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.
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Ban Bomb Day event at the New Brighton Pier, 9am, on January 22nd, 2021 January 22nd, 2021, marks the first day the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Enters into Force and becomes international law. Aotearoa NZ is one of the ...
This week's biggest-selling New Zealand books, as recorded by the Nielsen BookScan New Zealand bestseller list and described by Steve BrauniasFICTION 1 Tell Me Lies by J.P. Pomare (Hachette, $29.99) Every January, there's a new best-selling crime thriller by the New Zealand-born author who lives in Melbourne. Pomare is ...
Our approach so far in trying to end what Dr Collin Tukuitonga describes as a 'racist' disease - rheumatic fever - has not worked. It's time we try something new, he writes. Acute rheumatic fever and the rheumatic heart disease it causes, long-known as a disease of poverty, is a blight on ...
New Zealand triple-code star, Anna Harrison, can't stop returning to the courts - whether it's netball or beach volleyball. She tells Ashley Stanley what keeps drawing her back. The day before Anna Harrison leaps back into netball, she will have one more hit-out at another of her favourite old sports ...
The lights are burning into the night at the New York Yacht Club's America's Cup base as they race to fix their damaged boat. And Suzanne McFadden discovers something surprising may emerge. Out of American Magic’s calamity may come opportunity - for even more speed. While the lights burn bright ...
New to sailing? With the Prada Cup resuming this weekend, here’s how to bluff your way into sounding like a pro. When I was 10, my mum made my brother and I join the local sailing club. It was a favourite pastime of families in Kerikeri, and my brother was actually ...
A formal complaint to the UN, signed by a NZ Muslim group, says France’s Islamophobic laws and policies are entrenching discrimination and breaching human rights laws. The Khadija Leadership Network has joined a global coalition of Muslim organisations to formally complain about the French government’s systemic entrenchment of Islamophobia and discrimination against ...
Summer reissue: Join Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey, Leonie Hayden and a lineup of incredibly successful New Zealand women as they confront their imposter syndrome once and for all. First published 20 October, 2020. Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members ...
With criticism from National piling on over the property market, the prime minister has detailed when the government will make housing announcements. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco Rizzi, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Western Australia Some Australians could be receiving a COVID-19 vaccine within weeks. Amid the continued spread of the virus and emergence of highly contagious variants, the federal government has accelerated the start of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Australia’s Threatened Species Strategy — a five-year plan for protecting our imperilled species and ecosystems — fizzled to an end last year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Lecturer, General Dentist & PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland Baby teeth, or milk teeth, act like lighthouses to guide the adult ones to their correct destination. A baby tooth will become wobbly and fall out because the adult tooth ...
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’s joined by Simon Coley, co-founder of All Good and Karma Drinks.Bananas are one of the ...
Tackling topics such as rugby and body image, Stuff’s latest podcast shines a much-needed light on Aotearoa’s complex relationship with masculinity, writes Trevor McKewen, author of the book Real Men Wear Black.I wasn’t sure what to think when two episodes of the new local podcast He’ll Be Right landed in ...
The Rainforest Alliance reveals that 68%* of Kiwis say the COVID-19 pandemic has made them more conscious about environmental and social sustainability issues. Seventy two percent* state that they have been trying to make more sustainable purchasing ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has raised concerns that Australia’s proposed News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code could fundamentally break the internet as we know it. His concerns ...
ANALYSIS:By Scott Lucas, University of Birmingham Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path Two weeks after the storming of the US Capitol by the followers of his predecessor, in the middle of an out-of-control pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Cantrell, Lecturer, Creative Writing & English Literature, University of Southern Queensland Described as “the world’s greatest storyteller”, Roald Dahl is frequently ranked as the best children’s author of all time by teachers, authors and librarians. However, the new film adaptation of ...
Peak housing body, Community Housing Aotearoa (CHA) welcomes the updated Public Housing Plan announced today by Minister Woods, and the commitment by this Government to fix New Zealand’s housing crisis. The 8,000 additional homes are a significant ...
Having recently walked much of the South Island stretch of Te Araroa, Kirsten O’Regan reflects on the magnificent landscapes and interesting characters she encountered along the way.On our 36th day of walking, we climb through the fire-blackened hills above Ohau, stopping to examine heat-disfigured trail markers. Fresh green shoots have ...
Miss Torta in central Auckland is putting the spotlight on a snack that’s commonplace in Mexico, but until now relatively unknown in New Zealand.You’ve heard of a torta, but what is it, exactly? Well, depending on the cuisine it can mean a flatbread, cake, tart, sweet pie, savoury pie or ...
Two of three ministerial statements from the Beehive have been released in the name of the PM over the past two days. The more important, insofar as it involves political action that will affect the wellbeing of significant numbers of Kiwis, was the release of the government’s Public Housing Plan ...
Jacinda Ardern has reminded Labour MPs "ongoing vigilance" will be required in 2021 to avoid another Covid outbreak, admitting she held her breath over the summer break. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zareh Ghazarian, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Monash University Despite many young Australians having a deep interest in political issues, most teenagers have a limited understanding about their nation’s democratic system. Results from the 2019 National Assessment Program – Civics and ...
Pinged $65 for overstaying 10 minutes in a parking block? Put away your hard-earned cash and read this first.Hopefully, by now, I’ve already established myself at The Spinoff as the resident tightarse, determined to avoid all unfair and unnecessary punishments (see: oversize baggage charges). Today, I’m focusing my attention on ...
Nuclear weapons states and their allies risk reputational ruin if they flout a new UN Treaty, Carolina Panico argues The United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons will come into force this month, on January 22, 2021, turning nuclear weapons into illegal objects. It is an achievement that ...
How does one turn into a rabid extremist over the description of a children’s bike? Emily Writes looks at Facebook comments so you don’t have to.You’ve been there, I know it. You’re scrolling along, trying to avoid QAnon conspiracy theories and Trump apocalypse memes when a story catches your eye. ...
Joe Biden is now the President of the United States and many people across America and throughout the world will consequently be breathing more easily. But while the erratic, unpredictable and irresponsible years of the Trump Presidency may be over, ...
Tough border testing for New Zealand honey imports to Japan is re-igniting the conversation about the use of the weed killer glypohsate in New Zealand. ...
The Taxpayers Union should be aware of the law and of the history of ACC. The ACC is a legal system introduced in 1974 to replace the common law right of accident victims to sue for damages for personal injury sustained as a result of negligence ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne Terrorism, political extremism, Donald Trump, social media and the phenomenon of “cancel culture” are confronting journalists with a range of agonising free-speech dilemmas to which there are no easy answers. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nial Wheate, Associate Professor of the Sydney Pharmacy School, University of Sydney You’ve just come from your monthly GP appointment with a new script for your ongoing medical condition. But your local pharmacy is out of stock of your usual medicine. Your ...
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*This article was originally appeared on RNZ and is republished with permission. Donald Trump will forever be remembered as the president who was impeached twice - and for his rhetoric that struck a chord so deep in America that it will take years to dissipate. Donald Trump leaves Washington with the lowest approval ...
A new plan shows how and where the Government will build 8,000 new state housing places it funded in Budget 2020, Marc Daalder reports Jacinda Ardern has kicked off the political year with a major announcement, promising hundreds of new state housing places in regional centres across the country. With ...
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Kate Wills is facing stage four cancer with the same fierce approach she takes into her ocean swimming - never say can't. Even on the mornings Kate Wills feels wretched from her fortnightly chemotherapy treatment, she drags herself up at 5am and goes swimming. “I have to. It’s my job – to ...
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Andrew Paul Wood assesses the best-selling picture book by Grahame Sydney It's no great secret the commercially very successful Grahame Sydney has a long-standing beef that his work doesn’t receive more critical and institutional approval. I sympathise about the lack of critical attention, but I can understand why. The Discourse™ ...
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Analysis: It has been easy to ignore anyone daring to criticise or even question any aspect of the government’s Covid-19 response. Their voices have rarely been heard, and when they have been raised they have been quickly and decisively howled down by the favoured coterie of academics. ...
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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