Does the government care about anything?
Not worried or I’m comfortable seems to be a stock answer from ministers nowadays.
Govt aware EU investigating NZ tax rules
The government is aware that the European Parliament is investigating New Zealand in the wake of the Panama Papers but said it is not worried.
The Panama Papers revealed how some of the world’s richest people use foreign trusts, including in New Zealand, to hide their wealth and avoid paying tax.
In June, the European Parliament set up a special committee to investigate matters that were raised by the papers and it wants to blacklist countries that are operating as tax havens.
Mr Woodhouse was aware of this because of the European Parliament’s website but did not believe the government had received official notification of any investigations or any action against New Zealand.
But the government was confident “any objective inquiry” would find New Zealand was fully compliant with OECD standards.
maybe the EU should stick with investigating the massive frauds perpetrated by Deutsche Bank, and also why the entire Italian banking system is teetering on the edge of collapse.
Is Winston Peters the only MP prepared to stand up for New Zealand’s rights regarding housing?
Are we to be tenants in our own land as Labour and National bow down to their masters in the U.S. and China?
Free trade deals signed by both parties have reduced our sovereignty and rights.
Yeah they need a proof reader “The grouping of 28 European nations has compiled a list of countries with lax tax laws, band following the release of the so-called Panama Papers it confirmed New Zealand is under investigation.”
With help from their no questions asked immigration policy, trying to get as many folks resident from Asia and overseas to support Mr Key – currently something like 1.5% per year increases in population from migration. Over the 9 year term of the Natz this can change the population over 13%.
It is already predicted that Asian will be the 2nd largest demographic in NZ and over take Maori. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11166485
Illegal Tweets from the All blacks on election day.
Changing legalisation to render people unable to vote (with high Maori demographics).
Dirty politics.
Manipulating and controlling the MSM messages.
Stopping investigative journalists by any way they can.
Burying bad news.
Corrupting and co opting the Maori party to help them in their dirty deeds.
Hi save nz,
You can add Canterbury environment crowd, Saudi sheep shenanagins and a few schools with unnecessary statutory management to the list of ‘Democratic actions’ this corrupt mob have undertaken.
I think she means line them up and shoot them.
Or perhaps just the gulag.
[This site doesn’t accept advocating violence. Suggesting that others are advocating violence without evidence is also bad form. Please tone it down in future. TRP]
accountable
əˈkaʊntəb(ə)l/Submit
adjective
1.
required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible.
“ministers are accountable to Parliament”
synonyms: responsible, liable, answerable, chargeable; More
2.
able to be explained or understood.
“the delayed introduction of characters’ names is accountable, if we consider that names have a low priority”
synonyms: explicable, explainable; More
So you want those voters to be held liable for their vote or to justify it or be answerable for it. And what then – charged? For what? And what are the penalties you have in mind?
Your helpful recourse to a dictionary raises even more questions about how you want to hold voters accountable for exercising their democratic rights.
It sounds a bit ominous so please do explain.
well the national voters coming to my shop complaining about stuff are being told by me that thy voted for this government, three times to be precises, which means they must like what they get served and as such should simply shut the fuck up or vote differently the next time.
you know, you buy it you own it.
or you break it you own it.
you know accountability.
so mate, you kids not finding a house to live any where in nz. shut the fuck up, you voted for that shit.
the road that was build with tax payers money going to be a toll road, shut the fuck up you voted for that shit.
need surgery and can’t get one cause waiting lists, you voted for that shit so shut the fuck up.
have cancer and are unemployed and the lady tells you to get a fucking job or no benefit? you voted for that shit, so shut the fuck up.
you know, you voted for that shit, now eat it. all of it. and don’t ever come around to me and complain.
Weka i make sure i remind people every day that they voted for this bastard and we are all suffering because of it.
And its like corporal punishment, kiwis must love getting a hiding because they keep voting for the cane at every election.
Then Sabine you are very lucky the Nat voters that come into your shop are so understanding of your condition*… and kept coming back to buy stuff from you.
If I knew where your shop was, I’d hang around outside as traumatised National voters emerged sobbing into their hankies. It’s nice to have it confirmed that the customer is not always right. Sometimes the customer is a whining self-absorbed git.
Hmmmm. We could make them pay a fair share of tax. Or nationalise the flogged off power companies. Or just make them look their grand kids in the eye while they explain how they voted for the young to be locked out of home ownership.
We have far too many pressing needs in the world to be blowing billions on the Olympic Games, which has morphed into a bloated corporate show, drowning in drugs and all about petty national rivalries.
It appears to be a precursor to war rather than a chance to heal the world’s divides.
It is a rich nation’s event.
The Olympics has passed its use by date.
As a career path, Olympic athlete is not a high public subsidy per person.
But the evaluative ruler for the whole event itself would be:
would the city have been better off or worse off in the long term if they hadn’t happened there?
On the negative side: Toronto, Athens.
On the meh side: Los Angeles, Moscow, Sydney
On the positive side: Barcelona, London, Beijing, Seoul
A article well worth reading.
Supports much of what cv has been posting.
“Climate Change Activism: A Post-Mortem
As I write these words, much of North America is sweltering under near-tropical heat and humidity. Parts of the Middle East have set all-time high temperatures for the Old World, coming within a few degrees of Death Valley’s global record. The melting of the Greenland ice cap has tripled in recent years, and reports from the arctic coast of Siberia describe vast swathes of tundra bubbling with methane as the permafrost underneath them melts in 80°F weather. Far to the south, seawater pours through the streets of Miami Beach whenever a high tide coincides with an onshore wind; the slowing of the Gulf Stream, as the ocean’s deep water circulation slows to a crawl, is causing seawater to pile up off the Atlantic coast of the US, amplifying the effect of sea level rise.
All these things are harbingers of a profoundly troubled future. All of them were predicted, some in extensive detail, in the print and online literature of climate change activism over the last few decades. Not that long ago, huge protest marches and well-funded advocacy organizations demanded changes that would prevent these things from happening, and politicians mouthed slogans about stopping global warming in its tracks. Somehow, though, the marchers went off to do something else with their spare time, the advocacy organizations ended up preaching to a dwindling choir, and the politicians started using other slogans to distract the electorate.”
No Paul you are a miserable cut & paste doomsayer, as Ad correctly alludes to, try going outside into that nasty climate you speak of so often, it might do you the world of good
Stop reading wrist-slitting melancholy. And stop encouraging others to do the same.
i’ll tell you what wrist slitting melancholy is, it’s the message that all human beings are born sinners.
Compared to that, the message of the Archdruid is one of outright positivity.
By the way, wasn’t the end of the world going to come through fire, floods, pestilence that kind of thing? You don’t think that climate change may have a role to play in that?
You were boots n all into Assange, and straight out accused him of rape a number of times in articles and comments, yet edit, censor and shout down any suggestion about Bill Clintons rape accusations
No inconsistency. It is not me that has accused Assange of rape, it’s the Swedish authorities. I just think he should face the charges and defend himself in court, like the rest of us have to when charged with offences. The supposed tweet does not exist. It’s made up. It is a gender based insult against Hillary Clinton, not Bill Clinton. And even if it were, Bill Clinton currently has no legal case to answer on his alleged behaviour, which is not the case for Assange, obviously. Your argument fails completely.
Failure (of the hypocrisy test) is authoring articles such as ‘Broken’ while making excuses for swinging dicks like Bill Clinton
Simultaneously claiming that Hillarys “lifetime of public service” mitigates the bribes taken from corporate america and the war crimes for which Hillary is, at best an accomplice
Hillarys crimes against humanity (man/woman/environment) deserve no excuse or cover story, yet you have done exactly that in an overt way, using this site as the medium and moderating approach as tactics
The complete bias toward Hillary is as ludicrous as your claims of “gender based insults”
The gender based insult is Hillary Clinton herself!
I’ve never made excuses for Bill Clinton. As I noted he’s not charged with anything and the one thing we do know about (Lewinsky) there is no excuse for. But that’s a moral argument, not a legal one, as far as I can tell. Two consenting adults etc. I’m in a good mood, so I’ll just point out that the current time off for lying about authors is a six week ban. And take it easy on telling me what I have or should not have written, OK?
btw. if you don’t understand what a gender based insult is, just say so. Or google the term and educate yourself.
Skolkovo Russian innovation centre flows funds to the Clinton Foundation
Speaking of facts.
As Schweizer continues, “soon, dozens of U.S. tech firms, including top Clinton Foundation donors like Google, Intel and Cisco, made major financial contributions to Skolkovo, with Cisco committing a cool $1 billion. In May 2010, the State Department facilitated a Moscow visit by 22 of the biggest names in U.S. venture capital—and weeks later the first memorandums of understanding were signed by Skolkovo and American companies…
Of the 28 “partners,” 17, or 60%, have made financial commitments to the Clinton Foundation, totaling tens of millions of dollars, or sponsored speeches by Bill Clinton…
Russians tied to Skolkovo also flowed funds to the Clinton Foundation. Andrey Vavilov, the chairman of SuperOx, which is part of Skolkovo’s nuclear-research cluster, donated between $10,000 and $25,000 (donations are reported in ranges, not exact amounts) to the Clinton’s family charity”
Apparently no charges have been laid around how Sec State Clinton used her influence to flow funds to the Clinton Foundation so by your standards TRP, nothing to see here.
(Except more of the same crony $$$ behaviour from Hillary Clinton while in office).
Whereas trump is so alien to the concept of empathy that “the simple presidential duty of comforting the families of fallen soldiers may actually be beyond his capabilities”.
considering that Mike Pence VP is the one who represents a very large swath of extremely conservative christian , yes it could.
also consider this.
what would the republican party have said if the man who fathered five children with three women would have been a Obama or b a women who had five children with three men?
So will it hurt him with the ones that look at women as objects to be replaced when to old, or to be used as a trophy who does not smile nor speak, i don’t think so.
but then there are over three hundred million in that country, It will be good fun till election time, here and there.
I think a lot of people will look at her and go “shes hot” (and sadly because of it vote Trump) and still more will think its not a good look for the NY Post and vote Trump out of sympathy
as per below the ones who look as women as a thing that has to be hot yeah, they would vote and also props like masturbating over the first lady.
however, she might be keenly aware that she can be dumped at any given moment like the previous mrs. trumps and be replaced with a 20 year younger model.
personally i don’t care, she was a model and did as models do. However, being the ‘first lady’ of the moral, christan, no sex education, abstinence only, virgin brides, no sluts evangelic party this could cause a bit of a brain freeze for some of the more ‘fundamentalist’ christian voters;
“personally i don’t care, she was a model and did as models do. However, being the ‘first lady’ of the moral, christan, no sex education, abstinence only, virgin brides, no sluts evangelic party this could cause a bit of a brain freeze for some of the more ‘fundamentalist’ christian voters;”
Sure if Trump was running as a typical GOP candidate but Trumps a bit different so I don’t think it’ll hurt him, its more likely it’ll help
i am not talking about Trump the “representative of the oval office’ i am talking about Mike Pence.
lil game the last time the republicans were in power that had the little bush and cheney. who do you think pulled the strings?
this time with trump / pence who do you think will pull the strings?
Ugly Truth. The tape really confirms our worst fears about TPPA. And now if it is ratified by all, the world will shift forever. What will happen to my grandchildren?
Funny that much of manufacturing, including that of USA and NZ, has shifted to China and yet Obama’s aim is to shut out China from the Pacific region.
The TPPA conforms to the general pattern of consolidation of political power in the hands of those with little motivation to act in the public interest. I’m optimistic that this pattern of behaviour will collapse and the future for new generations will be far brighter than what we know today.
The US is apparently still wedded to the doctrine of full spectrum dominance, the military exercises in the East China Sea signify meaningful opposition to this IMO.
Real sovereignty isn’t the same an the political supremacy that the state calls sovereignty. There’s a massive paradigm shift involved in achieving sovereignty, Brexit was a good example of how steps can be taken.
Just a quick request – would you mind just putting in a short line of context when putting up a link? I personally don’t like clicking/selecting links without some idea of what it is I’m looking at. Thanks. 🙂
I thought Nanaia Mahuta’s comments at the end of the interview were telling. She listed pieces of legislation passed by the NAct govt. which cut across the Treaty of Waitangi… yet we’ve not heard a peep out of the Maori Party.
She also reminds us we already have our own Indigenous Rights Treaty and didn’t need to sign up to another one. Very good point.
The Maori Party are being disingenuously spiteful and petty minded – as you say ianmac. They represent a small Maori elite and not the rest of the Maori populace. The sooner they’re gone the better.
Actually, BM, what’s good for maori is good for all of us. And Anne is correct to point out that the maori party have done nothing of substance for the people they claim to represent since they were formed. Indeed, given the increase in negative stats for maori, it’s easily argued that they have helped harm maori as part of the NACT government.
When I first saw the item, I did toy with the idea of writing a post. But, really, who cares what they say? Their actions (and inactions) speak louder than their words.
Along with the contentious foreshore and seabed law in 2004, Ms Fox said there were other decisions by Miss Clark’s Labour government that cast doubt on what kind of Secretary-General she would be.
“The Labour Party refused to sign the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is a part of the UN agenda.
“The Labour Party in its time saw the Tuhoe raids and of course also there is the Foreshore and Seabed amendment which took the rights of Māori away to go to court.”
I’d add to that ‘haters and wreckers’.
Ms Fox said someone seeking the top role at the United Nations should be able to acknowledge their past mistakes and apologise for them.
That seems to be the crix of it. If Clark still believes that she was right on all the things above, then it’s completely reasonable for Māori to not support her to the UN role.
Te Tiriti is not a replacement for the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
I thought Nanaia Mahuta’s comments at the end of the interview were telling. She listed pieces of legislation passed by the NAct govt. which cut across the Treaty of Waitangi… yet we’ve not heard a peep out of the Maori Party.
She also reminds us we already have our own Indigenous Rights Treaty and didn’t need to sign up to another one. Very good point.
I can’t see that (they might have removed it). If it’s still visible can you please cut and paste?
“The quote has a large almost universally agreed meaning of “You should be cautious of the company you keep. Associating with those of low reputation may not only lower your own but also lead you astray by the faulty assumptions, premises and data of the unscrupulous.””
Yeah, but let’s face it, the only choices they’ve had are National or Labour, both of whom have done pretty serious negative shit to Māori.
Let’s also remember that the Māori Party may be part of forming the next left wing government. How will we deal with the shit then? Or would we prefer they went with National again?
The Māori party has a mandate from its people to be inside the tent. That is policy, so they will support who ever has a majority to get a seat at the table.
Now if the Māori party get 3-4 seats (a possibility) and Green/labour are the majority – then the Māori party will support them.
I actually think it’s quite smart of Marama to raise this as she has – it shows Māori, where labour are at. It also keeps alive the issues for Māori and keeps their issues front and centre, rather than floating in the ether.
Lots of people assume that the Māori Party are right wing, but I don’t think they are. Their primary political loyalty is to Māori. What reason is there that would stop them supporting a L/G government? Policy? History?
Why don’t you ask them*? That’s the point. In this instance, your views on how people form political allegiances are not that relevant compared to theirs.
*or failing that, just read/listen to what is in the public domain. Plenty of Māori talking about it, but you have to be willing to hear what they say.
Moreover, you wrongly assume I don’t read/listen to what’s in the public domain.
I forewarned the Party would split long before it happened, for that very reason. People of one race don’t necessarily share the same political view or desires.
Not directly. However, At 1.37pm yesterday you stated lots of people assume that the Māori Party are right wing, but you don’t think they are, stating their primary political loyalty is to Māori.
Yet, you agree race doesn’t determine ones political allegiance, but concluded loyalty to their race somehow substituted a political positioning (i.e. left, right, centre).
Therefore, the line their primary political loyalty is to Māori is little more than feel good waffle. It means little in political reality.
A political Party can’t be solely loyal to a race, people of one race don’t necessarily share the same political view or desires. Its role requires it to take a political positioning on matters. thus loyalty to a race doesn’t substitute a political Party’s positioning.
Which, in case you missed it, was the point I was making.
Well done on finally saying what you think. But let’s be very clear that very little of that is related to my own views or comments. I really don’t like my politics misrepresented and you’re pretty close to doing that here. Please don’t do it again.
Your comments can often have indirect meaning, leaving your position on certain matters unclear. Which is why I initially questioned you (to establish what your position was) and later went on to point out to you how your comments can be misconceived.
Nonetheless, I’m still unclear what your position is. Where do you see the Māori Party sitting in the political spectrum?
Just want to make it clear that I thought Helen Clark’s handling of the Seabed and Foreshore issue was appalling and easily the worst thing she ever did. I thought she had acknowledged that it was wrong and apologised but can’t remember where or when (except that it was after she was PM).
Interesting to hear Andrew Little on Checkpoint last night say that as president of the Labour Party he opposed the Act but it was a parliamentary decision.
I do think, however, Helen Clark would do more for indigenous rights than some of the other likely contenders for the post of UN Secretary-General.
Anne I’m going to call you on misrepresenting Nanaia on the issues of the Indigenous Rights Treaty. She did not say what you are saying. She was talking about caveats, which would restrain the Treaty of Waitangi.
Funny, Nanaia did almost apology for the foreshore debacle, then she is almost falling over herself to defended the hard right knee jerk legislation labour passed as better than what we have. Sad.
Dover is still bitter he lost his seat to the Maori party. So the irony is not lost on me with his bluster.
Good on Marama being the fox amongst the chickens.
“Good on Marama being the fox amongst the chickens.”
I respect those who speak out according to their principals.
But only if their principals are consistent…not changeable according to the political climate.
fox
fɒks/Submit
noun
noun: fox; plural noun: foxes
1.
a carnivorous mammal of the dog family with a pointed muzzle and bushy tail, proverbial for its cunning.
synonyms: literaryReynard
the fur of a fox.
2.
a cunning or sly person.
“a wily old fox”
3.
NORTH AMERICANinformal
a sexually attractive woman.
verbinformal
verb: fox; 3rd person present: foxes; past tense: foxed; past participle: foxed; gerund or present participle: foxing
1.
baffle or deceive (someone).
“the abbreviation foxed me completely”
dated
behave in a cunning or sly way.
“to his mind everybody was dodging and foxing” https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=fox&rlz=1C1OPRB_enNZ513NZ516&oq=fox&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.4307j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=fox+definition
Which definition fits Marama? (If we’re going to play on words.)
I did not misrepresent Nanaia and I take offence at you saying so Adam. You are being obtuse and pedantic. I don’t give a f*** about the process the govt may have adopted re- legislation/regulations. The effect is still the same – to undermine the many disadvantaged Maori living on or below the minimum wage, or having their special rights eroded. That is what I took from Nanaia’s comments and she sure knows a darn sight more about the subject than you do.
Anne, I hope that you are not saying that all Māori have the same view on Clark other than the Māori Party.
How about addressing the points that adam raised?
Anne I’m going to call you on misrepresenting Nanaia on the issues of the Indigenous Rights Treaty. She did not say what you are saying. She was talking about caveats, which would restrain the Treaty of Waitangi.
Well I was hopeful you’d answer my question, but instead you came back with an ad hominem.
Ironic really, as the only media personality I see whose seething about Marama Fox and her comments is Paul Henry. Actually your comments have been pretty consistently in line with his.
Back to the question, I know I’m a sucker for punishment.
“Anne I’m going to call you on misrepresenting Nanaia on the issues of the Indigenous Rights Treaty. She did not say what you are saying. She was talking about caveats, which would restrain the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Typo aside, I retract my statements about Tariana Turia yesterday evening (I think) when this story broke. I was wrong. She has been able to move on from the F&S scandal and good on her for doing so.
Since the introduction of compulsory voting in Australia in 1924, the turnout has never fallen below 90%. Voting, like compulsory education or jury service is a civil duty that cannot simply be ignored.
Is there a brave enough political party that is prepared to insist that a referendum at the time of a General Election be held to allow voters the opportunity to decide upon compulsion versus voluntary voting?
Voting is not a civil duty. It is a civil right. Rights do not mean a duty. You have a right to stand for election, you do not have a duty to do so.
Will the Left stoop to compulsion to get the missing million to vote? Many people choose not to vote. That is not the same as ignoring. Just because the majority want a National led government does not mean that we need to force people to cast their vote. Next you’ll be enticing them with KFC.
ohhhh, don’t want disenfranchiserd people going to the poll then now?
let me put it differently,
voting is a right that was fought for people who had no rights, and opposed by people that ‘held all the rights’ . You seem to be supporting the ones that opposed the universal rights to a vote.
voting is a right and a duty. And why should it not be compulsory?
Yeah yeah yeah. Soon you’ll be saying that paying taxes is a civil right. Oh that’s right, you do.
Because voting is a matter of secrecy, there is nothing to stop the voter from invalidating their vote.
In the May 2005 UK elections, turnout varied significantly from 74.6% in Dorset West to 41.5% in Liverpool Riverside. By contrast, the turnout of all but 2 electorates in the Australian elections in October 2004 was over 90% – the exceptions were Kalgoorlie with 83.53% & Lingiari with 77.71%, both covering remote areas with transient populations -. ( Source; Tim Evans, Director Election Systems & Policy, Australian Electoral Commission 16 January 2016 ).
” There are many things that people do not wish to do and which they would not do if they were able to exercise “individual freedoms”, but which parliament has legislated to require. The role of parliament in a parliamentary democracy includes passing laws to ensure the effectiveness of that democratic system”.
Source: Submission to JSCEM by the Australian Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
“You have a right to not vote. It’s called democracy.”
Wow. I can’t believe I almost agree with you. Now if we can tie that in with the right not to be disenfranchised, civics education and fair political funding, we might have a win.
you sure are generous. but it does seem that fisiani has a thing for kfc. must be that secret spice ingredient.
I would like to see obligatory voting, but then i would also like to see the option of “none of the above” added. If ‘none of the above’ wins, all parties have to go back to the drawing board and try harder.
How much would it cost to chase all those people that can’t be bothered voting , then you fine them when you catch them, then they hate the system even more and some refuse to pay the fine so they get hounded and fined a
bit more.
Far better to make it a day off work and a and occasion .
Make the likes of starship and kidscan recipients of the donated cash, and others can have a lunch out with the family or whatever. And those on poor street get a little bonus . What’s not to love?
I would not go and fine them, nor have i advocated it.
but i do think that making it compulsory with education starting in the schools would not be too bad. You will always have those that will not play ball, but instead of fining them i would have them take say 5 lessons in school about – voting history, a world without voting, civic lessons and community politics and their importance.
i think that would be a better approach. Punitive measures do not change behavior education does.
If ‘none of the above’ wins, all parties have to go back to the drawing board and try harder.
It’s always been a concern of mine about the idea of ‘none of the above’ is what happens when a government isn’t chosen?
This idea of leaving the caretaker government in place and holding another election is a possible option but it would probably have a lot of opposition due to the cost. It may be possible to overcome some of that opposition by going to online voting but even that has its nay-sayers.
Gallup has Trump as the first nom on record whose convention actually made people less likely to support him (36/51) pic.twitter.com/ySZEpOIPVG— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) August 1, 2016
In other words CLE just magnified Trump's existing issues. Turned on white men/WWC. Turned off white women/college grads, indies, young ppl.— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) August 1, 2016
GallupMore/Less Likely to Support Trump Post-RNCWhite M +19Non-college whites +16——White F -7White BA/BS -12Indies -2618-29 -38— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) August 1, 2016
edit: According to Nate Silver Clinton now has a better than 82% probability of winning.
In Pennsylvania, Trump says amounts of mining inspections "unbelievable…It’s not gonna happen anymore, folks." pic.twitter.com/W3etPcOivw— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) August 2, 2016
Billionaire distressed asset investor Wilbur Ross has explained his reasons for backing Donald Trump to be the next U.S. president, highlighting the presumptive Republican nominee’s lack of political correctness and attention to middle-class America.
“Although I personally believe Richard has done a good job to date for the Council and the city…I nevertheless do not believe that any manager in a public (or private for that matter) enterprise should be paid over 11 times the salary of the lowest paid worker in that organisation,” Macpherson said.
He believed the council should prioritise a Living Wage minimum of $20 per hour for council staff, before increasing the chief executive’s take home pay by $50,000.
Bureaucratic managerial class slapping itself on the back with obscene amounts of money, deluding themselves that they are supermen who are ‘worth it’.
$50,000 to me, “thinking” about prioritising a living wage to you. Ok right can’t afford to pay the living wage but how about another pay rise for me for my efforts of thinking about you, cos we are in a democracy and all? Plus these councils have to spend a fortune on PR now, to make sure the rate payers know that the councillors are doing such a great job.
Of course pay is bench marked to what others in the same sector get, not what they actually do or should be paid. Anti performance pay – where you get a pay rise because you have to keep up with others at the same role in the trough of neoliberalism.
Rebalancing incomes is part of the required solution. Benchmarking needs to be revised to help address this.
Not only is it holding people back, the negative consequence is also the impact on consumer demand (thus, business returns) and growing household debt.
Unfortunately, National doesn’t seem to acknowledge the role they play in growing inequality, nor seemingly, does this council.
Fuck that were constantly told that paying people peanuts gets you monkeys but if you ask me the opposite is true i think you could sack a huge number of vastly overpaid ceo.s put the job back up on the notice board at a third of the pay and find plenty of people who could do the job much better .And most definately have the base rate of the lowest payed workers at at least 20 bucks an hour .
oh the hot tears at bedtime if the Mana and Māori parties co-operate in the Māori electorates and win back a few seats
there could be a Labour led government right now if Labour had not campaigned against Internet Mana (yes in unison with all the other parties, but Labour put special effort in also to assist Kelvin) and torpedoed Hone in Te Tai Tokerau
When I suggested on here that Hone should accept Labour’s open offer to join them and the Greens to overturn the Government, it was suggested to me the offer was only open to those already in parliament. Implying Labour and the Greens would rather work with the Maori Party, than with Mana. Go figure?
i have never heard of that. hmmm, personally i would like to think that anyone that wants to join should do so.
hmm, now i must ask da labour man about that.
For the sake of the country Hone and Labour need to get together and have a truce.
National have screwed Maori more than Labour!
And Labour should apologise for going against Mana. It was crazy politics, pure and simple. Who knows why they did it?? I just think there is a lot of manipulation from the Natz on Labour and Greens and clearly The Maori party is under their spell too.
Maybe Hone is hard to work with, who knows what to believe, but he has much better ideas for poverty and change for Maori than any one else.
I think the dream team is a mix of Labour, Greens, NZ First and Mana. That is who I would like to see in government with the majority. They are all better together in policy than individually as they cancel out the weird bits (spying and luke warm TPP from Labour would hopefully be cancelled out by the other three, more taxes on the middle class would hopefully be cancelled out by NZ First, etc, hopefully they start to think about creating well paid jobs internally with local people rather than shipping in cheap workers etc, education would start to be about education rather than foreign fees, they get rail working, they stop privatising everything, they have responsible relationships with China, Australia, US and EU, not losing all our rights like John Key is doing for less and cheaper milk powder sales.
there could be a Labour led government right now if Labour had not campaigned against Internet Mana (yes in unison with all the other parties, but Labour put special effort in also to assist Kelvin) and torpedoed Hone in Te Tai Tokerau
How so? Can you post the maths to demonstrate that?
We have a bloke in our community with a not so proud past of violent offending, although AFAIK not against women or children, and he’s done some quite serious time for his crimes. For many many years this bloke has stayed out of the limelight and out of trouble – until recently.
The bloke lost the plot and did something mightily stupid and potentially fatal to the public, the law responded and he did such a marvelous job of barricading himself inside his home he required assistance to get himself out and was duly carted off to the cells. Meanwhile, local dog control officers arrived supposedly to deal with the bloke’s three dogs and were told by the law to corral the animals in the back yard.
The attending plods knew the bloke well and were well aware of the part the dogs played in keeping him on the straight and narrow, knew he couldn’t afford any extra cost and knew arrangements would be made for their care until a permanent solution was found.
But no, the fucking arsehole control officers took the blokes dogs, impounded them and three days later and off their own bat, euthanised all three.
The bloke is distraught, the attending plods on the day knowing how the death of his dogs will affect the bloke are incensed and locals and other dog owners who know the bloke are infuriated. Added to the mix is the sneaking suspicion the fucking jobsworth who ordered the dogs be killed acted with malice toward the bloke. And they’ll get away with their actions because law and order and the bloke has neither the wherewithal nor skills to follow up.
there is an fb page where people are happy to raise funds to help release impounded dogs. https://www.facebook.com/fundraisingforimpoundeddogs/?fref=ts
Usually dogs are held for seven days before being put to sleep or given up for adoption.
three days is not on order.
Have you thought of putting through an official complaint to the council, and also it may help going public.
The pound workers are already having a hard time, what with homeless dogs everywhere cause their peeps can not find pet friendly rentals, and the pound workers that i encountered (i iz a serial adopter of old pooches) absolutely hate putting down healthy friendly dogs.
this sucks. Lodge a protests with the council together with the others on his behalf.
Dogs sometimes escape or run away and get impounded, the least we want to know for sure is how long a pound would hold the animal before either killing it or giving it up for adoption.
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...
. . April 1: Day seven of living in lock-down… This morning I had a brief chat with one of my neighbours, “D” (social distance between us, a good three or four metres). I learned he had resigned from his previous job and had been hired by another company – ...
Funnily enough, my thought as I start this post is whether it will be well written enough. Or should that be well enough written? Because so much of what I know about good writing came from my two stints at The Listener, which this morning was shut down due to ...
With normal democratic procedures in abeyance, there were two ways to go. First, it was open for the government to dissolve itself and invite the National Party to join a ministry of national salvation. That would have lessened the democratic deficit of the times by having a team of rivals without ...
Dr Kirsty Ross Children and young people can respond differently in times of distress. This also varies by age and developmental stage, with younger children having more magical and imaginative thinking, and older children having more awareness and knowledge of the issues our communities are facing (which brings up ...
Hungary has been a virtual dictatorship for a decade now, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has gradually eroded its democracy. But now, its official, with the passage of an indefinite emergency law allowing rule by decree:Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for ...
While the economy is on pause under lockdown, the government is beginning to plan how to cope with the post-lockdown, post-tourism, post-export education world we will eventually find ourselves in. They're planning a lot of infrastructure spending as economic stimulus, and have asked for proposals which can start the moment ...
It's my distraction, setting up tiny scenes to photograph. I've got stuck on the Babushka dolls for now. Something about their bubble shape. Something about their never changing, smiling features, suggesting persistent equanimity. Can we get through everything that is being thrown at us and keep at least a tiny ...
. . March 31: Day six of living in lock-down… This time I managed to sleep a little longer and the alarm woke me at the pre-set time: 6.55am. Then remembered I was working a later shift and could’ve slept in. Oh well, there are things to do at home. ...
Image credit:Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ...
Yesterday's Horizon poll showing support for a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum sliding into the majority for the first time in a year looked like good news for reformers – and it probably is. But the result warrants some scrutiny.The poll is the fifth in a series commissioned ...
For almost a week now, every one of us who isn’t an essential worker has been confined to their bubble. We are allowed to go shopping for groceries, to visit the doctor, and to get a bit of exercise if we stay local. The reason we are doing this is ...
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...
In the absence of a vaccine or a cure for a deadly disease, staying home in your bubble is what you do, the concept is not new. To the best of my knowledge last time we did this in NZ was for polio, in the years before a vaccine came ...
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...
This has been a terrible summer for Hector’s dolphins. The first indication was very low numbers of dolphin sightings during late spring and early summer. The Otago University Marine Mammal Research Team has carried out routine dolphin surveys at Banks Peninsula for more than 30 years. In all that time, ...
On March 17, Finance Minister Grant Robertson was quick out of the blocks with an economic rescue package to help businesses through the inevitable recession resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had pulled together a scheme in short order that so far seems to have saved many jobs. In his ...
The purpose of the lockdown is to save lives, by reducing the spread of covid-19. We won't know if its really working for another week, but given the devastation that will result if it doesn't - 14,000 dead is the optimistic scenario - its definitely worth trying. But pausing the ...
. . March 30: Day five of living in lock-down… Woke up still in darkness. Alarm hadn’t gone off. Turn to radio clock; it’s a few minutes after 6am… I lie there in the dark, waiting to drift off to sleep… but it ain’t happening. Clock ticks over to 6.55 ...
The story of Les Gray, the public sector psychologist who told the truth about his use of cannabis and set off a storm, has a special place in the lore of cannabis reform in New Zealand.When Paul Shannon interviewed Gray for the 'Dope and Hope' issue of Planet magazine in ...
by Phil Duncan For Marxists, a key concern about social trends is their context – not just their causes, but why they happen when they do. Events and phenomena have causes, but they also are time or period-specific. While much of the left have capitulated recently to postmodernism, most notably ...
Since the lockdown began, we've all suddenly been reminded who the actually essential workers in our society are: not the people at the top who pay themselves the big bucks and rort the perks, but the people at the bottom they screw over and squeeze: cleaners, warehouse staff, truck drivers ...
Kia ora! As I've watched nearly all my remaining work vanish over the past couple of days, it has occured to me that one good way to keep me away from arguing with fools on Twitter all the time (in the knowledge that all we're really doing is processing our ...
Aotearoa New Zealand has committed to trying to extirpate the virus that causes COVID-19 from its shores. To do that, as a society we’ve moved to “Level 4”. That means adapting to unprecedented restrictions on our personal freedoms, particularly to our rights to move freely and associate with friends and ...
When the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency last week, she handed the police powers to enforce it. And almost immediately, we started hearing about heavy-handed, arbitrary "enforcement" by police who (at best) cared more about order than law, or (more likely) had no idea what the rules were ...
. . Lock Down: Day 4 – A photo essay with observations . March 29: Usual wake up routine as RNZ snaps on my radio-clock. Jim Mora’s voice slowly enters my conciousness; there’s talk of a second wave of covid19 taking hold in South Korea; the week in Parliament – ...
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... ‘Misinformation kills’: The link between coronavirus conspiracies and climate denialGrist / Rob Kim / Stringer / CSA Images Scientific ...
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...
. . Lock Down: Day 3 – A photo essay with observations . March 28: First day of the first weekend in Lock Down. It feels like it’s been weeks since only Level 3 was declared last Tuesday, only four days ago. Woke up this morning to RNZ; coffee; toast, ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Mar 22, 2020 through Sat, Mar 28, 2020Articles Linked to on FacebookSun, Mar 22, 2020In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of Disasters by Chelsea Harvey, ...
I’m here in lockdown with my flatmate and her two girls (6 and 2) and it. is. a time. They’re usually really active so to start with the only boardgame in the house is the copy of Guess Who that the 6 year old got for her birthday. Flatmate commented ...
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...
. . Lock Down: Day 2 – A photo essay with observations . March 27 – Day 2 of our Strange New World. The Park and Ride near my suburb, usually filled with hundreds of vehicles, had just… four; . . Another drive into Wellington City on a highway nearly ...
Fortune's Children: Under extraordinary pressure, the leader of the Government and the leader of the Opposition will each show us what they are made of. Have they been blessed with intelligence, grace, wit, poise, toughness, empathy and humour – and in what measure? More importantly, to what extent have they ...
If you’ve ever had the misfortune of having to rent a property on the open market in New Zealand, which is one of the most expensive in the entire world, you’ll likely be keenly aware of just how arrogant and entitled landlords and their real estate agents can be.Unfortunately for ...
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights:In this legal blog we outline some ...
by Equipo Jurídico Pueblos and Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (25/03/2020) An escape plan in question On the night of March 21st and the early morning of the 22nd, the forces of the Colombian state stormed into the Modelo prison in Bogotá, murdering 23 prisoners and injuring 83, in response to the ...
When the government banned semi-automatic weapons in response to a terrorist atrocity, gun-nuts were outraged. Mired in toxic American gun culture, they thought owning weapons whose sole purpose was killing people was some sort of "constitutional right", a necessity for "defending themselves" against the government. Now, the Court of Appeal ...
Just before midnight on Wednesday March 25, Aotearoa New Zealand entered a countrywide alert level four lockdown. For at least the next four weeks, everyone who isn’t an essential worker is confined to their bubble. We are doing this to stop the explosive growth in people contracting and dying from ...
. . Lock Down: Day 1 – A photo essay with observations . Day one of the Level 4 nationwide lock-down (or, DefCon 4 as I sometimes cheekily call it) started at 11.59PM on 25 March. For a moment, most of the nation held it’s collective breath. In that brief ...
Broad, Sunlit Uplands: How those words fired my young imagination! Or, perhaps, it is more accurate to say: how those words fused, in my young mind, with the image printed on every packet of Fielder’s Cornflour. Always fascinated by history, especially modern history, I cannot hear Churchill’s wonderfully evocative words, even ...
. . 24 March 2020 9.46AM Number of covid19 cases in Aotearoa New Zealand: 102 . As of 11.59 on Thursday, most of New Zealand will go into “lock down”. People will be expected not to travel to work; not to socialise; and to stay home. I will not be ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections A respected research group, Project Drawdown, finds that deploying solutions consistent with meeting the Paris climate targets would cost tens of trillions of dollars globally. But crucially, those outlays would also yield long-term savings many times larger than the up-front costs. The new 2020 Drawdown ...
It will pass. What happens next? Not immediately, but longer term. There are many opinions, fewer certainties. Will it “change everything!” as many confidently, and contradictorily predict? In this post I look at how foresight can help bound some of the uncertainties so you can more objectively consider the future. ...
We’ve been meaning t write something on Cuba and the coronavirus but have just discovered a very good article on the subject in the US left publication Jacobin. The article looks at how Cuba, a poor country but one where capitalism has been done away with, is leading the way ...
In 2018, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey - two British citizens who had purportedly been stripped of their citizenship by the British government - were captured while fighting for Isis in Syria. The British government then conspired to hand them over to the US, and agreed to provide evidence ...
Transformers: The disaster of the Great Depression was transformed into a new and fairer society by the democratic socialism of the First Labour Government. The disaster of the Covid-19 Pandemic offers a similar transformative possibility to the Labour-NZ First-Green Government. Seize the time, Jacinda! You will never have a better ...
Tamper with The System? Well, we already are. But there's a difference between accidentally trickling sand into a precision gearbox versus formulating a plan to alter it on the fly with improvements in mind. One action is more or less innocently unscrupulous, the other amenable to earning an easy ...
Associate Prof George Thomson, Louise Delany, Prof Nick WilsonWhile it is possible that New Zealand can use intense public health controls to eradicate COVID-19 from the country – we must also plan for other scenarios where thousands of New Zealanders are sick – including many urgently hospitalised.1 Better resilience ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...
We're about to do something unprecedented as a nation. We hope that by taking this extraordinary action before a single life in New Zealand has been lost to the deadly novel virus we will save tens of thousands of lives. Our lives. We'll do it together, in households, in isolation ...
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”So writes the author of Ecclesiastes, a book in the Old Testament that’s counted as a ‘wisdom’ book and written as if by an unnamed king of Jerusalem. But who would have thought there would be a time ...
I was surprised when the prime minister described the Economic Response to Covid-19 package as the ‘largest peacetime government spend in New Zealand's history’. Reflecting – checking through history – I realised that the term ‘spend’ was crucial and the package had no income tax cuts. Even so, it has ...
Years ago the Argentine sociologist Carlos Weisman wrote a book titled “Living within our Means.” It was a critique of Argentine society that focused on the paradoxical question of why, in a land of plenty, there was so much economic instability, inequality, corruption and political turmoil. His conclusion was basically ...
Parliament will be leading by example and adjourning tomorrow after a special sitting to consider an epidemic notice and state of emergency. Day-to-day oversight of the government will be delegated to a select committee. But that's not the only overight mechanism. The OIA will still be law, and (so far) ...
Michael Baker, University of OtagoOverjoyed. That’s not a word epidemiologists normally use, but that’s how I felt after hearing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement about New Zealand’s COVID-19 shutdown of everything except essential services for at least four weeks from midnight on Wednesday. More than anything, I just ...
How much homelessness is caused by house hoarding? We're about to find out. The pandemic has destroyed tourism, which means that house hoarders who put their hoarded properties up as short-term tourist rentals are now offering them on the ordinary rental market:Property investors are pulling properties from Airbnb to offer ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Bruce Lieberman It seems like such a simple, straightforward, empowering idea: plant trees – a lot of trees – all over the world, and watch the planet’s temperature fall. Who doesn’t love a tree or two, even far more – the right ...
According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...
We need to be lifting our game against COVID-19. You and I need to help those working to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while they’re trying to lift the testing and treatment efforts. We don’t want to be playing this game running backwards. Best to play it solidly forward, from ...
Prof Tony Blakely, Prof Michael Baker, and Prof Nick WilsonThe NZ Government must do more to clearly articulate its COVID-19 strategy: eradication or ‘flattening the curve’ mitigation. But to do so means understanding the maths and ethics of both these strategies. In this blog, we adapt our work for ...
A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... In Just 10 Years, Warming Has Increased the Odds of DisastersThe likelihood of extreme events ...
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...
All 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel are either on their way back to New Zealand, or already in the country, according to Defence Minister Ron Mark."Twenty-eight personnel arrived back in New Zealand last week and are in isolation at the Royal New Zealand Air Force base in ...
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...
We know people are feeling anxious about COVID-19. While the situation is serious, New Zealand has a world-class health system and we’re well-prepared to keep New Zealanders safe. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging New Zealanders overseas to stay where they are amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "We are reaching a point where the best option for most New Zealanders offshore is to shelter in place, by preparing to safely stay where they are.” "This includes following the instructions ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Minister Winston Peters is encouraging the tens of thousands of New Zealanders travelling overseas to consider sheltering in place, in light of COVID-19. “Since 18 March, we have been warning New Zealanders offshore that the window for flying ...
Ground-breaking law has passed that will decriminalise abortion and ensure women and pregnant people seeking abortions have compassionate healthcare. ...
The Green Party says that the measures announced by the Government today will help families and businesses to prioritise our collective health and wellbeing in the response to COVID-19. ...
As New Zealanders brace for a global downturn due to Covid-19, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says his Coalition Government’s rescue package "more significant" than any other he's seen around the world. The Coalition is to reveal a multi-billion-dollar stimulus plan on Tuesday afternoon designed to cushion the economic blow ...
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...
Essential workers who take leave from work to comply with public health guidance are being supported with a leave scheme to ensure they will continue to receive income, say the Minister of Workplace Relations and Safety Iain Lees-Galloway and Minister for Social Development, Carmel Sepuloni. A number of essential businesses ...
A Government WhatsApp channel has been launched to help make information more easily accessible and shareable in the fight against COVID-19. Govt.NZ, which is free to use on any mobile device, will carry information and news for the public, businesses, healthcare providers, not for profits and local government. It can ...
The Government has announced a plan to enable the safe, orderly exit of tens of thousands of stranded foreign nationals from New Zealand during the current COVID-19 Alert Level 4 restrictions, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has said. “When we moved into lockdown a week ago, the ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says the Government is delivering on its commitment to support general practice doctors and nurses, and pharmacies on the front-line of our fight against COVID-19. "For us to overcome COVID-19, we need community health services such as general practice and community pharmacy to step up ...
Justice Susan Thomas has been appointed Chief High Court Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. She replaces Justice Geoffrey Venning who has resigned from the position. David Parker paid tribute to Justice Venning, who he said had stewarded the High Court very capably over the last five years. “On behalf ...
Businesses can start applying to their banks for loans under the Business Finance Guarantee Scheme set up to support the New Zealand economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re moving quickly to protect New Zealand businesses, jobs and the economy during this unprecedented global economic shock,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. ...
Work is underway looking at measures to speed up consents for development and infrastructure projects during the recovery from COVID 19, to provide jobs and stimulate our economy. Environment Minister David Parker said the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious global crisis that will have a wide ranging and lasting impact ...
Advance payments will be made to transport construction industry contractors to retain the workforce and ensure it is ready to quickly gear up to build projects which will be vital to New Zealand’s COVID-19 economic recovery, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. He said keeping the workforce required to build ...
The Government has tasked a group of industry leaders to seek out infrastructure projects that are ready to start as soon as the construction industry returns to normal to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones say. The Infrastructure ...
Work to scale up the health system in preparation for COVID-19 was today outlined by Health Minister David Clark, as he reported back to the new Epidemic Response Committee. “We are well placed to contain the spread of COVID-19. We have taken early and decisive action at our borders, and ...
The Government is refining its COVID-19 essential business guidance to include the distribution of news publications for communities which are hard to reach. The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media, Kris Faafoi, said the move was in recognition of the importance for New Zealanders who might be harder to ...
The Government is ensuring supermarkets can open on Easter Sunday so we can buy groceries, but stay closed on Good Friday allowing workers to take a break. This provides a balanced approach and ensures we avoid large queues that two days closure may cause. “Supermarkets will be able to open ...
Following the successful conclusion of the Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission at Taji, New Zealand defence personnel are returning to New Zealand from Iraq, in accordance with the Cabinet decision made in June 2019, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. “New Zealand is very ...
The State of National Emergency to help stop the spread of COVID-19 has been extended for a further seven days, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare said. The initial declaration on March 25 lasted seven days and can be extended as many times as necessary. “Since we went into isolation ...
New Zealand’s ability to go hard and go early in the fight against COVID-19 has been underpinned by strong Government finances and the growing economy heading into this global pandemic, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown financial statements for the eight months to the end ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says 36 new intensive care beds at Christchurch Hospital’s new Hagley building are being fast tracked so they are available for treatment of COVID-19 patients. The Ministry of Health is working with contractor CPB and Canterbury DHB to enable access to the hospital’s ICU, ...
The Government has fast-tracked up to $1 million to help Air New Zealand move urgent freight to and from New Zealand, with the first flight to Shanghai leaving tonight, Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says it’s crucial that trade in vital goods such as medical supplies and ...
New Zealand will temporarily remove tariffs on all medical and hygiene imports needed for the COVID-19 response. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said today that the New Zealand Customs Service will apply tariff concessions to all diagnostic reagents and testing ...
Minister of Finance Grant Robertson has clarified that the changes to the wage subsidy scheme announced yesterday mean that employers should be passing on the full subsidy to workers, except in the case where the person’s normal income is less than the level of the subsidy. “We still want employers ...
Medical face masks from the national reserve supply are now being distributed to District Health Boards, while at the same time local production is being ramped up. Yesterday more than 640,000 masks were sent to DHBS – that is an immediate two week supply, with more to follow in coming ...
The Government has made modifications to the wage subsidy scheme to ensure people don’t lose their jobs during the national lockdown. These changes will soften the impact of COVID-19 on workers, families and businesses, and position them to exit the lockdown and look to recovery, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. ...
Farmers whose herds were culled in response to the outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis will be able to minimise the tax treatment of their income in some circumstances. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash says Cabinet has agreed to change the law. It means farmers may be eligible to spread their income over ...
A $27 million dollar package, effective immediately, is being provided to social sector services and community groups to ensure they can continue to provide essential support to communities as we stay at home as a nation to stop the spread of COVID-19, Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni announced. “At ...
“The guilty plea today will provide some relief to the many people whose lives were shattered by what happened on March 15,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. “These guilty pleas and conviction bring accountability for what happened and also save the families who lost loved ones, those who were injured, ...
The Prime Minister is holding daily press conferences to update New Zealanders on the Government's response to COVID-19. Links to videos and transcripts of these updates below. These transcripts also include All of Government press conferences led by Director Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. 25 March: Live update from the Prime ...
Frontline Police numbers have broken through the 10,000 mark for the first time in history as officers step forward to keep the community safe during the COVID19 lockdown. “Two Police graduations in Auckland and Wellington in the past week have been conducted in unprecedented circumstances,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said. ...
Urgent legislation has been passed to support the package of economic and social measures needed to recover from the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Bill will cushion New Zealanders from the worst economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Revenue Minister ...
From tomorrow, Government support for farmers and growers affected by drought will be expanded and extended across the country, with access to Rural Assistance Payments (RAPS) available throughout the North Island, parts of the South Island and the Chatham Islands, Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced. “These challenging conditions have ...
Parliament has passed amendments to legislation that give the Secretary of Education stronger powers to act in the fight to limit the spread of COVID-19, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “They are part of a suite of changes passed under the COVID-19 Response (Urgent Management Measures) Legislation Bill,” Chris ...
Canada, Australia, Chile, Brunei and Myanmar have joined forces with New Zealand and Singapore by committing to keep supply chains open and remove any existing trade restrictive measures on essential goods, especially medical supplies, in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker today welcomed ...
Immediate freeze on rent increases Tenancies will not be terminated during the lock-down period, unless the parties agree, or in limited circumstances Tenants who had previously given notice can stay in their if they need to stay in the tenancy during the lock-down period Tenants will still be able to ...
As New Zealand unites to lock-down in the fight against COVID-19, the Finance Minister is urging all businesses and workers to stay connected over the next four weeks. “We understand the extreme pressure many businesses are under right now. I know most business owners think of their workers as family ...
A State of National Emergency has been declared across the country as the Government pulls out all the stops to curtail the spread of COVID-19. “Today we put in place our country’s second ever State of National Emergency as we fight a global pandemic, save New Zealanders’ lives and prevent ...
Mr Speaker I wish to make a Ministerial Statement under Standing Order 347 in relation to the recent declaration of a State of National Emergency. Having considered the advice of the Director Civil Defence Emergency Management, the Minister of Civil Defence declared a State of National Emergency for the whole of ...
People needing to travel on domestic flights, trains and Cook Strait ferries to get home before the country moves into level 4 lock-down tomorrow night will be able to continue using the passenger services until midnight on Friday, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Domestic passenger services, particularly ferries, have ...
The Government, retail banks and the Reserve Bank are today announcing a major financial support package for home owners and businesses affected by the economic impacts of COVID-19. The package will include a six month principal and interest payment holiday for mortgage holders and SME customers whose incomes have been ...
Minister of Transport Phil Twyford has today announced details of the Government’s support package to keep key air freight moving and ensure New Zealanders retain access to essential goods during the four-week level 4 lockdown. “The Government is working with airlines and air freight operators to ensure New Zealand’s key ...
New Zealand moved up to COVID-19 Alert Level 3 – Restrict New Zealand to move up to COVID-19 Alert Level 4 – Eliminate, in 48 hours Two-staged approach to give people and businesses time to prepare Level 3, from tomorrow Non-essential businesses must close All events and gatherings must be ...
Good afternoon The Cabinet met this morning to discuss our next actions in the fight against COVID-19. Like the rest of the world, we are facing the potential for devastating impacts from this virus. But, through decisive action, and through working together, do we have a small window to get ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, La Trobe University To control the spread of COVID-19 we need to identify as many people with the virus as possible. If we know who has it, we can isolate them so they can’t infect others and quarantine ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has had its biggest increase in one day as the Health Ministry confirms 89 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to 797. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said today 92 people had now recovered from the coronavirus. Thirteen people ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhiamie Williamson, Research Associate & PhD Candidate, Australian National University The catastrophic bushfire season is officially over, but governments, agencies and communities have failed to recognise the specific and disproportionate impact the fires have had on Aboriginal peoples. Addressing this in bushfire ...
PACIFIC UPDATE:By Barbara Dreaver of TVNZ There are now 147 positive cases across seven countries in the Pacific region and four deaths. In Guam, cases continue to grow, with the count now at 77, five of them health workers. The island nation is facing its own crisis on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Jin Kang, Lecturer, Edith Cowan University With #StayAtHome and social distancing now becoming a way of life, an increasing number of people are relying on the internet for work, education and entertainment. This has placed greater demand on our network infrastructure, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Natalie Klein, Professor, UNSW The spectre of large ships with people desperate to come ashore is not a new sight in Australia. In 2001, the MV Tampa infamously sought to enter Australian waters off Christmas Island to discharge more than 400 asylum ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Holden, Senior Lecturer in Dental Ethics, Law and Professionalism, University of Sydney The coronavirus pandemic is changing the way we access health care, and dental care is no exception. Dentists are no longer allowed to provide a raft of care, such ...
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Kirstin Mead from the Regional Business Partners’ Network.Business owners around the country will ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Roberts, Associate professor (Curriculum Inquiry / Rural Education), University of Canberra Schools have been progressively moving classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic and there is uncertainty over what the next months may bring. This has thrown many year 12 students’ ...
The fourth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...
Employers in essential services and foreigners trying to leave New Zealand were the targets of Government announcements on Thursday afternoon Essential services who employ workers who can't go to work due to Covid-19 will be able to access the Government's funds to pay them. The scheme would allow employers in "essential services" ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elizabeth Stephens, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor of Cultural Studies, The University of Queensland Australia’s coronavirus public health messaging has been criticisedasconfusing during a time when health guidelines and regulations are changing rapidly, and educating the public about health ...
The longer we wait to restore broader economic activity, the greater the long-term loss of economic capability. We need to start thinking about 'virus-proof' workplaces and practices, says Rod Oram So far our physical economy is holding up remarkably well considering the stunning shocks we and the virus are hurling ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chelsea Bond, Senior Research Fellow, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland Among the latest coronavirus advice from the prime minister was an age-based self-isolation strategy designed to protect those considered most vulnerable in the global health crisis. The directive was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Donna Maree Cooper, Senior Lecturer QUT Law Faculty, Queensland University of Technology Separated parents are facing a range of new challenges in the wake of COVID-19. To contain the spread, the government has directed people to stay at home except when carrying ...
Today came the shocking news that Bauer Media is closing its New Zealand operation, with the loss of scores of jobs. Bauer was the publisher of most of NZ’s magazines, among them Metro, Woman’s Day, North & South, Next, Home, the Listener, Kia Ora and the NZ Women’s Weekly. Here ...
The Government’s call for infrastructure projects that are ‘ready to go’ is welcome news for Wellington, given the stalled progress to date of ‘Let’s Get Wellington Moving’, says the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. "The whole ‘Let’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehmet Ozalp, Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University As the world faces the greatest disruption of our lifetimes, Muslims throughout the world are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Martin, Associate Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne The viral spread of mis- and disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, just like the viral spread of the disease itself, has led to unprecedented media coverage. This has included ...
Tens of thousands of visitors to New Zealand will be relieved that they now have some chance of returning home before the lockdown ends, Tourism Industry Aotearoa says. “We welcome today’s announcement by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland As the Covid-19 pandemic spreads around the world, wartime metaphors abound. And, with what amounts to a war economy now in place, attention has inevitably turned to post-war reconstruction. It is self-evident ...
Pre-clinical trials will assess how effective and safe the potential vaccines are using an animal model before human testing. Mirjam Guesgen reports.The Australian national science agency, CSIRO, has begun testing two potential vaccines for Covid-19, with results due by June, 2020.These pre-clinical trials will assess how effective and safe the ...
Watch our live Q&A session with Dr Ayesha Verrall, a senior lecturer at Otago University who specialises in infectious diseases. Ayesha Verrall is an infectious diseases physician and senior lecturer at Otago University's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (Wellington). Dr Verrall has been monitoring the spread and impact of Covid-19 closely and ...
Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier says all New Zealanders have the right to be treated fairly during the COVID-19 emergency including those under lock and key. "My role as an independent watchdog will continue during the lockdown period and beyond," ...
Amalgamated Workers Union New Zealand (AWUNZ) has described a take it or leave it offer from Fletcher Building Management to staff as disgraceful. AWUNZ National Secretary Maurice Davis said the union was more than disappointed with the scheme Fletcher ...
As the Covid-19 hits NZ hard, and the country may have to be held in lockdown longer than originally intended, the issue whether the general election on September 19 should be postponed looms larger. It has already been canvassed in some media, but the PM, Jacinda Ardern, last week insisted ...
One way to pass time, which we suddenly have a lot of, is gardening. But where can you get seeds? And what do you plant in autumn? Josie Adams finds out.While it seems many New Zealanders are exercising a newfound love of jogging, some of us are more sedentary. For ...
Essential moves have been made to manage the impact of COVID-19 in New Zealand. This means significant changes to how society is operating. These unprecedented measures limit liberties and physical freedoms in order to protect the right to health and ...
The Council of Trade Unions is calling on Fletchers Building Limited to do the right thing and reverse their decision to cut the pay for their employees by up to 70%. "We are calling on one of New Zealand's biggest companies to do the right thing ...
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about his forecast GDP could fall as much as 17 percent this year, and why the Reserve Bank should buy council bonds as well as Government bonds. Newsroom Pro Managing Editor Bernard Hickey and Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr talk ...
Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Paul Hunt, is calling on the Government to respect the rights of people it is holding for detention purposes in its response to COVID-19. People detained by the authorities have a heightened risk of infection due to living ...
Her mother’s job was a source of shame for Yawynne Yem growing up. Now checkout operators are essential workers as we hunker down against Covid-19. Any time I had to reveal my mum’s job to someone, hastened justifications would also fall out of my mouth, reeking of shame. “We’re a first-generation ...
Responding to the closure of Bauer Media, Free Speech Coalition spokesperson David Farrar says: "The loss of the New Zealand Listener, North & South Magazine, and more is a sickening blow to the diversity of our media environment." "The ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Macquarie University In the current health crisis, we might ask what needs to be cured more urgently: the virus itself or people’s poor sense of moderation. We have seen shocking ...
Lockdowns around the globe - and the correlating sink in economic productivity - have sparked a bad faith backlash founded on old numbers, bunk science and outright distortions of fact, Marc Daalder argues No one was more surprised to see that Neil Ferguson, the author of a groundbreaking paper on ...
Elimination of Covid-19 doesn't mean getting rid of it everywhere in New Zealand, the Director-General of Health says Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield has hinted that different regions might end up on different alert levels when lockdown ends. Bloomfield said the lockdown goal of "elimination" didn't mean getting rid of it everywhere. ...
Sam Brooks shares central Auckland’s best-kept drinking secret, the bowling alley bastion that has become his ‘third place’.One of the first pieces I wrote for The Spinoff was a review of Metrolanes, the bowling alley bar that had quickly found a place in my heart. It is, in my mind, ...
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 89 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, up from the previous day's 61 new cases. The increase from 61 to 89 is a 46 percent ...
Based on the experience of Kiwibuild, wiseacres chortle at the prospect of another Ministry of Works to design and build New Zealand infrastructure from highways and motorways to airports, power stations and railways. The prospect was raised in a Newsroom report which said: Ministers are rushing to prevent the country’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron Martin, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne The viral spread of mis- and disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, just like the viral spread of the disease itself, has led to unprecedented media coverage. This has included a welcome return to prioritising expert ...
Join Leonie Hayden as she works through the first four weeks of Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy.Rāpare/ThursdayWe’re back to practising our long and short vowels, this time comparing words that are spelled the same except for the presence of a macron.Practise, practise, practise, Scotty tells us in this lesson. I ...
WHAT: An online delivery event for two petitions with a combined 95,000 signatures. The petitions call for a number of changes including for the New Zealand Government to suspend rent and mortgage payments, and to buy unoccupied homes for the homeless. ...
The outgoing Police Commissioner has admitted police have failed to carry out the level of checks on recent arrivals to NZ, supposed to be in strict self-isolation. ...
The flippant way Mike Bush responded to the epidemic response committee this morning highlights how vital it is police are held to account during the national emergency, writes Cat MacLennan Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush did himself no favours with his attitude when he appeared before Parliament’s Epidemic Response Committee this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University Pubs, clubs and casinos have all been closed as part of the response to COVID-19. That means Australia’s 194,000 poker machines are now shut down. These venues, and their ...
Former editor Finlay Macdonald marks the sudden death of a title that was once part of the lifeblood of the country. Listener editors, like most magazine and newspaper editors these days, get used to living with declining circulation numbers. Ever since the Internet came along, it’s been a long, dismal ...
With the nation in lockdown and schools closed, many parents will be looking for ways to keep educating their children. Amee Parker is in her final year of a PhD looking at homeschooling, and she has some advice.As a nation we are now forced, out of necessity, to stay in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Breunig, Professor of Economics and Director, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University How would you feel if you were having a Zoom meeting with your accountant and they asked “how would you like to ...
Pacific Media Watch Police in Papua New Guinea have arrested nine alleged illegal border crossers and quarantined them in Vanimo, reports RNZ Pacific. The arrests came as East Sepik Governor Allan Bird called for “shoot to kill’ orders for illegal border crossers and a military control of areas along ...
Police have assumed extraordinary powers during the lockdown period - but with that has come questions from the public and politicians about how they are exercising those powers. Police have come under pressure to release legal advice and guidance on how they are using the emergency powers granted to them ...
In our new series The Lockdown Letters, some of New Zealand’s best writers tell us what they’ve been up to in the days of Covid-19 alert level four. Today, political commentator and essayist Morgan Godfery.IS IT DAY EIGHT?In the absence of a capitalist routine, one day bleeds into the other.In the ...
By RNZ News The publisher of some of New Zealand’s best known magazines has folded amid the economic fallout from the national coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Bauer Media, which publishes The Listener, Woman’s Day, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, Metro, North and South and Next, says it is no longer viable ...
Sue Grey, Co-leader Of Nz Outdoors Party Supports A Ban On Rates Increases And Challenges All Politicians And Candidates To Support This The NZ Outdoors Party co-leader Sue Grey supports the call for councils to operate without rates increases at least for ...
The NZ Outdoors Party co-leader Sue Grey supports the call for councils to operate without rates increases at least for the coming financial year, and challenges all politician and candidates to unite behind this. “Our Council’s spending and increase ...
The publisher of some of the country's best known magazines has folded. Bauer Media, which has The Listener, Woman's Day, New Zealand Woman's Weekly, North and South and Next, says it's no longer viable and it's shut its doors today. Chief executive Brendon Hill said the Covid-19 lockdown had stopped magazine production and ...
Police acknowledge the findings of a report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) into an incident where an officer used excessive force following an arrest in Auckland City in 2018. On 24th August, 2018, the Police officer was called to ...
Pacific Media Watch Launched by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), “Tracker 19” is a tool made for an unprecedented global crisis. So named in reference not only to Covid-19 but also article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this project aims to evaluate the pandemic’s impacts on global ...
A recurring theme in contemporary literature is of the plague that appears suddenly from nowhere and takes hold of the world, destroying or severely damaging life in the process. In 2003 acclaimed author Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake was ...
The Covid-19 crisis in media has claimed NZ’s biggest magazine publisher, Bauer Media.Bauer Media NZ is closing its doors permanently and with immediate effect due to the severe economic impact of Covid-19, staff have just been told via a Zoom meeting.CEO Brendon Hill was emotional as he informed staff of ...
NZ Gov't must lower road freight use because truck drivers will widely carry Covid 19 virus to our communities through open assess community transmission, and using rail less staff are used to move the same freight by comparison. Facts; Our Government ...
The government needs to step up and pay the next rates instalment to councils on behalf of property owners and businesses as part of its economic support package. People are facing unprecedented financial stress directly due to the measures implemented ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentEnforcing the lockdown, civil liberties Peter Dunne (Newsroom): Democracy on hold Heather Roy (Democracy Project): The Long Road Back to Full ...
More than 40 million masks are on the way to help protect frontline health workers after weeks of confusion and fear about the supply of Covid-19 equipment. ...
Tempers fray in Italy, Spain as lockdown fatigue sets in; Trump reveals modelling of up to 240,000 US deaths; US stocks slump on death fears and awful factory output statsDeath fears dominate: US President Donald Trump warned of up to 240,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the world's biggest economy, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tanya M. Smith, Professor in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith University Within our extended primate family consisting of lemurs, monkeys, and apes, humans have the largest brains. Our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, weigh about two-thirds as much as us, ...
Here come the discounted share issues; Kathmandu plans $315m rights issue at 51 percent discount; Rod Duke says 'no thanks'; Treasury hikes borrowing plan by $12b to $25b in two weeks; Pay cuts for Mediaworks and Fletcher staffRaising cash: In a move that is likely to be widely replicated in ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level four. The country is shut down, apart from essential services. For updated official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this work, join The ...
Open mike 02/08/2016 
Open mike is your post.
The swan politicians may be gliding on the water, occasionally snapping at one another. Meanwhile, as the Covid19 crisis illustrates, the officials are desperately paddling below providing the real locomotion. One of the most fatuous recent grandstanding comments (of about a week ago), adding to the public’s anxieties, was ...1 hour ago
Much has been written about the importance of discretion in an emergency situation, and the concerns raised by the potential for it to be exercised arbitrarily. Given the quality of the discussion, there seemed little point in adding to it at any length. In particular, I point to the evidence ...1 hour ago
Today has felt surreal. I was all set to touch base online with my science communication students when a colleague shared the news that Bauer Media would be shutting down its publications immediately. The first link I saw implied it was Woman’s Weekly affected, and even that shocked me. But ...2 hours ago
Bogeymen, Real And Imagined: Is the number of psychopathic and sociopathic individuals in any given society truly as vanishingly small as we like to tell ourselves? Isn’t it more likely that the mass-shooters and serial-killers filling the headlines represent only the tip of a much, much larger iceberg of frightfulness? ...6 hours ago
Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee today, who asked him for the rules police are using to enforce the lockdown. He refused:Police Commissioner Mike Bush has admitted the advice given to Kiwis about what they're able to do during the lockdown hasn't been clear enough. ...7 hours ago
For those folk who find my other Lock-Down Diary versions too “negative” or otherwise unpalatable… Here’s a photo of my cat, . . Better? Tomorrow’s Sanitised Version: a pretty flower. . . . =fs= ...8 hours ago
46 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Global response of evapotranspiration ratio to climate conditions and watershed characteristics in a changing environment Greenhouse effect: the relative contributions of emission height and total absorption Observations & observational methods of global warming & effects Climate change induced a ...1 day ago
Image credit: Diamond Harbour School Blogs I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or ... 1 day ago
The Covid-19 saga will no doubt produce many twists and turns for us before it is finally brought to an end. But one thing it has shown us – and what comfort it should bring us – is that our country’s government is in good hands. I am not thinking ...1 day ago
The following statement was released on March 28 by the National Network on Cuba, a coalition of 40 groups, based in the United States. In recent weeks, Cuba has deployed hundreds of medical providers to over a dozen countries in Europe, Asia, as well as to their neighbors in Latin ...2 days ago
Yesterday, New Zealand recorded its first Covid-19 related death on the West Coast. Unfortunately this is unlikely to be the only fatality, with the virus now being found in every region of the country.However despite the significant danger, people are still unfortunately breaching lockdown rules.There’s really only one main very ...3 days ago
The kids did surprisingly well today – meltdown count was about 3, and mostly fairly short ones. (And a fourth while I was writing.) Game-wise I had a go at Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark. It’s a fairly standard RPG with turn-based combat and what they call a “mature storyline” (it ...4 days ago
by Don Franks Hi David, Nice hearing from you, I’m glad to hear you’re getting by okay in these grim times. You asked how’s it going for us back here in New Zealand. You would have heard that the whole country is locked down and with breaks for exercise and ...4 days ago
The CV-19 (COVID) pandemic has seen the imposition of a government ordered national quarantine and the promulgation of a series of measures designed to spread the burden of pain and soften the economic blow on the most strategically important and most vulnerable sectors of society. The national narrative is framed ...5 days ago
Society-wise, aside from the specific morbidity shall we say of the medically-oriented aspects of this COVID-19 crisis, what is unfolding before the world is in more than one way an instructive study of humanity and reactions to a high intensity, high stress environment in real time. Friends, we are at ...6 days ago
Right now low waged and insecure workers are feeling the economic brunt of the looming #Covid19 Recession. In response legal advocate Toby Cooper* and hospitality and worker’s rights advocate Chloe Ann-King, are putting together a series of legal blogs about your employment rights: In this legal blog we outline some ...6 days ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or being ...1 week ago
According to Newshub, Simon Bridges is open to joining a “grand coalition” with Labour as we hunker down to go into a month long lockdown. The idea is sound. Before now, the role of the opposition was to scrutinise and oppose. In the context of what almost amounts to a ...1 week ago
Kia ora my name is Chloe Ann-King* and I am the founder of Raise the Bar, a campaign and non-profit that gives free legal aid, advocacy and tautoko to hospitality workers in Aotearoa. Right now all over our country hospo workers are being fired at will, having shifts cut or ...1 week ago
A few days ago I was starting to write something about the pandemic, which now seems unconscionable. It took the form of a letter to an agony aunt:“Dear Deidre, I have an ugly confession. I am quite excited by Covid-19.”This is how the piece went:“I’m not a psychopath, honest. Although the ...1 week ago
New Zealand can emulate the success of the US after the Great Depression by exploiting our own resources to turn the economy around quickly, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says. Mr. Peters told Magic Talk that New Zealand has an opportunity to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic a "superior, ...2 days ago
The COVID-19 situation in New Zealand is moving fast - and to avoid what we've seen overseas - the Government's response must be to move fast too. We're committed to keeping New Zealanders safe and well-informed every step of the way. ...5 days ago
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The scale of what we face right now is unlike anything we have ever seen before. Overcoming it is our common purpose. ...1 week ago
Changes have been made to allow butchers to process pork, only for supply to supermarkets or other processors or retailers that are open, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has announced. “We carefully weighed the risk of allowing butchers to open their shops for retail customers, but the risk of spreading COVID-19 ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, La Trobe University To control the spread of COVID-19 we need to identify as many people with the virus as possible. If we know who has it, we can isolate them so they can’t infect others and quarantine ...21 mins ago
The fourth in our new series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall, covering the Covid-19 epidemic within New Zealand. We’ll publish the latest set each day on The Spinoff.This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff MembersInformation about confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 ...2 hours ago
Employers in essential services and foreigners trying to leave New Zealand were the targets of Government announcements on Thursday afternoon Essential services who employ workers who can't go to work due to Covid-19 will be able to access the Government's funds to pay them. The scheme would allow employers in "essential services" ...2 hours ago
The longer we wait to restore broader economic activity, the greater the long-term loss of economic capability. We need to start thinking about 'virus-proof' workplaces and practices, says Rod Oram So far our physical economy is holding up remarkably well considering the stunning shocks we and the virus are hurling ...2 hours ago
The Government’s call for infrastructure projects that are ‘ready to go’ is welcome news for Wellington, given the stalled progress to date of ‘Let’s Get Wellington Moving’, says the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. "The whole ‘Let’s ...3 hours ago
The government will allow foreign nationals to travel domestically to get to international airports so that they can fly home. ...4 hours ago
Watch our live Q&A session with Dr Ayesha Verrall, a senior lecturer at Otago University who specialises in infectious diseases. Ayesha Verrall is an infectious diseases physician and senior lecturer at Otago University's Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine (Wellington). Dr Verrall has been monitoring the spread and impact of Covid-19 closely and ...4 hours ago
As the Covid-19 hits NZ hard, and the country may have to be held in lockdown longer than originally intended, the issue whether the general election on September 19 should be postponed looms larger. It has already been canvassed in some media, but the PM, Jacinda Ardern, last week insisted ...4 hours ago
Bernard Hickey talks to Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr about his forecast GDP could fall as much as 17 percent this year, and why the Reserve Bank should buy council bonds as well as Government bonds. Newsroom Pro Managing Editor Bernard Hickey and Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr talk ...4 hours ago
Lockdowns around the globe - and the correlating sink in economic productivity - have sparked a bad faith backlash founded on old numbers, bunk science and outright distortions of fact, Marc Daalder argues No one was more surprised to see that Neil Ferguson, the author of a groundbreaking paper on ...5 hours ago
Elimination of Covid-19 doesn't mean getting rid of it everywhere in New Zealand, the Director-General of Health says Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield has hinted that different regions might end up on different alert levels when lockdown ends. Bloomfield said the lockdown goal of "elimination" didn't mean getting rid of it everywhere. ...5 hours ago
How is Covid-19 spreading within the country? Newsroom is collating information as it's available to paint a picture of what's happening. There were 89 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, up from the previous day's 61 new cases. The increase from 61 to 89 is a 46 percent ...5 hours ago
Based on the experience of Kiwibuild, wiseacres chortle at the prospect of another Ministry of Works to design and build New Zealand infrastructure from highways and motorways to airports, power stations and railways. The prospect was raised in a Newsroom report which said: Ministers are rushing to prevent the country’s ...6 hours ago
The flippant way Mike Bush responded to the epidemic response committee this morning highlights how vital it is police are held to account during the national emergency, writes Cat MacLennan Outgoing Police Commissioner Mike Bush did himself no favours with his attitude when he appeared before Parliament’s Epidemic Response Committee this ...7 hours ago
Former editor Finlay Macdonald marks the sudden death of a title that was once part of the lifeblood of the country. Listener editors, like most magazine and newspaper editors these days, get used to living with declining circulation numbers. Ever since the Internet came along, it’s been a long, dismal ...7 hours ago
Air New Zealand is slashing its domestic operations by 95 percent in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak. ...7 hours ago
Police have assumed extraordinary powers during the lockdown period - but with that has come questions from the public and politicians about how they are exercising those powers. Police have come under pressure to release legal advice and guidance on how they are using the emergency powers granted to them ...8 hours ago
The publisher of some of the country's best known magazines has folded. Bauer Media, which has The Listener, Woman's Day, New Zealand Woman's Weekly, North and South and Next, says it's no longer viable and it's shut its doors today. Chief executive Brendon Hill said the Covid-19 lockdown had stopped magazine production and ...9 hours ago
More than 40 million masks are on the way to help protect frontline health workers after weeks of confusion and fear about the supply of Covid-19 equipment. ...11 hours ago
Tempers fray in Italy, Spain as lockdown fatigue sets in; Trump reveals modelling of up to 240,000 US deaths; US stocks slump on death fears and awful factory output stats Death fears dominate: US President Donald Trump warned of up to 240,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the world's biggest economy, ...11 hours ago
Today marks a week in lockdown, with the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern praising most of NZ’s ‘amazing’ response. ...11 hours ago
Here come the discounted share issues; Kathmandu plans $315m rights issue at 51 percent discount; Rod Duke says 'no thanks'; Treasury hikes borrowing plan by $12b to $25b in two weeks; Pay cuts for Mediaworks and Fletcher staff Raising cash: In a move that is likely to be widely replicated in ...12 hours ago
Does the government care about anything?
Not worried or I’m comfortable seems to be a stock answer from ministers nowadays.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/309922/govt-aware-eu-investigating-nz-tax-rules
According to the Herald http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11685355 “That was why the Government had agreed to act on all of the recommendations from the Shewan Inquiry to ensure New Zealand’s disclosure rules were fit for purpose.” All? Well ‘most’ http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/81497014/Shewan-report-recommends-greater-disclosure-annual-returns-by-foreign-trusts
You missed an important piece:
Mr Woodhouse was aware of this because of the European Parliament’s website but did not believe the government had received official notification of any investigations or any action against New Zealand.
But the government was confident “any objective inquiry” would find New Zealand was fully compliant with OECD standards.
Mr Woodhouse said the EU should look elsewhere.
His assurances are of great value. No, really, they are. Honest.
Everything is fine. National says so.
There are no sheep on our farms
“We have no SIS, we have no secrets,
We have no rebellion; we have no valium, valium, no, no…”
Study exposes BBC’s anti-Corbyn bias
http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2016-07-29/study-exposes-bbcs-deep-anti-corbyn-bias/
“Mr Woodhouse said the EU should look elsewhere.”
And I’m sure the EU hold Mr Woodhouse’s opinion in high esteem. “Nothing to see here. Move along.”
maybe the EU should stick with investigating the massive frauds perpetrated by Deutsche Bank, and also why the entire Italian banking system is teetering on the edge of collapse.
Is Winston Peters the only MP prepared to stand up for New Zealand’s rights regarding housing?
Are we to be tenants in our own land as Labour and National bow down to their masters in the U.S. and China?
Free trade deals signed by both parties have reduced our sovereignty and rights.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/309923/foreign-home-buyers-data-release-'politicised‘
The Herald cannot spell.
Their online headline presently reads as follows……
Has Auckland property lost it’s shine?
This is what happens when you cut back on quality staff.
Too much time spent on Instasham and Fakebook.
Yeah they need a proof reader “The grouping of 28 European nations has compiled a list of countries with lax tax laws, band following the release of the so-called Panama Papers it confirmed New Zealand is under investigation.”
It’s actually Dave Dobbin and the Lax Tax Laws. Great entertainment. At the end of the day New Zealanders would rather listen to some music.
we sleep in a well made bed…etc?
syd
Ah; I see your previous phrase (at comment 1.2.2.1) wasn’t accidental then.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/no-depression-in-new-zealand
Hi Paul (3) … I see it’s been corrected now, from it’s to its. Someone at NZH must be reading the comments on alternative news media.
We need a catchy phrase to describe the shaky coalition that is in power currently.
National: no idealogues, stack it high sell it cheap, heartless ladder pullers (education (night schools), housing, health).
Maori party: some knights and dames of the brown table, happy for some crumbs.
Act: hard right, margin of error flunkies.
United future… Pious bouffant who will lay down for anyone with a few baubles.
What term encapsulates this mob that governs us?
Corrupt.
Hi paul, corrupt is a great start.
Democratically elected majority.
Suck on that.
Classy BM.
Hi BMW, perhaps “with some poor mannered supporters” could be added to the description.
@ BM – elected majority
With help from their no questions asked immigration policy, trying to get as many folks resident from Asia and overseas to support Mr Key – currently something like 1.5% per year increases in population from migration. Over the 9 year term of the Natz this can change the population over 13%.
It is already predicted that Asian will be the 2nd largest demographic in NZ and over take Maori. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11166485
Illegal Tweets from the All blacks on election day.
Changing legalisation to render people unable to vote (with high Maori demographics).
Dirty politics.
Manipulating and controlling the MSM messages.
Stopping investigative journalists by any way they can.
Burying bad news.
Corrupting and co opting the Maori party to help them in their dirty deeds.
Hi save nz,
You can add Canterbury environment crowd, Saudi sheep shenanagins and a few schools with unnecessary statutory management to the list of ‘Democratic actions’ this corrupt mob have undertaken.
Says who – mass disenfranchisements right left and center. If you didn’t get to vote you have an absolute right to oust the Key junta.
“Democratically elected majority.”
Are you sure?
Looked more like a subset of the minority who vote… We don’t do ‘democracy’ here.
no
the question should be
What term encapsulates this group that voted for this.
Cause at some stage the people that voted for this need to be held accountable.
Majority?
What do you mean by held accountable?
I think she means line them up and shoot them.
Or perhaps just the gulag.
[This site doesn’t accept advocating violence. Suggesting that others are advocating violence without evidence is also bad form. Please tone it down in future. TRP]
are you advocating violence? Or are you just bored and like to put your hands into shit and fling it about?
accountable
əˈkaʊntəb(ə)l/Submit
adjective
1.
required or expected to justify actions or decisions; responsible.
“ministers are accountable to Parliament”
synonyms: responsible, liable, answerable, chargeable; More
2.
able to be explained or understood.
“the delayed introduction of characters’ names is accountable, if we consider that names have a low priority”
synonyms: explicable, explainable; More
So you want those voters to be held liable for their vote or to justify it or be answerable for it. And what then – charged? For what? And what are the penalties you have in mind?
Your helpful recourse to a dictionary raises even more questions about how you want to hold voters accountable for exercising their democratic rights.
It sounds a bit ominous so please do explain.
here honey, have a some tissues to wipe away your crocodile tears.
poor misunderstood thing you.
How are National voters going to get held accountable?
well the national voters coming to my shop complaining about stuff are being told by me that thy voted for this government, three times to be precises, which means they must like what they get served and as such should simply shut the fuck up or vote differently the next time.
you know, you buy it you own it.
or you break it you own it.
you know accountability.
so mate, you kids not finding a house to live any where in nz. shut the fuck up, you voted for that shit.
the road that was build with tax payers money going to be a toll road, shut the fuck up you voted for that shit.
need surgery and can’t get one cause waiting lists, you voted for that shit so shut the fuck up.
have cancer and are unemployed and the lady tells you to get a fucking job or no benefit? you voted for that shit, so shut the fuck up.
you know, you voted for that shit, now eat it. all of it. and don’t ever come around to me and complain.
so there? happy mate?
god, I so hope that you really do do that.
i do.
🙂
Weka i make sure i remind people every day that they voted for this bastard and we are all suffering because of it.
And its like corporal punishment, kiwis must love getting a hiding because they keep voting for the cane at every election.
Your shop sounds like wonderful comic relief, do we get the swearing with an accent
Then Sabine you are very lucky the Nat voters that come into your shop are so understanding of your condition*… and kept coming back to buy stuff from you.
Even after slagging them off each time they do 🙂
*Leftism.
SABINE i love your shit … dont stop.
Give them hell.
If I knew where your shop was, I’d hang around outside as traumatised National voters emerged sobbing into their hankies. It’s nice to have it confirmed that the customer is not always right. Sometimes the customer is a whining self-absorbed git.
Hmmmm. We could make them pay a fair share of tax. Or nationalise the flogged off power companies. Or just make them look their grand kids in the eye while they explain how they voted for the young to be locked out of home ownership.
Nationalise their investment properties as state houses too.
Sorry I hadn’t realised you were just spraying.
oh honey, you are not having a good day. chocolate?
Please explain how you defend this government’s housing policy.
We have far too many pressing needs in the world to be blowing billions on the Olympic Games, which has morphed into a bloated corporate show, drowning in drugs and all about petty national rivalries.
It appears to be a precursor to war rather than a chance to heal the world’s divides.
It is a rich nation’s event.
The Olympics has passed its use by date.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11685549
As a career path, Olympic athlete is not a high public subsidy per person.
But the evaluative ruler for the whole event itself would be:
would the city have been better off or worse off in the long term if they hadn’t happened there?
On the negative side: Toronto, Athens.
On the meh side: Los Angeles, Moscow, Sydney
On the positive side: Barcelona, London, Beijing, Seoul
A article well worth reading.
Supports much of what cv has been posting.
“Climate Change Activism: A Post-Mortem
As I write these words, much of North America is sweltering under near-tropical heat and humidity. Parts of the Middle East have set all-time high temperatures for the Old World, coming within a few degrees of Death Valley’s global record. The melting of the Greenland ice cap has tripled in recent years, and reports from the arctic coast of Siberia describe vast swathes of tundra bubbling with methane as the permafrost underneath them melts in 80°F weather. Far to the south, seawater pours through the streets of Miami Beach whenever a high tide coincides with an onshore wind; the slowing of the Gulf Stream, as the ocean’s deep water circulation slows to a crawl, is causing seawater to pile up off the Atlantic coast of the US, amplifying the effect of sea level rise.
All these things are harbingers of a profoundly troubled future. All of them were predicted, some in extensive detail, in the print and online literature of climate change activism over the last few decades. Not that long ago, huge protest marches and well-funded advocacy organizations demanded changes that would prevent these things from happening, and politicians mouthed slogans about stopping global warming in its tracks. Somehow, though, the marchers went off to do something else with their spare time, the advocacy organizations ended up preaching to a dwindling choir, and the politicians started using other slogans to distract the electorate.”
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.nz/2016/07/climate-change-activism-post-mortem.html
Stop reading wrist-slitting melancholy. And stop encouraging others to do the same.
Accept the world is going to end, as are we all, and still do good in the world.
It’ll do wonders for your complexion.
Yeah the sun is going to explode eventually, we should give up now.
I do good for other
Yet I am not prepared to buy into the line that NZ is a paradise, as propagated by Hosking, Henry and you.
No Paul you are a miserable cut & paste doomsayer, as Ad correctly alludes to, try going outside into that nasty climate you speak of so often, it might do you the world of good
Ad Hom much? Explain the suicide rate asshole.
+100
Isn’t the point of Open Mike to broach topics worthy of conversation?
…. and Mainlander comes from a long line of village idiots ….. giving stupid advice like a useless Dr Dill……
Dr Ad is also sad …….. his advice …………. ignore whats bad.
And sing ……………. sing …………. Always look on the bright side of life, de do de do de do………. “Life’s a Piece of Shit, When You Look at It.”
It helped Brian…… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo
It is the opposite of melancholy – as you’d know if you bothered to read the article.
i’ll tell you what wrist slitting melancholy is, it’s the message that all human beings are born sinners.
Compared to that, the message of the Archdruid is one of outright positivity.
By the way, wasn’t the end of the world going to come through fire, floods, pestilence that kind of thing? You don’t think that climate change may have a role to play in that?
lprent the replies aren’t working on my laptop its windows 10 but set up with google . I get them on the smarter than me phone though.
Likewise. I can see them on my iphone but not on my mac (Firefox, OS10.9)
Working now cheers
Oops replies only appear after I’ve commented each time I log on.
“Hitlery” news today. (Think FACTA, but for blogs…I guess that would include this one given the US propensity for jumping geographic boundaries)
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/madame-president-clintons-coming-war-on-the-blogosphere-and-your-countermeasures_08012016
Best you organise your bug-out pack, freeze dried tucker and gold so you’re good to go.
/
HILLARY CLINTON
@ real DonaldTrump thinks that democrats care about his opinion, how does it feel putting your stuff where it doesn’t belong ?
DONALD J TRUMP
@Hillary Clinton. Ask Bill.
Fake. Better right wing memes needed. #wrathofkhan
Bill Clintons sexual ‘indescretions’ are no, meme
They are a matter of record!
You were boots n all into Assange, and straight out accused him of rape a number of times in articles and comments, yet edit, censor and shout down any suggestion about Bill Clintons rape accusations
Why the glaring inconsistency?
No inconsistency. It is not me that has accused Assange of rape, it’s the Swedish authorities. I just think he should face the charges and defend himself in court, like the rest of us have to when charged with offences. The supposed tweet does not exist. It’s made up. It is a gender based insult against Hillary Clinton, not Bill Clinton. And even if it were, Bill Clinton currently has no legal case to answer on his alleged behaviour, which is not the case for Assange, obviously. Your argument fails completely.
Failure (of the hypocrisy test) is authoring articles such as ‘Broken’ while making excuses for swinging dicks like Bill Clinton
Simultaneously claiming that Hillarys “lifetime of public service” mitigates the bribes taken from corporate america and the war crimes for which Hillary is, at best an accomplice
Hillarys crimes against humanity (man/woman/environment) deserve no excuse or cover story, yet you have done exactly that in an overt way, using this site as the medium and moderating approach as tactics
The complete bias toward Hillary is as ludicrous as your claims of “gender based insults”
The gender based insult is Hillary Clinton herself!
I’ve never made excuses for Bill Clinton. As I noted he’s not charged with anything and the one thing we do know about (Lewinsky) there is no excuse for. But that’s a moral argument, not a legal one, as far as I can tell. Two consenting adults etc. I’m in a good mood, so I’ll just point out that the current time off for lying about authors is a six week ban. And take it easy on telling me what I have or should not have written, OK?
btw. if you don’t understand what a gender based insult is, just say so. Or google the term and educate yourself.
Skolkovo Russian innovation centre flows funds to the Clinton Foundation
Speaking of facts.
Apparently no charges have been laid around how Sec State Clinton used her influence to flow funds to the Clinton Foundation so by your standards TRP, nothing to see here.
(Except more of the same crony $$$ behaviour from Hillary Clinton while in office).
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-01/hillary%E2%80%99s-latest-headache-skolkovo
The gender based insult is Hillary Clinton herself
You can add Slick Willy and his pedo friends to the same list!
John Oliver speaks the truth.
Damaged, sociopathic, narcissist.
Speaking of sociopathic, did you see how Hillary Clinton leaped for joy on TV at Qaddafi’s brutalising and mob killing?
That’s actual sociopathic, btw.
No, I did not see that, because you made it up.
Whereas trump is so alien to the concept of empathy that “the simple presidential duty of comforting the families of fallen soldiers may actually be beyond his capabilities”.
You people are damaged goods bro
So very damaged and with such low levels of consciousnes
And yet all you had to do to demonstrate it was link to video of her “leaping for joy”.
You don’t operate at any higher level of consciousness than I do. Your pretension is no substitute for intelligence.
Thats Brilliant SFA.
Bill still brings so much joy to a troubled world.
http://nypost.com/2016/08/01/melania-trumps-girl-on-girl-photos-from-racy-shoot-revealed/
Does the NY Post want Trump to win because this is only going to increase his popularity
The Murdoch owned NY Post supports Trump. These are desperate days for the Donald.
Yes PR. The Democrats should retaliate by publishing nudies of Hilary.
Lets not…
I mean do they really think showing pictures of his hot wife from 20 years ago is going to hurt him?
considering that Mike Pence VP is the one who represents a very large swath of extremely conservative christian , yes it could.
also consider this.
what would the republican party have said if the man who fathered five children with three women would have been a Obama or b a women who had five children with three men?
So will it hurt him with the ones that look at women as objects to be replaced when to old, or to be used as a trophy who does not smile nor speak, i don’t think so.
but then there are over three hundred million in that country, It will be good fun till election time, here and there.
I think a lot of people will look at her and go “shes hot” (and sadly because of it vote Trump) and still more will think its not a good look for the NY Post and vote Trump out of sympathy
Or not
as per below the ones who look as women as a thing that has to be hot yeah, they would vote and also props like masturbating over the first lady.
however, she might be keenly aware that she can be dumped at any given moment like the previous mrs. trumps and be replaced with a 20 year younger model.
personally i don’t care, she was a model and did as models do. However, being the ‘first lady’ of the moral, christan, no sex education, abstinence only, virgin brides, no sluts evangelic party this could cause a bit of a brain freeze for some of the more ‘fundamentalist’ christian voters;
popcorn and vodka required for this season.
“personally i don’t care, she was a model and did as models do. However, being the ‘first lady’ of the moral, christan, no sex education, abstinence only, virgin brides, no sluts evangelic party this could cause a bit of a brain freeze for some of the more ‘fundamentalist’ christian voters;”
Sure if Trump was running as a typical GOP candidate but Trumps a bit different so I don’t think it’ll hurt him, its more likely it’ll help
Whatever happens at least it’ll be entertaining
i am not talking about Trump the “representative of the oval office’ i am talking about Mike Pence.
lil game the last time the republicans were in power that had the little bush and cheney. who do you think pulled the strings?
this time with trump / pence who do you think will pull the strings?
Could this be true? http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/john-kasich-donald-trump-vice-president
Or just a fight in the playpen…
Was Pence offered anything similar? If ‘yes’ then that grey-beige bland gent is really the one to watch.
Ugly Truth. The tape really confirms our worst fears about TPPA. And now if it is ratified by all, the world will shift forever. What will happen to my grandchildren?
Funny that much of manufacturing, including that of USA and NZ, has shifted to China and yet Obama’s aim is to shut out China from the Pacific region.
The TPPA conforms to the general pattern of consolidation of political power in the hands of those with little motivation to act in the public interest. I’m optimistic that this pattern of behaviour will collapse and the future for new generations will be far brighter than what we know today.
The US is apparently still wedded to the doctrine of full spectrum dominance, the military exercises in the East China Sea signify meaningful opposition to this IMO.
I want to see the Labour Party reject the TPPA outright. Imo if this is not done then there is no hope for us as a sovereign nation.
Real sovereignty isn’t the same an the political supremacy that the state calls sovereignty. There’s a massive paradigm shift involved in achieving sovereignty, Brexit was a good example of how steps can be taken.
@UglyTruth
Just a quick request – would you mind just putting in a short line of context when putting up a link? I personally don’t like clicking/selecting links without some idea of what it is I’m looking at. Thanks. 🙂
Fair enough, I’ll do that next time.
Thanks! 🙂
[Edited to say] Good video BTW!
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/309937/maori-party-stance-on-helen-clark-is-'political-utu‘
Seems just petty to me.
I thought Nanaia Mahuta’s comments at the end of the interview were telling. She listed pieces of legislation passed by the NAct govt. which cut across the Treaty of Waitangi… yet we’ve not heard a peep out of the Maori Party.
She also reminds us we already have our own Indigenous Rights Treaty and didn’t need to sign up to another one. Very good point.
The Maori Party are being disingenuously spiteful and petty minded – as you say ianmac. They represent a small Maori elite and not the rest of the Maori populace. The sooner they’re gone the better.
Very colonialist of you Anne, knowing whats best for Maori.
Actually, BM, what’s good for maori is good for all of us. And Anne is correct to point out that the maori party have done nothing of substance for the people they claim to represent since they were formed. Indeed, given the increase in negative stats for maori, it’s easily argued that they have helped harm maori as part of the NACT government.
When I first saw the item, I did toy with the idea of writing a post. But, really, who cares what they say? Their actions (and inactions) speak louder than their words.
It’s not like you support Māori to define their own reality BM. The neoliberal agenda is beyong that.
Seems like legitimate reasons to me,
Along with the contentious foreshore and seabed law in 2004, Ms Fox said there were other decisions by Miss Clark’s Labour government that cast doubt on what kind of Secretary-General she would be.
“The Labour Party refused to sign the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is a part of the UN agenda.
“The Labour Party in its time saw the Tuhoe raids and of course also there is the Foreshore and Seabed amendment which took the rights of Māori away to go to court.”
I’d add to that ‘haters and wreckers’.
Ms Fox said someone seeking the top role at the United Nations should be able to acknowledge their past mistakes and apologise for them.
That seems to be the crix of it. If Clark still believes that she was right on all the things above, then it’s completely reasonable for Māori to not support her to the UN role.
Te Tiriti is not a replacement for the Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Seems it was Winston who stopped Labour signing the declaration.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11685387
Yeah, but it’s Peters making that claim, so I’ll take it with a grain of salt.
I thought Nanaia Mahuta’s comments at the end of the interview were telling. She listed pieces of legislation passed by the NAct govt. which cut across the Treaty of Waitangi… yet we’ve not heard a peep out of the Maori Party.
She also reminds us we already have our own Indigenous Rights Treaty and didn’t need to sign up to another one. Very good point.
I can’t see that (they might have removed it). If it’s still visible can you please cut and paste?
Marama Fox had a very different view back in April when she backed Helen Clark.
http://www.waateanews.com/Waatea+News.html?story_id=MTMyNjY=&v=605
“But Maori party co-leader Marama Fox says that’s what happens when politicians have to choose between what’s right and what’s popular.”
Or what fits the agenda of your political bedmates.
Well spotted Karen.
Marama, (and the rest of the Maori Party past and present)
….https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:If_you_lie_down_with_dogs,_you_get_up_with_fleas
Lie down with dogs you get up with fleas.
“The quote has a large almost universally agreed meaning of “You should be cautious of the company you keep. Associating with those of low reputation may not only lower your own but also lead you astray by the faulty assumptions, premises and data of the unscrupulous.””
I’d also add…shit sticks.
Yeah, but let’s face it, the only choices they’ve had are National or Labour, both of whom have done pretty serious negative shit to Māori.
Let’s also remember that the Māori Party may be part of forming the next left wing government. How will we deal with the shit then? Or would we prefer they went with National again?
“Māori Party may be part of forming the next left wing government.”
On what do you base that statement?
I’m not being argumentative here….but I just can’t ever see this happening.
The Māori party has a mandate from its people to be inside the tent. That is policy, so they will support who ever has a majority to get a seat at the table.
Now if the Māori party get 3-4 seats (a possibility) and Green/labour are the majority – then the Māori party will support them.
I actually think it’s quite smart of Marama to raise this as she has – it shows Māori, where labour are at. It also keeps alive the issues for Māori and keeps their issues front and centre, rather than floating in the ether.
Lots of people assume that the Māori Party are right wing, but I don’t think they are. Their primary political loyalty is to Māori. What reason is there that would stop them supporting a L/G government? Policy? History?
Plus what adam said.
“Their primary political loyalty is to Māori”
Yet, race doesn’t determine ones political allegiance.
Therefore, how can political loyalty to a race represent their vast and varying political desires?
Why don’t you ask them*? That’s the point. In this instance, your views on how people form political allegiances are not that relevant compared to theirs.
*or failing that, just read/listen to what is in the public domain. Plenty of Māori talking about it, but you have to be willing to hear what they say.
No, the point was I was asking you.
Moreover, you wrongly assume I don’t read/listen to what’s in the public domain.
I forewarned the Party would split long before it happened, for that very reason. People of one race don’t necessarily share the same political view or desires.
“People of one race don’t necessarily share the same political view or desires.”
Of course not, I haven’t said they did.
“Of course not”
Indeed. Therefore, I’ll ask you again. How can political loyalty to a race genuinely represent the vast and varying political desires of said race?
I haven’t said that either, but feel free to have that conversation with yourself.
“I haven’t said that either”
Not directly. However, At 1.37pm yesterday you stated lots of people assume that the Māori Party are right wing, but you don’t think they are, stating their primary political loyalty is to Māori.
Yet, you agree race doesn’t determine ones political allegiance, but concluded loyalty to their race somehow substituted a political positioning (i.e. left, right, centre).
Therefore, the line their primary political loyalty is to Māori is little more than feel good waffle. It means little in political reality.
A political Party can’t be solely loyal to a race, people of one race don’t necessarily share the same political view or desires. Its role requires it to take a political positioning on matters. thus loyalty to a race doesn’t substitute a political Party’s positioning.
Which, in case you missed it, was the point I was making.
Well done on finally saying what you think. But let’s be very clear that very little of that is related to my own views or comments. I really don’t like my politics misrepresented and you’re pretty close to doing that here. Please don’t do it again.
Crikey! Settle down weka.
Your comments can often have indirect meaning, leaving your position on certain matters unclear. Which is why I initially questioned you (to establish what your position was) and later went on to point out to you how your comments can be misconceived.
Nonetheless, I’m still unclear what your position is. Where do you see the Māori Party sitting in the political spectrum?
Any chance John Key had anything to do with this?
Oh dear… she doesn’t know whether she’s Arthur or Martha. 😀
Just want to make it clear that I thought Helen Clark’s handling of the Seabed and Foreshore issue was appalling and easily the worst thing she ever did. I thought she had acknowledged that it was wrong and apologised but can’t remember where or when (except that it was after she was PM).
Interesting to hear Andrew Little on Checkpoint last night say that as president of the Labour Party he opposed the Act but it was a parliamentary decision.
I do think, however, Helen Clark would do more for indigenous rights than some of the other likely contenders for the post of UN Secretary-General.
And it seems Tariana Turia supports Helen for the job!!!
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/politics/maori-party-co-founder-endorses-helen-clark-top-un-job
“And it seems Tariana Turia supports Helen for the job!!!””
Oh my, my, my.
What contortions these people go through to get through another day in politics.
“these people” = all Members (past, present and future) of Parliament.
Can’t trust any of them to hold a line.
No wonder we’re in so much trouble.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1975/0114/latest/DLM435368.html
Why did you post that link?
weka @ 12.1.1.3
Sorry, weka I misread your comment. Nanaia made the remarks at the end of the embedded interview on RNZ – not the item itself.
Anne I’m going to call you on misrepresenting Nanaia on the issues of the Indigenous Rights Treaty. She did not say what you are saying. She was talking about caveats, which would restrain the Treaty of Waitangi.
Funny, Nanaia did almost apology for the foreshore debacle, then she is almost falling over herself to defended the hard right knee jerk legislation labour passed as better than what we have. Sad.
Dover is still bitter he lost his seat to the Maori party. So the irony is not lost on me with his bluster.
Good on Marama being the fox amongst the chickens.
“Good on Marama being the fox amongst the chickens.”
I respect those who speak out according to their principals.
But only if their principals are consistent…not changeable according to the political climate.
fox
fɒks/Submit
noun
noun: fox; plural noun: foxes
1.
a carnivorous mammal of the dog family with a pointed muzzle and bushy tail, proverbial for its cunning.
synonyms: literaryReynard
the fur of a fox.
2.
a cunning or sly person.
“a wily old fox”
3.
NORTH AMERICANinformal
a sexually attractive woman.
verbinformal
verb: fox; 3rd person present: foxes; past tense: foxed; past participle: foxed; gerund or present participle: foxing
1.
baffle or deceive (someone).
“the abbreviation foxed me completely”
dated
behave in a cunning or sly way.
“to his mind everybody was dodging and foxing”
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=fox&rlz=1C1OPRB_enNZ513NZ516&oq=fox&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.4307j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=fox+definition
Which definition fits Marama? (If we’re going to play on words.)
I’d say all of the above.
If you are going to follow the wishes of your people, and be inside the tent. Then I’d hope she is/has a bit of each.
But as for chickens – was my use a verb, or a noun? Or indeed both?
I did not misrepresent Nanaia and I take offence at you saying so Adam. You are being obtuse and pedantic. I don’t give a f*** about the process the govt may have adopted re- legislation/regulations. The effect is still the same – to undermine the many disadvantaged Maori living on or below the minimum wage, or having their special rights eroded. That is what I took from Nanaia’s comments and she sure knows a darn sight more about the subject than you do.
You brought up the point to discredit Marama, I’m saying you got it wrong. If that is being obtuse and pedantic, then guilty as charged.
This debate has nothing to do with the position of Māori, except that Māori have a differing opinion on Helen Clark.
I mean claims of utu to treachery. Far out, from a few comments about the Treaty, and the foreshore.
Nothing quite like those in the centre, and their ability to make a storm in a tea cup.
Māori have a differing opinion on Helen Clark.
Wrong. The “Maori Party” have a differing opinion, and its based on spite and petty political posturing.
Can’t understand why you’re standing up for them. They’re Nats in Maori guise. Have you changed you allegience and become a roaring Tory? 😮
Anne, I hope that you are not saying that all Māori have the same view on Clark other than the Māori Party.
How about addressing the points that adam raised?
Anne I’m going to call you on misrepresenting Nanaia on the issues of the Indigenous Rights Treaty. She did not say what you are saying. She was talking about caveats, which would restrain the Treaty of Waitangi.
How about addressing the points that adam raised?
I have. @ 12.1.1.3.3.2
That comment doesn’t address what adam raised.
Well I was hopeful you’d answer my question, but instead you came back with an ad hominem.
Ironic really, as the only media personality I see whose seething about Marama Fox and her comments is Paul Henry. Actually your comments have been pretty consistently in line with his.
Back to the question, I know I’m a sucker for punishment.
“Anne I’m going to call you on misrepresenting Nanaia on the issues of the Indigenous Rights Treaty. She did not say what you are saying. She was talking about caveats, which would restrain the Treaty of Waitangi.”
Typo of the day from a Herald headline:
Dame Tariana Turia supports Helen Clark in her big to be United Nations Secretary General
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11685672
Typo aside, I retract my statements about Tariana Turia yesterday evening (I think) when this story broke. I was wrong. She has been able to move on from the F&S scandal and good on her for doing so.
No surprise at all. It’s not without reason that I call that bunch the Kūpapa Party.
Since the introduction of compulsory voting in Australia in 1924, the turnout has never fallen below 90%. Voting, like compulsory education or jury service is a civil duty that cannot simply be ignored.
Is there a brave enough political party that is prepared to insist that a referendum at the time of a General Election be held to allow voters the opportunity to decide upon compulsion versus voluntary voting?
Voting is not a civil duty. It is a civil right. Rights do not mean a duty. You have a right to stand for election, you do not have a duty to do so.
Will the Left stoop to compulsion to get the missing million to vote? Many people choose not to vote. That is not the same as ignoring. Just because the majority want a National led government does not mean that we need to force people to cast their vote. Next you’ll be enticing them with KFC.
ohhhh, don’t want disenfranchiserd people going to the poll then now?
let me put it differently,
voting is a right that was fought for people who had no rights, and opposed by people that ‘held all the rights’ . You seem to be supporting the ones that opposed the universal rights to a vote.
voting is a right and a duty. And why should it not be compulsory?
Are you saying we should take away peoples rights to not vote in protest?
no i am saying that if voting would be compulsory it should include the option of
NONE OF THE ABOVE
cause protest.
Yeah yeah yeah. Soon you’ll be saying that paying taxes is a civil right. Oh that’s right, you do.
Because voting is a matter of secrecy, there is nothing to stop the voter from invalidating their vote.
In the May 2005 UK elections, turnout varied significantly from 74.6% in Dorset West to 41.5% in Liverpool Riverside. By contrast, the turnout of all but 2 electorates in the Australian elections in October 2004 was over 90% – the exceptions were Kalgoorlie with 83.53% & Lingiari with 77.71%, both covering remote areas with transient populations -. ( Source; Tim Evans, Director Election Systems & Policy, Australian Electoral Commission 16 January 2016 ).
You have a right to not vote. It’s called democracy.
” There are many things that people do not wish to do and which they would not do if they were able to exercise “individual freedoms”, but which parliament has legislated to require. The role of parliament in a parliamentary democracy includes passing laws to ensure the effectiveness of that democratic system”.
Source: Submission to JSCEM by the Australian Public Interest Advocacy Centre.
“You have a right to not vote. It’s called democracy.”
Wow. I can’t believe I almost agree with you. Now if we can tie that in with the right not to be disenfranchised, civics education and fair political funding, we might have a win.
Oh, look at that, a RWNJ arguing against personal responsibility.
It’s a privilege not a responsibility, that’s where you are getting confused
No, it’s a responsibility. That’s how democracy works – people taking full responsibility for their governance.
$50 to every one as they vote , with the option to either decline accepting it or donating it to one of 3 or 4 designated charities .
$50 KFC voucher surely.
I would of thought one for the local bdsm club would be more to your taste, i’m sure if you’re nice they might even let you stroke a pony tail or two.
you sure are generous. but it does seem that fisiani has a thing for kfc. must be that secret spice ingredient.
I would like to see obligatory voting, but then i would also like to see the option of “none of the above” added. If ‘none of the above’ wins, all parties have to go back to the drawing board and try harder.
How much would it cost to chase all those people that can’t be bothered voting , then you fine them when you catch them, then they hate the system even more and some refuse to pay the fine so they get hounded and fined a
bit more.
Far better to make it a day off work and a and occasion .
Make the likes of starship and kidscan recipients of the donated cash, and others can have a lunch out with the family or whatever. And those on poor street get a little bonus . What’s not to love?
I would not go and fine them, nor have i advocated it.
but i do think that making it compulsory with education starting in the schools would not be too bad. You will always have those that will not play ball, but instead of fining them i would have them take say 5 lessons in school about – voting history, a world without voting, civic lessons and community politics and their importance.
i think that would be a better approach. Punitive measures do not change behavior education does.
Slip sliding away….
edit: According to Nate Silver Clinton now has a better than 82% probability of winning.
So sad.
http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-election-forecast/#now
Yeah, mine inspections, who needs ’em.
/
Not the owners, as long as you don’t mind a little blood in your coal.
What’s a little blood between billionaires
Billionaire distressed asset investor Wilbur Ross has explained his reasons for backing Donald Trump to be the next U.S. president, highlighting the presumptive Republican nominee’s lack of political correctness and attention to middle-class America.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/15/wilbur-ross-says-us-needs-a-new-radical-approach-to-government.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilbur_Ross#Sago_Mine_disaster
“Although I personally believe Richard has done a good job to date for the Council and the city…I nevertheless do not believe that any manager in a public (or private for that matter) enterprise should be paid over 11 times the salary of the lowest paid worker in that organisation,” Macpherson said.
He believed the council should prioritise a Living Wage minimum of $20 per hour for council staff, before increasing the chief executive’s take home pay by $50,000.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/82704161/hamilton-city-councils-top-job-receives-50000-top-up
Thoughts?
Bureaucratic managerial class slapping itself on the back with obscene amounts of money, deluding themselves that they are supermen who are ‘worth it’.
While robbing low income workers of the ability to own a home.
With house prices skyrocketing, one would assume increasing low incomes would be part of the solution.
Oh, that’s just trickle down, there Chairman.
$50,000 to me, “thinking” about prioritising a living wage to you. Ok right can’t afford to pay the living wage but how about another pay rise for me for my efforts of thinking about you, cos we are in a democracy and all? Plus these councils have to spend a fortune on PR now, to make sure the rate payers know that the councillors are doing such a great job.
Of course pay is bench marked to what others in the same sector get, not what they actually do or should be paid. Anti performance pay – where you get a pay rise because you have to keep up with others at the same role in the trough of neoliberalism.
Rebalancing incomes is part of the required solution. Benchmarking needs to be revised to help address this.
Not only is it holding people back, the negative consequence is also the impact on consumer demand (thus, business returns) and growing household debt.
Unfortunately, National doesn’t seem to acknowledge the role they play in growing inequality, nor seemingly, does this council.
Fuck that were constantly told that paying people peanuts gets you monkeys but if you ask me the opposite is true i think you could sack a huge number of vastly overpaid ceo.s put the job back up on the notice board at a third of the pay and find plenty of people who could do the job much better .And most definately have the base rate of the lowest payed workers at at least 20 bucks an hour .
oh the hot tears at bedtime if the Mana and Māori parties co-operate in the Māori electorates and win back a few seats
there could be a Labour led government right now if Labour had not campaigned against Internet Mana (yes in unison with all the other parties, but Labour put special effort in also to assist Kelvin) and torpedoed Hone in Te Tai Tokerau
When I suggested on here that Hone should accept Labour’s open offer to join them and the Greens to overturn the Government, it was suggested to me the offer was only open to those already in parliament. Implying Labour and the Greens would rather work with the Maori Party, than with Mana. Go figure?
i have never heard of that. hmmm, personally i would like to think that anyone that wants to join should do so.
hmm, now i must ask da labour man about that.
For the sake of the country Hone and Labour need to get together and have a truce.
National have screwed Maori more than Labour!
And Labour should apologise for going against Mana. It was crazy politics, pure and simple. Who knows why they did it?? I just think there is a lot of manipulation from the Natz on Labour and Greens and clearly The Maori party is under their spell too.
Maybe Hone is hard to work with, who knows what to believe, but he has much better ideas for poverty and change for Maori than any one else.
I think the dream team is a mix of Labour, Greens, NZ First and Mana. That is who I would like to see in government with the majority. They are all better together in policy than individually as they cancel out the weird bits (spying and luke warm TPP from Labour would hopefully be cancelled out by the other three, more taxes on the middle class would hopefully be cancelled out by NZ First, etc, hopefully they start to think about creating well paid jobs internally with local people rather than shipping in cheap workers etc, education would start to be about education rather than foreign fees, they get rail working, they stop privatising everything, they have responsible relationships with China, Australia, US and EU, not losing all our rights like John Key is doing for less and cheaper milk powder sales.
there could be a Labour led government right now if Labour had not campaigned against Internet Mana (yes in unison with all the other parties, but Labour put special effort in also to assist Kelvin) and torpedoed Hone in Te Tai Tokerau
How so? Can you post the maths to demonstrate that?
[rant on]
We have a bloke in our community with a not so proud past of violent offending, although AFAIK not against women or children, and he’s done some quite serious time for his crimes. For many many years this bloke has stayed out of the limelight and out of trouble – until recently.
The bloke lost the plot and did something mightily stupid and potentially fatal to the public, the law responded and he did such a marvelous job of barricading himself inside his home he required assistance to get himself out and was duly carted off to the cells. Meanwhile, local dog control officers arrived supposedly to deal with the bloke’s three dogs and were told by the law to corral the animals in the back yard.
The attending plods knew the bloke well and were well aware of the part the dogs played in keeping him on the straight and narrow, knew he couldn’t afford any extra cost and knew arrangements would be made for their care until a permanent solution was found.
But no, the fucking arsehole control officers took the blokes dogs, impounded them and three days later and off their own bat, euthanised all three.
The bloke is distraught, the attending plods on the day knowing how the death of his dogs will affect the bloke are incensed and locals and other dog owners who know the bloke are infuriated. Added to the mix is the sneaking suspicion the fucking jobsworth who ordered the dogs be killed acted with malice toward the bloke. And they’ll get away with their actions because law and order and the bloke has neither the wherewithal nor skills to follow up.
Pricks!.
[rant off]
there is an fb page where people are happy to raise funds to help release impounded dogs. https://www.facebook.com/fundraisingforimpoundeddogs/?fref=ts
Usually dogs are held for seven days before being put to sleep or given up for adoption.
three days is not on order.
Have you thought of putting through an official complaint to the council, and also it may help going public.
The pound workers are already having a hard time, what with homeless dogs everywhere cause their peeps can not find pet friendly rentals, and the pound workers that i encountered (i iz a serial adopter of old pooches) absolutely hate putting down healthy friendly dogs.
this sucks. Lodge a protests with the council together with the others on his behalf.
Dogs sometimes escape or run away and get impounded, the least we want to know for sure is how long a pound would hold the animal before either killing it or giving it up for adoption.
Which council was this joe90 ?
Whanganui
were they just ordinary dogs or could they be type cast ie pit bulls or menacing or whateva ?
heh
#DonaldTrumpTheMovie