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.
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
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By Mark Rabago, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The US Department of Justice is being urged to condemn and cease its reliance on the “Insular Cases” — a series of US Supreme Court opinions on US territories, which have been labelled racist. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick ...
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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.
https://youtu.be/Rw7P0RGZQxQ
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
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