 0800 as a replacement, but it may be a useful supplement, many quick queries may be able to be dealt with but face to face is often important.
If some Community Law Centres aren’t performing as well as others (all are on limited budgets) then shouldn’t that be examined? If they are not using their resources as efficiently as others they should at least be pushed to improve shouldn’t they?
Tendering is one way of forcing an evaluation of how resources are used. It can work, it can highlight poor administration, but it can also add an administration overhead that sucks meagre funds.
Isn’t there a lot more to this than one radio news report and you on a blog?
Don’t Labour want to engage more with people? Or do they want to control the questions?
Sorry Pete, you’ve got the wrong site.
What you’re looking for is Red Alert.
I’d provide a link, but I can’t be arsed.
Greg Presland is far more Labour (chair of the Auckland Northland Regional Council of the Labour Party) than I am UF (5 minute member and ex one time candiate south of the Bombay Hills) and I get asked questions about UF frequently.
Greg asks me about UF, so it’s reasonable to expect him to talk about Labour.
Who? What? Where? I see no references to a Greg Presland anywhere.
I thought there were some pretty clear rules on outing a Standard contributor!
I for one like that the choice of anonymity is that of the commentator, not the choice of a thin skinned weathervane with views akin to somnambulism
Yeah Greg’s come out before on The Standard. What is interesting is how much daylight PG seems to want to get between himself and the one man political failure that is United Future.
Dear Pete
I am no more “the Labour Party” than you are “Peter Dunne’s coiffure”.
What I don’t want to do is troll through 20 silly questions that you post every time to destroy the thread. I suggested that you should go out and learn something before hitting your keypad.
Try it. Add some substance and advance the discussion. Instead of gringing it to a halt with your silly questions.
Are some Community Law centres poorly performing? A similar scrutiny could be applied to the value and outcomes we get from government and parliament receiving funding for the latest brainstorm, repeated each term of (service?).
This strict measuring performance routine can’t be applied to everything in our lives. We are not workers in a factory doing piece work that can be measured easily and neither are Community Law. They are handling diverse people with diverse problems – no sense in trying to judge their efficacy with league tables is it! And the government’s rules and controls are ever increasing and harder to understand and cope with – so the idea of reducing assistance to an 0800 call or similar when there is no other affordable and reliable guide is anti people.
This strict measuring performance routine can’t be applied to everything in our lives.
Neither can there be an open chequebook and no checks on efficiency and effectiveness of use of public funds.
And what if services are cut? You seem to be into cutting services. If people like you had your way there would be nothing, except things that make a profit.
And what about the people who use those centers? They are largely those on lower incomes who are having problems with creditors, landlords, the courts system etc. Shall they just get knotted?
Back when I was a law student I used to volunteer at a community law centre. They do vital work, although in my experience they can sometimes be clogged by users on some sort of personal crusade. It’s been a decade since I volunteered – so they would have changed a bit since then, but they could work closer with Citizens Advice Bureaux, for example – especially around those process areas e.g. “How do I go to the privacy commission?”, “I’m being paid less than minimum wage, who can I see about that?”
An 0800 number is a bad, bad idea. Lots of people are emotionally vulnerable when they have a big legal problem and they need that face-to-face client care.
Most of the people who are likely to use community law centres cannot afford a landline.
Then the next thing the NACTS can do is put the 0800 centers in Manilla. Imagine the joy that would cause…
And how many 0800 numbers are they thinking of having?? 0800 Housing, 0800 lost passport, heading for 0800 Police etc etc.
They want everyone to have an igovt login and do everything online. Now that’s okay for someone like me who is comfortable with using computers (and indeed, can afford a PC and broadband), but there’s a whole portion of the population (generally older, more conservative types), who won’t be so confident.
Don’t be silly, that’d be 0900 police and the bill will be covered by your private insurance (if you have any).
We do have 0800 police, its called 111.
yeah that is such a good idea, because when you have been traumatised by crime and need advice on how to garner some visage of justice when the legal system has completely failed you, you really want to be chatting to a faceless voice and then another and another before being told to upload personal and confidential information into a central database. But hey, if it saves a couple of hundred thousand dollars what does it matter that victims get the sharp end driven in even further.
There are hardly any votes for Natz from folks who use Community Law Centres so Natz can cut them?
Time to close down most of Northland in that case.
Well might as well. The main transport and frieght road dosn’t deserve an upgrade with your thinking.
but the holiday highway goes right past keys holiday home’s front door.
Agreed Freedom. The human face to face touch is so important. A civilised society provides these sorts of services.
Seeing as how all poor people have broadband and scanners or fax machines to ping off paperwork, an 0800 number will function just fine.
They’re poor and, in their eyes, take money away from the rich.
DTB Yes you’ve hit it right on the nail.
I had a look at Peter Dunne’s twitter today. He’s pretty nasty and clearly pretty anti Labour.
Is Twitter Pete George’s nickname?
He he 🙂
ianmac hair hair
Evo Morales celebrates May day by
seizingnationalising the national grid.Morales did not say how much Red Electric would be compensated, but the nationalization decree says the state would negotiate an indemnization fee.
Morales said only $81 million had been invested in the grid since it was privatized in 1997.
The government, meanwhile, “invested $220 million in generation and others profited. For that reason, brothers and sisters, we have decided to nationalize electricity transmission,” he said.
This is not going to help Spain’s declining financial position.
But Morales did exactly the right thing for his people, stopping foreigners from pumping wealth out of his nation while giving nothing back to it’s backbone.
it must be nice to have a Government that actually considers the needs of its society, not just its creditors. Sure there are numerous issues on the ground, most of which can be squarely laid at the feet of the golden idol that is borne of capitalism’s unwavering greed.
I don’t think Spain has the capacity for any gun boat diplomacy so I doubt Morales give a rats about her financial problems.
The Argentinean senate has backed the nationalising of Respols share of YPF so I expect we’ll see more of the same with their sights set on former state assets that the IMF forced countries to sell following debt defaults.
What retaliatory power does the electricity company have against Bolivia?
It’ll be the Spanish Government that Bolivia has to be nervous of.
But given that Bolivia used to be a subject to Spain I think that this nationalisation has a pretty good feeling for them, for now.
Latest non action by Jerry ‘No crisis” Brownlee – this time as Transport Minister thinking about roading – money needed there taken from other more-needed spending, rise in future petrol prices – still affordable while reliable wages are as constant as strobe lighting, and planning and implementation for alternative transport fuel – duh!
About his Christchurch accommodation problem I’ve been told it seems to be crisis level to people there. But the runner with the information baton is still on his way up the South Island to Wellington and will probably arrive this week. Either our colonial message system is very slow or Jerry’s brain is a bit of a laggard at perceiving and dealing with real problems to the people of Christchurch.
Apparently Wanganui Collegiate has received $800k from the Nacts govt this year to allow it to remain operational in 2012 while negotiating to become a state integrated school.
What happened to businesses being allowed to fail.
Another private business which needs tax payer funding!
Depends, is the business owned by rich people or poor people? The former will be saved and the latter will be allowed to fail.
According to a Radio NZ news report this morning the Green Party stated oil prices could reach $5 per litre in the next 10 years. Ministry of Roading Gerry Brownlee described that figure and the assumptions behind it as questionable. Maybe it is a little questionable and maybe the figure needs to be revised downward. Something around $3.50 or higher would be a more conservative estimate.
However, is Brownlee trying to use that as justification for his massive road spending? If so, the assumptions behind his justifications are questionable.
Brownlee describes NZ as being a ‘dynamic economy, a growing economy’ and therefore needing roading investment. Er, no. Under 4 years of a National Government we have been a sluggish economy, a stagnant economy. Bill English couldn’t grow a lettuce, never mind an economy. Based on Brownlees stated justifications for extra roading, there is no justification.
A man from AA stated that motorists will manage fuel price increases in their existing budgets, that they will cope. Or in other words, he expects then to tread water as best they can.
So, once again, no justification there for Brownlees massive roading spend up.
I guess the approach from Brownlee is, if you come across something that challenges your poorly thought out plans, rubbish it and make something up in an attempt to justify your actions.
$5/L petrol in next 10 years???
$5/L by the 2017 elections I reckon.
Many people still alive will remember when The Average NZ Family only had one car, stored it in a garage and cleaned it every week. Many could not afford a car. Bicycles were popular and widely used. Public transport was more economical. London is at present spending Billions of Euros upgrading it’s Underground railway. We are living in a very comfortable country (over all). Do not think that it will last for ever. WW I was supposed to be the “war to end all wars”. It took another war to recover from the Great Depression.
So often we do not realise that what we see is just the “tip of an iceberg”. Someone described lying in a British field with his girfriend, watching contrails forming in the sky and listening to the rattle of machine guns. They were watching the Battle of Britan being fought. Recently we lay under a table while the house rocked and watched the top of the chimney next door collapse. Christchurch’s CBD was being destroyed. People in town were being killed.
So often what you see are just the symptoms. Make sure you are not being complacent What is happening to the world economy? What is happening to the NZ economy? History does repeat itself.
Yeah you have got that right,my opinion,is that many of the wars that have been fought throughout history are on the basis of our ‘leaders’ having f**ked things up so badly and angered the population to the point of open rebellion,
WW1 in particular has in my family been described as the fear reaction of the European ruling classes as the Socialist message spread like a fire across old Europe…
Whatever you may think of a few people, some from Ohariu, protesting and trying to pressure MPs (I think they have every right to do that if reasonable), the so called People Power Ohariu, Ohariu Citizens Select Committee (isn’t that much the same thing) along with the Mana Party (or someone from it) have overstepped with their latest stunt.
I think that desecrating war memorials for political purposes is disgraceful and is likely to annoy a lot of people. Some may be more annoyed than they are about part asset sales, and this is likley to detract from the legitimate and reasonable protest of others.
More at People Power and Ohariu
Seems OK to me.
Did they cause destruction? No.
Did they cause disruption? No.
Did they connect the wars that were fought to defend democracy? Probably.
Good on ’em.
Nothing in there about them desecrating war memorials, Pete. What they did do was hang a flag from a single memorial (the Carillion in Buckle St), then take it down. Nah, the real offensive behaviour is an MP claiming to be driven by the local community on his website, but refusing to meet with his local community when he doesn’t want to do what his local community wants him to do. Peter Dunne, hypocrite.
Ps, Pete, in my youth I used to get drunk and then climb the outside of the Carillion, because the view of Welly from the top is outstanding. Was I desecrating the memorial, or just celebrating the freedom the soldiers died for?
A war memorial represents the deaths of many New Zealanders, and many others who served and suffered. It’s akin to a mass gravestone.
Not surprisingly, from From Newstalk ZB:
I’d word it a bit more strongly than “disappointment”.
would this be the same war memorial that is so sacrosanct they want to drive a highway flyover through the middle of it instead of respectfully building a cut and cover tunnel and thus having a grander more ceremonial stage for the annual remembrance of lost lives and colonial lies.
A more erudite explanation than contained in Pete’s piece of faux outrage can be found in the Dom:
A forestry and conservation worker originally from Northland, McIntosh said the National War Memorial was chosen to emphasise the generations of New Zealanders who had fought hard to “make New Zealand what it is today”.
“Whilst living war veterans expressed their opposition to the sell-off of state assets on ANZAC Day, let’s not forget our Maori and Pakeha ancestors who struggled so hard to defend and possess this land in the wars of the 19th Century: to sell our farms, minerals and state assets overseas is to slight the memory of their struggle for this land.
That’s pathetic justification.
Also pathetic is your “faux outrage” comment. I get criticised for not taking strong positions on things, and when I do the attacks continue, they just flip flop their lines.
You could dream up any weak excuse to desecrate any monument, graveyard, church, marae or whatever, but it doesn’t make it reasonable.
There was no desecration.
Poor old, Pete, we’re always picking on you, eh?
Remember it is you who claimed that they ‘desecrated the memorials’, yet the truth is they did no such thing. And if you’d bothered to look at the photo in the Dom piece, you would have spotted that the banner isn’t even on the memorial, it’s on scaffolding being used by renovators.
So, Pete, like it or not, ‘faux outrage’ is an entirely appropriate phrase to use when dealing with your wilful and witless exaggerations in this case.
You’re wrong and baseless (again).
Both my grandfathers served during WW I. As it happens one returned to a job as engineer on the Mahingerangi power project, He also served in WW II and was still in the army when he died. My father was serving on J-Force and wasn’t here for his funeral.
And my other grandfather emigrated here and worked through WW II on the Monowai power station – while one son had his life wrecked serving on HMNZS Leander, and another son was buried in Italy.
I feel strongly about a handful of people who have ample opportunities to protest choosing to politicise the National War Memorial. I think it’s very poor.
Politicise now? Putting aside the observation that war is about as political as it gets, you haven’t been claiming politicisation until now. You’ve been claiming desecration.
The Memorial’s Curator Paul Riley said “It’s a sacred place the National War Memorial and it certainly is not the place to go around putting banners on scaffolding for a political cause.”
I think there will be quite a few people who will think “to divest of sacred or hallowed character ” is an appropriate description, also any of “defile, violate, dishonor, pollute, outrage”.
Yeah, or “politicise”.
Glad you’re not stooping so low.
I wouldn’t.
I must admit I’ve draped a tarpaulin on a war memorial and stuck small signs on it. But that was with RSA and council approval.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/176238/event-remember-child-abuse-victims
Does approval make it not political or desecratory?
It wasn’t political (although I admit to having a good yack there with a young Nat and a Green candidate who were also supporting it).
And yes, if the RSA and DCC and everyone else who said anything about it thought it an appropriate use of the Cenotaph then it wasn’t desecratory. Similar was done at about 60 war memorials around the country, I didn’t hear of any complaints.
And yet none of those words apply to the putting of a banner on a piece of scaffolding. Just for fun, I googled Wellington War Memorial and desecration and, quelle surprise!, the only person in the entire country who thinks its a desecration is you, Pete.
Even the curator doesn’t agree with you, assuming you have quoted him accurately in your comment above.
I think I’m allowed to have my own opinion and not just parrot others.
Of course, and good for you.
But it takes a bit of the shine off “I think there will be quite a few people who will think…”
edit: Of course you may well be right about that though. Probably are now I think about it.
Pompous Git those guys fought for freedom to protest and came back to this country to get a fair deal. the govt you support is only interested in those that are already rich such as Dotcon
Janet Napolitano the US Secretary of Homeland security is talking with John Key and the minister of customs. If this doesn’t scare you you have not been paying attention.
But Ev. Everything scares you.
If I hover my mouse over you link it says Heinrich Himmler is talking with John Key, I’m pretty sure that Heinrich committed suicide in 1945………… hmmmmmm plot thickens !!!
All thoroughly explained in this documentary about escaped Nazis in hiding for 70 years (documentary apparently due for NZ release soon).
Quite shocking, and I believe includes the role of former Nazis in covering up the 9/11 conspiracy, too.
Hand on heart… 😉
I suspect they are controlling us all via the immunization scheme.
Rev its nationals new policy to stop the number of people leaving for Australia as all there others policies have failed.
Cross party support for the teaching of te reo is great but it is a case of one step forward and two backwards with ERO’s latest report on science achievement: http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/science-education-underdone-in-new.html
If National had listened to the profession, this wouldn’t have happened.
. . . we’d all be frollicking in the wonderous pastureland of New Zealand collecting baskets of unicorn shit for the rose compost.
I am wondering if Banks has some sort of Alzheimers…
http://thenzcontrarian.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/john-banks-on-kim-dotcom-i-did-not-have.html
well, that defense worked for Reagan in Iran-Contra.
And Gerald Ford had his old football head injuries to fall back on.
Bush his cocaine habit and alcohol addictions.
Yeah but conversion to religious zealotry absolved him of that.
Before I was 21 years old I was taught by people from 4 different organisations “Lead by Example”.
They preached this standard and demonstrated it. They were good leaders. Would it be reasonable to expect a standard like that from our politicians? They sought the position. They are not doing us a favour. We are not priviledged to have them. They constantly have to justify their existance. They sought the position, why are they there? Are they there to serve us or or earn a large income. So many seem to have lost the plot.
Just heard from someone who knows someone. The proposed move of the Treaty of Waitangi and other consititutional documents from Archives New Zealand to the refurbished National Library building has been approved by Cabinet – although I understand they will stay under the care of Archives NZ staff.
Kim DotCom’s open letter to Key tonight on Campbell Live.
Wow! Not the open letter! Its the very peculiar situation that the PM of NZ knew not even the name of Kim Dotcom until the day before the arrest. On tape. Yet a large circle of others did know him for ages even years. Very eird. If you haven’t seen this on Campbell Live do so. There will be pretty strange repercussions. I bet!
When is Grant Robertson going to make the move on Shearer? How will that go down with David Cunnlife do you think
Union head allegedly tried to remove documents as police raid HQ
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/union-head-allegedly-tried-to-remove-documents-as-police-raid-hq-20120502-1xxzj.html#ixzz1thZp85fa
Could Chris Trotter be losing his prophetic political powers?
After a blistering attack on David Shearer in the Dominion Post last week it would seem, that in fact, Shearer isn’t doing too badly at all. At 34.6% in the Herald-digi poll Labour is clearly moving in a positive direction under Shearer’s leadership.
Perhaps, the voters do not really want those things that seem so important to Trotter: flowery rhetoric and “juicy red meat” policies.
Instead, maybe Shearer’s style and approach of appealing to all New Zealanders is just what will get Labour back into power.
Can we expect another “confession” of the “aw shucks I was wrong (again)” variety from Trotter in the near future?
Tend to agree with you Steve. It is intriguing that the apparent left is so keen to beat up on a Left Leader. Did it to Goff and now Shearer.Would make sense if it was the right attacking/denigrating but from the Left?
My view of it is Pol Pot could be head of the Labour Party at the moment and still be going up in popularity,
Slippery and National have ‘bought’ the last 2 election victory’s off of tax cuts and asset sales,but,as has been shown befor such incentives to vote for a particular party are only a temporary glue and the actions of National and its support party’s are making Shearer and labour look saintly by comparison…
Yes, Ianmac, or it’s also some of the Left being sucked into a game being played by another party and not necessarily the Right, trying to capitalise on their own leaders position.