We were lucky last election. We only just got over the line and special votes may make things even more precarious. Having to rely on Banks and the coiffured one for supply is daunting and the thought of the Maori Party having the balance of power is terrifying.
Unless we do something then it is vey likely that we will lose the next election and the damned socialists will wreck the country by doing such things as addressing child poverty and giving workers a living wage. Such heresy cannot be tolerated.
So we need to do something about their current leadership battle. We have deep concerns about Cunliffe. He is bright and a good debater. He is the perfect counter to brand Key. He will be able to tell when Key uses our bogus statistics.
His leadership aspirations must be thwarted at all costs.
We need all out support for his opponents. Now that Parker is out of the running we need full support for Shearer. We are pleased that our efforts to placate and control the MSM are that successful that Farrar and Slater can support Shearer without anyone being incredulous at how the views of the National Party on Labour’s leadership can be given any credence.
Please keep supporting Shearer. When you do so use phrases such as “a new way” or “gamechanger” and talk about a “groundswell” even though the actual groundswell is coming from the ranks of the supporters of the right who will never vote Labour.
People won’t vote for Shearer just because of his past. They’ll say ‘nice guy, but…’
If Labour picks Shearer and has to roll him within six months to a year because he doesn’t have what it takes, then Labour will be caught up in the sort of messy bloodbath jounalists adore, leaving the public with negative feelings about Labour as a disunited, dysfunctional party and gifting John Key a third term.
If ‘dazed and confused’ is any indication, I think the RWNJs are changing their game plan from endorsement of Shearer to the undermining of Cunliffe. Expect the rumours and innuendo to surface any day now.
You can see their endgame though, if Shearer wins they get someone who they think Key is better able to compete with, if Cunliffe wins against the “Shearer ground swell!1!!!” they get to say Labour is still out of touch with the electorate due to back room wheeling and dealing.
They’ve put themselves in a win/win situation, it’s pretty clever really.
Dont think there is any argument over that, at least none that would stand up. But, and its a big but, just because someone has taken a moral stand at some point in their career does not a leader of a left wing political party make.
By all means, yay for Shearer, but as noted, if you cant lead, you cant lead.
Previously Senior Humanitarian Affairs Adviser in Liberia; Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Rwanda; Senior Humanitarian Adviser in Albania?
Chief of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Belgrade
Senior Adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem;
Humanitarian Coordinator during conflict in Lebanon in 2006
Appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Deputy Special Representative (Humanitarian, Reconstruction and Development) for Iraq
and the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the Humanitarian Coordinator.
He also ran one of the largest refugee camp in Somalia and recieved Queens hours for his efforts. I guess they must have read David Shearer all wrong. Either that or he makes right wing twats puke because he puts his mouth where his life is and gets the job done – all without bashing a single beneficiary. That’ll scare them to death alright. What they want is a smile ‘n’ wave stunt double.
Shearer isn’t much of a stock standard leader, he’s more Prime Minister material.
Its entirely possible you are dead right – time will tell really, will it not? Other than that, pure speculation based on three very quiet years in Parliament.
Which adds up to the sort of Labour Party leader that we need /What Shearer has achivied is exactly why I joined Labour so many years ago.
Labour people has always been proud of humanitarian leaders we have sometimes had in the the past. The men and women who have a difference to the displaced and unfortunates. if Shearer is elected leader it will be with pride among us .The Right is already moving to disrupt and divide Labour.they already have the next election planned.They were succesfull in destroying Phil Goff. They were so succesfull they even had some of our own people believing them. Dont lets go down that path again.tell these Right wing bastards that we will run our party not them.I for one do not need their advice on who should be the Leader of my party. I remember Garner saying “Im going to do Goff . Right-Wing columists like Garner .Plunket and ACT supporter Holmes and the others need to be told just where they can go with their anti Labour/Green sleaze and lies. Stop,them now !.
Ive no idea what you’re drinking dude, but SP is as right wing as Im Queen Lizzie.
Seriously, seriously delusional. Having worked with his neighbour and old school chum for years, and borne witness to his alcohol fueled rants, nope, not now, not then, not ever.
He called it how he saw it, and good on him for having the nuts to do it.
I just read that in order to make their numbers look better GM just saddled their dealers with 620,000 new cars, unsold and in inventory. A record all time high. These guys are screwed.
What a load of bollocks Lanthanide. Just make this up did you? Sorry, rhetorical question. You did.
“It began a few years ago when I was something of a hippy, travelling around the world like many Kiwis take the time to do.” David Shearer, speech to the Teritiary Education Conference 28 November 2011.
Truth doesn’t sit at the bottom of a wine bottle – or in your case a whine bottle.
You cite the beginning of an explanation as to how David Shearer became involved in humanitarian causes and then imply he isn’t a humanarian, but a selfish hippy? If I could, I would ban commenters like you. You’re trolling, poorly, and wasting space. Get out and do some work you thought bludger – that’s what you tell people isn’t it? Of course you already know about context, you’re just stupid, bored and likely half drunk.
For others, here is the full context of what David Shearer said:
“It began a few years ago when I was something of a hippy, travelling around the world like many Kiwis take the time to do.
A friend and I decided to follow the Nile River to its source in Uganda. I think we had this romantic notion of following in the footsteps of those great explorers.
I remember we were reading a couple of wonderful books by Alan Moorehead, who wrote about those who had passed through these same places 100 years earlier. They were called called ‘White Nile’ and the ‘Blue Nile’.
In South Sudan we hitched a ride on a Somali truck that seemed the only way to cross the wild terrain of the Turkana tribe. It was about a five day trip.
We were sitting in the back of the truck peeling a mango and throwing the skins over the side.
I heard noises below and looking down I saw children fighting over the skins – simply because they were hungry. It was a real shock. Here I was, a tourist, travelling through a land where people were so hungry they fought over mango skins.
Over the next few days we saw many people sitting or walking – who knows where – who were just skin and bones, their lives devastated by a drought and conflict in the area, many were close to dying.
For me it was one of those turning points – it hit me that perhaps I should be doing something more to make a difference in the world.
I returned to NZ but the idea of doing something never left me. I pushed and prodded various agencies and was eventually hired by Save the Children to work in Sri Lanka where a war was being fought between the government in the south and the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in the north.”
You would ban me for pointing out an erroneous statement made by Lanth? How childish you are. At no point did I make any implications. I made a statement that Lanth made up the statement that Shearer went overseas to save lives. He did not originally go overseas to save lives. He went on his OE, that is all. The evidence is in your reproduction of his speech. If you read implications into my short earlier response, you are either far too sensitive, or perhaps the wine bottle you refer to is taking a hammering at your end.
I have nothing against David Shearer, his achievements are many, and uplifting. In my opinion he would make a fine leader of the Labour Party, the only pity being that he is not National.
So he went on his OE and ended up doing a vast amount of good. Maybe if you had your eyes opened a bit you wouldn’t be sitting around here wasting our time with such pointless exercises in pedantry and diversion.
because he has real talent, other than playing roullette with other peoples money like Shonkey did? That bloke hasn’t done a hard days work in his life!
“He will be able to tell when Key uses our bogus statistics”
Irony, much?
Always with the laughable conspiracy theory. If you got over yourself for half a second, you would see it as debate on something topical. Me, I see it as, from my perspective, the chance for labour to understand whats broken and fix it. Because remember, the electorate has just told you it is broken. And the option is yours to fix it.
Yeah but they don’t have to feed the MSM with appearances on close up etc and deflect any questions with how about that mine, or that mine safety, stuffed forecasts etc etc etc
This gives opportunity to turn it back on the dodgy behaviour the Nats excel and if they persist simply state it’s an internal party matter…..the MSM don’t deserve the time of day let alone indulge the CT initiative.
actaully TC i disagree…its both worthwhile, mature and a fresh approach…labour need to reconnect so why hide the process away from the public.
These public apearances i.e beauty contests allow the party the opportunity to gauge support, create interest with the candiadates and also the party.
This whole ‘road show’ event if properly managed will create situational responces that we can use for the future.
This is both honest fresh and relevant – go team labour and its new look.
Proof that RWNJs believe at least two impossible things before breakfast.
Some Republican lawmakers are skeptical that extending the tax cut [payroll so only wage earners pay it] beyond this year will help job creation and say it will have only a temporary effect on the economy.
Obama has proposed a tax increase on wealthy Americans, but Republicans have rejected that, saying it would hurt business owners who generate jobs.
Basically, the Republicans are demanding that the tax cuts given to the poor be revoked while demanding that the tax cuts given to the rich, which caused the deficit and aren’t creating jobs, be kept.
It’s laughable. The same people who say a tax cut for them will generate jobs are arguing a package that includes reducing the Federal workforce by 10%. Do they comprehend the words that tumble out their mouths or are they just so utterly conceited they don’t care anymore.
Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed — well, they shouldn’t make such a big deal about it.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world of what they call their presidential campaigns. For months now, they’ve been traipsing around the country with their traveling circus, from one debate to the next, one scandal to another, putting themselves forward for what’s still the most powerful job in the world.
As it turns out, there are no limits to how far they will stoop.
It’s true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it’s just not that funny anymore. In fact, it’s utterly horrifying.
It’s horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They’re ruining the reputation of the United States.
“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation’s foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
Selectively Edited Email Implies Scientists “Left Out” Information To Fit A “Message.” A December 2004 email from the University of Arizona’s Jonathan Overpeck to Argentinian scientist Ricardo Villalba was cropped to say:
Overpeck:
The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what’s included and what is left out. [Email excerpt, accessed 11/28/11] Email Was Actually About Meeting Page Limits. The full email reveals that Overpeck is advising Villalba to edit a lengthy outline down to “0.5 pages of HIGHLY focused and relevant stuff.” They are discussing a “Section on Modes of Variability” for the Palaeoclimate chapter of the draft 2007 IPCC report. From Overpeck’s email:
I think the hardest, yet most important part, is to boil the section down to 0.5 pages. In looking over your good outline, sent back on Oct. 17 (my delay is due to fatherdom just after this time), you cover ALOT. The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid what’s included and what is left out. For the IPCC, we need to know what is relevant and useful for assessing recent and future climate change. Moreover, we have to have solid data – not inconclusive information.
[…]
So, the trick is for you to lead us (Dick, Keith, me – maybe Julie – ENSO expert) to produce 0.5 pages of HIGHLY focused and relevant stuff. Can you take another crack at your outline and then tell us what you need? [Email 4755, 12/16/04]
I guess we should have expected it… National looks set to bypass the Kyoto protocol. Not that New Zealand adhered to the deal to reduce emissions the first place…
It is highly symbolic that the social unrest took place in America in the Fall, for rather than expressing a social upheaval that would turn the country upside down, it actually expressed something profoundly sinister — the further application and extension of national security state power. The take-downs of the Occupy sites were nationally coordinated. The rationales given were all the same. The overwhelming police presence was similar. The acquiescence of the protestors in leaving, overwhelmingly non-violently, was strikingly common.
What makes this sinister is that it comes at just the moment when the Senate has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (SB 1867) co-authored by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, which contains a “worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial” provision. The bill legislates into law the capacity of the president to deploy the U.S. military anywhere in the world, including the United States, and have the legal right to arrest, hold without charge, incarcerate indefinitely, and even execute any U.S. citizen as a military matter without judicial oversight or control. As Senator Lindsey Graham says, the bill “does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland.” This is the mentality dealing with Occupy, and unlike the Arab Spring, there is nothing that Occupy has done to date that has shaken this prevailing mentality. While Occupy has certainly challenged the prevailing elites, it has also given them the opportunity to exercise more powerfully the very powers Occupy is protesting.
For a glimpse of where the US and, by adjunct, NZ is going go read The Handmaid’s Tale. Even though it’s fiction it’s becoming more accurate by the day.
Earlier this year the National party completely failed to consult with local Iwi about their plans to explore for oil off the East Coast of New Zealand. To combat the negative public backlash National have now appointed a former District Commander and Superintendent of Police as Iwi Relations Manager, who just happens to have a history of violence and corruption…
NZ First leader Winston Peters is refusing to rule out reading a transcript of the teapot tape in Parliament – and experts say there is little to stop him.
The secret recording has been credited for Mr Peters’ return to Parliament. But he was tight-lipped yesterday on speculation he would raise the matter in the new term.
He will do it to. No matter if the cops try to bury it with a bs ruling Peters knows this will put him on the front page. I am so in the gallery that day!
‘I’m the type of Maori that doesn’t back dumb Maori, so I’m not saying she’s a dumb Maori. I’m just saying if she was awfully meritorious, I’d back her 100 per cent, that has not been my experience.”
Dubious disclaimer is dubious or, he is calling her stupid and the quip of:
The only thing she’s lacking is she doesn’t have a limp. Then he would have got the disabled [vote] too. That’s the truth of it and that’s the way it smacked as soon as I saw it.
Just reinforces my idea that Tamihere considers Nanaia Mahuta a non-person combined with the anti-disabled bullshit as well…
And:
”Out of the two of them you’d have to rate, on Labour Party values and on the street bringing the men’s vote back and a whole bunch of other things, Shane all day long; if he can get over in his own mind the self mutilation that he conducted in that hotel room,” Tamihere said.
Translation: misogyny = Labour Party values (oh noes wez can’t has women in leadership!111!!), and he’s anti-porn in the single most stupidest way to boot*, which is ironic given he’s talking about the “men’s vote”.
Methinks perhaps he should just stick to talk back, were the audience is full of “traditional” values, such as calling anything you don’t like “politically correct” and misogyny is held in high esteem.
_______________________________________________________________
*”self mutilation”? lolwut? it sounds like something from dodgy fundie tracts and utterly ignores the shit that goes on in the porn industry, nor issues with sexual roles/behaviours and exploitation.
Tamihere is the arse-hole who got kicked out of Labour for being misogynist. IIRC, he also took an extreme jump to the right after he left Labour as well. I don’t think anything he says is worth listening to as he’s proven, quite conclusively, that his judgement is lacking credibility.
You can always rely on John Tamihere to call it how he sees it, and that’s a good quality, but sometimes the way he calls things is unnecessary and pathetic. The point JT is trying to make is that Nanaia was selected on tokenistic grounds. A fair point, no doubt, but the way he phrased his point was low – offensive basically. He may have got a laugh out of a few racists, ableists and fuckwits, beyond that his comment didn’t serve anyone.
I’ve given up even responding to Tamihere, on account of how much of a fuckwit he is. I can’t believe New Zealand voted for the guy.
Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta has blasted former colleague John Tamihere as a sexist “failed politician” for alleging she is only a leadership candidate because she is a woman and Maori.
Mr Tamihere has called potential Labour leader David Cunliffe’s decision to pick Ms Mahuta as his running mate “smarmy” and typical.
”The only thing she’s lacking is she doesn’t have a limp. Then he would have got the disabled [vote] too. That’s the truth of it and that’s the way it smacked as soon as I saw it.”
Ms Mahuta said those comments smacked of sexism.
“John’s comments show male parochialism is alive and well in Maoridom… If John Tamihere thinks that Maori women should be in the home cooking kai, then he’s wrong.
“I would advise him to stick to his knitting. He’s a failed politician who is never making it back in, and it’s a bit rich for him to advise Labour on its leadership team.”
Fuck yes.
I can see why Cunliffe choose her now, as she’s got the steel needed for the front bench and whipping MP’s into line.
International surveillance companies are based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology on to every country of the world. This industry is, in practice, unregulated. Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers. Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on stand by.
Idiot/Savant gets the best stories.
The leak has a dedicated site, and in addition there is commentary and analysis on The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and ONWI. Read it, then start thinking about how we can shut down this industry in New Zealand.
There are ways to technically usurp the system. Mainly by learning the opt out and block features on cell phones and ensuring that tracking software is not operational on your computer. However that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The other day I drove past an unmarked car that obviously had a sophisticated surveillance system in operation with a camera mounted on the inside of the windscreen. With digital facial recognition and most people having their photo online somewhere, there really is no escaping.
Therefore the best option is to politicize and work to restrict their intrusiveness and power.
The Android developer who raised the ire of a mobile-phone monitoring company last week is on the attack again, producing a video of how the Carrier IQ software secretly installed on millions of mobile phones reports most everything a user does on a phone
USSR taxed its way into putting the first man in space.
The USA taxed its way to being the first to put a man on the moon.
The USSR removed property rights on individuals as it was a tax on the people.
The Greens argue that turning DOC land over to mining is essentially a tax on future generations who will nolonger be able to attract tourists, or utilize the nature wealth of the area.
As all property essentially excludes everyone but the property right holder, and so is a tax on everyone else.
So for a citizenry to guard property rights (the duty to deny themselves access to property) there is a responsibility on property owners to use property, rather than hoard or pollute it.
From a Green perspective wasting a landscape by mining it over a decade means the loss of future profits of generations of tourists, downstream pollution of water ways leaving costs on farmers…to…biological firms finding profit in genetic diversity.
Now why does this make the Green party more of a libertarian party than the ACT party?
Well simple, because ACT isn’t a libertarian party, it ignores property right holders duty to make a profit (by claiming they always do), in fact it pushes policies that ‘take profit’ creating no wealth.
Take for example the taxpayer built dams that are now up for sale, which is a property transfer transaction not wealth creation.
So Prebble was right, well obviously he wasnt saying taxes don’t create wealth when he said taxation doesn’t create wealth, what are the tax funded dams about to be sold because they represent so much wealth.
What he was clearly saying was the sale of assets, a cost to tax payers, is a waste of taxes as it transfers wealth rather than makes any wealth.
Well okay he wasn’t, but that what happens when an ignoramus like Prebble makes the absurd claim that taxation doesn’t create wealth, obviously sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.
Property rights is a tax and potentially creates weath when property owners aren’t deluded about their role.
But if you are associated with the ACT party then either you’re delusional, ignorant or just a cheap bleating lying, which is easily discernable by those not associated with said ideology.
Much like an atheist when hearing a be-godist speach; strangely, ACT is a religious dogmatic economic party.
So here we have the problem, Dunne saying asset sales, where they happen, should be for the good of NZ, yet incapable of answering the simplest of questions!
How does transfering ‘some’ property rights to foreigners conform to Dunne’s view that sales should for the good of NZ?
Dunne is far worse than the ACT party, ACT keeps their stupidity up front and in your face, Dunne weazely wishy washy view is to cloak asset sales as some liberal pragmatism when obviously its not.
Asset sales that place ownership in foriegn hands, or even in kiwi hands where those kiwis live overseas or will inevitably have to move once they sell the asset to pay for the flight out of NZ.
The world is printing money, and our elite is selling into that market despite those assets being key to our economic future in an energy limited world.
Sorry but this is akin to leaving the Trojens gates open after returning the gift of a horse statue.
Remember every name of every MP that votes Key’s budget in (or abstains – the Maori party) because they obviously plan on having homes in Australia and need to pay for them somehow (except Maori who have a history of selling off property cheap or so Maori tell it).
The Maori party providing any form of support to ‘asset sales’ National is a disgrace imo.
Castro’s Cuba gives land away gratis to those who will use it productively, but if they fail to do so it is taken back and given to someone else who can use it productively.
Yes, and that requires someone to be watching. Capitalism does that differently by laying taxes that pressures land owners to use land, and fines for pollution. And why National ideology will always be anti-Green as it denies governments role in the process or water downs the policies.
“The good of of NZ” is best served by selling power at cost. However this is only likely to happen if the power companies are owned by the government since private owners will usually want to chase profit. I seems a pity that Labour condoned the setting up of profit making, dividend paying SOE’s, otherwise they might have contested the election with the message that selling power companies would mean an increase in power prices.
Interesting there is no comment regarding the Port of Auckland strike by called by the Union. I note that the average wage of these people is a lazy $91K (plus the extras they each get). This puts them just outside the top 5% of earners in NZ, therefore they must be Michael Cullen’s “rich pricks”. Good to see that no one here is supporting them.
[lprent: There is a comment – you just made one. Congratulations.
However I fail to see why you’re calling the wharfies “John Key”. After all that was the only person that Michael Cullen directed his remark to. As far as I can see the only comparison is that they earn less than John Key, and they work just below the MP for Helensville’s residence in Parnell.
In other words if you want to quote history then please quote real history rather than the slop that wingnuts dish up as fact. Besides I have to go through the effort of releasing it from moderation. ]
The banners the protestors were holding stated they get $13 per hour and the CEO gets $3000 per day. Now, if you would like to go down and ask to see their pay slips and confirm or deny their banner, and simultaneously justify your claimed $91K, we’d appreciate that.
The figure you are quoting means they would have to work 150 hours per week @ $13 an hour to get to $91K, or a 50 hour week earning $39 per hour – so which is it seeing as you claim to be in the know?
If you want to understand why the Occupy movement has found such traction, it helps to listen to a former banker like James Theckston. He fully acknowledges that he and other bankers are mostly responsible for the country’s housing mess.
As a regional vice president for Chase Home Finance in southern Florida, Theckston shoveled money at home borrowers. In 2007, his team wrote $2 billion in mortgages, he says. Sometimes those were “no documentation” mortgages.
“On the application, you don’t put down a job; you don’t show income; you don’t show assets,” he said. “But you still got a nod.”
“If you had some old bag lady walking down the street and she had a decent credit score, she got a loan,” he added.
Theckston says that borrowers made harebrained decisions and exaggerated their resources but that bankers were far more culpable — and that all this was driven by pressure from the top.
“You’ve got somebody making $20,000 buying a $500,000 home, thinking that she’d flip it,” he said. “That was crazy, but the banks put programs together to make those kinds of loans.”
111 Meat workers are still locked-out from the jobs at in Rangitikei. They’ve been more than six weeks without wages and they need support. This weekend is a national day of fund-raising and action in support of the locked-out workers. McDonalds are being targeted, as they are one of the primary customers of the company. There are events organised all over the country…
I presume you’re referring to Cathy Odgers claims that the Auckland wharfies are rich pricks when she does not link to her source. I think you can take her divide and conquer bullshit with a grain of salt Roflcopter.
I thought it rather unbecoming of John Key when he said that National had the “largest majority since the Waterfront strike” which occurred in 1951.
The reason for National winning the snap election then is because they ran a negative campaign on an anti-Communist platform, labeling many men who had fought bravely for their country in the second world war as communists, which further entrenched the resentment felt by the waterfront workers. They went on strike after missing out on a 15% pay increase awarded by the Arbitration Court to all other workers.
The National led government then went about beating and starving the families of the protesting workers into submission. Back then you weren’t even allowed to produce pamphlets to disseminate information. National has a history a fascism that they should be ashamed of.
Labour lost ground in the snap election because they tried to remain moderate and did not come out strongly in support of the Unions. Instead of negotiating with the unions, National chose to use violence and propaganda to repress the uprising. Hopefully it’s a lesson learned by all sides.
Looking at what’s happening it’s lesson that’s been forgotten – but we’ll all get the chance to re-learn it as the psychopaths in NAct continue their war on the poor and the theft of our assets and resources.
CAIRO: The arrival of 7 and half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters
[…]
Egypt’s al-Shorouk newspaper reported that upon the arrival of the shipment, massive disagreements broke out between employees, where five employees refused to sign for the shipment, one after the other.
The five, being dubbed by activists as the “brave five”, were to be refereed to a investigative committee as to why they refused to perform their duties, which has since called off.
But then, nek minute, it seems the Maori Party do not want Dr Sharples as co-leader any more and his position will come up for grabs.
Dr Shaples says he would like Mr Flavell to transition into the role but seems to be getting the raw end of the rejuvenation deal.
Dr Sharples suddenly faces losing not only the leadership, but his ministerial job as well and all before Christmas – not much of a present from the party he helped create.
If he resigns it would trigger a by-election which Labour could conceivably win. Depending on what happen with the special votes that could actually be the end of the NAct government.
If there is a by-election, Wall has her safe seat and Jones has a high ranking on the list, could Labour please stand a candidate who’s a born and bred local.
He obviously wasn’t happy to be forced to stand down:
From TV3 News: “This is what happens in politics… You work yourself to death … And you really get passionate about what you achieve…Then some drunk staggers up and calls you a prick,” he said after the interview.
Maybe he should just defect to the opposition benches. He always seemed to have a soft spot for Labour.
Not certain if I am permitted to post this in entirety … but here goes .. too important not to post imho .. this is from a trusted and credible website …. the email is dated today
In a stunning move that has civil libertarians stuttering with disbelief, the U.S. Senate has just passed a bill that effectively ends the Bill of Rights in America.
This bill, passed late last night in a 93-7 vote, declares the entire USA to be a “battleground” upon which U.S. military forces can operate with impunity, overriding Posse Comitatus and granting the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate and even assassinate U.S. citizens with impunity.
It’s being called the most traitorous act ever witnessed in the Senate, and the language of the bill is cleverly designed to make you think it doesn’t apply to Americans, but toward the end of the bill it essentially says it can apply to Americans “if we want it to.”
Even WIRED magazine was outraged at this bill, reporting:
…the detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners. It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — “U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.” http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/senate-military-detention/
The passage of this law is nothing less than an outright declaration of WAR against the American People by the military-connected power elite. If this is signed into law, it will shred the remaining tenants of the Bill of Rights and unleash upon America a total military dictatorship, complete with secret arrests, secret prisons, unlawful interrogations, indefinite detainment without ever being charged with a crime, the torture of Americans and even the “legitimate assassination” of U.S. citizens on right here on American soil!
If you have not yet woken up to the reality of the police state we’ve been warning you about, I hope you realize we are fast running out of time. Once this becomes law, you have no rights whatsoever in America — no due process, no First Amendment speech rights, no right to remain silent, nothing.
Are you getting all this? Do you realize America is about to be overrun by our own military?
The rule of law is about to be utterly destroyed. No due process. No legal representation. Not even a right to know what you’re being charged with when you are (indefinitely) detained.
This is an urgent time for action to protest the overreaching military police state in America. Immediately call your representatives in Washington and urge your House members to reject this bill in the reconciliation phase with the Senate. Call the office of the President and urge Obama to veto this bill if it is passed by both houses.
Call your local newspapers and protest this outrageous and traitorous attempt to nullify the entire Bill of Rights.
Do not be fooled by the trolls and disinfo agents who claim this bill does not apply to U.S. citizens — a fact which has already been established without question. If this is signed into law, military humvees will roll down the streets in U.S. cities, with gunpoint checkpoints, illegal arrests, secret torture operations and the outright murder of U.S. citizens right in their own home towns.
In observing all this, you might ask WHY is this happening right now? Why would the U.S. Senate deliberately nullify the Bill of Rights and seek the authorize military action on the streets of U.S. cities?
The answer, my friends, will not comfort you: A global economic collapse is coming, and once started, it will likely unleash a wave of social unrest and rioting that could burn many U.S. cities to the ground. The U.S. Senate is probably trying to rush authorization of the military to operate in American cities before the economic collapse arrives, thereby placing troops deep within the roughest U.S. cities where they stand a chance at halting the runaway riots that are sure to materialize when peoples’ life savings vanish as the banks collapse.
Keep reading NaturalNews.com for updates on this situation. We will continue to cover the Eurozone economic crisis as well as this Senate bill 1867, which is not yet law. Our last-ditch hope would be for Obama to veto it. We’ll issue a red alert if that action is needed…
And remember, folks, the Bill of Rights protects us all — liberals, conservatives, libertarians, agnostics, Christians, Jews, everybody! If you lose the Bill of Rights, you lose America and all the freedoms many generations have fought for. Right now protecting the Bill of Rights is perhaps the single most important thing we can do for our collective futures.
All of us who have been screaming about the importance of the U.S. Constitution have been trying to protect YOU from exactly this kind of scenario. The whole purpose of the Bill of Rights is to limit the power of government so that this kind of Senate action is never allowed.
Great, here’s a tip, don’t trust news that comes from a site well known in sceptic and science-based medicine circles for being utterly full of shit on everything from autism to cancer to HIV and beyond.
Let alone spam other places with this paranoid bullshit, as the senate lacks the power to easily mess with the bill of rights without a super majority + presidential support.
just been alerted to that fat slob leighton smith.
he went flat out on the radio all last week to denigrate the candidates for the labour party leadership.
he denigrated the United Nations and David Shearer and every time he gets the chance he denigrates Obama.
How can New Zealanders tolerate such an ugly person getting in their face to tell them lies and set the tone of hatred every morning.
I shudder to think that some actually like him and think there is some shred of truth in what he says.
If that is so then country is in deep trouble.
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
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 ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
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 Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
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Memo from Crosby Textor
To all available RWNJs
We were lucky last election. We only just got over the line and special votes may make things even more precarious. Having to rely on Banks and the coiffured one for supply is daunting and the thought of the Maori Party having the balance of power is terrifying.
Unless we do something then it is vey likely that we will lose the next election and the damned socialists will wreck the country by doing such things as addressing child poverty and giving workers a living wage. Such heresy cannot be tolerated.
So we need to do something about their current leadership battle. We have deep concerns about Cunliffe. He is bright and a good debater. He is the perfect counter to brand Key. He will be able to tell when Key uses our bogus statistics.
His leadership aspirations must be thwarted at all costs.
We need all out support for his opponents. Now that Parker is out of the running we need full support for Shearer. We are pleased that our efforts to placate and control the MSM are that successful that Farrar and Slater can support Shearer without anyone being incredulous at how the views of the National Party on Labour’s leadership can be given any credence.
Please keep supporting Shearer. When you do so use phrases such as “a new way” or “gamechanger” and talk about a “groundswell” even though the actual groundswell is coming from the ranks of the supporters of the right who will never vote Labour.
Message ends.
John Key left the country to make money.
David Shearer left to save lives.
And what happens when that line gets old, Lanth?
People won’t vote for Shearer just because of his past. They’ll say ‘nice guy, but…’
If Labour picks Shearer and has to roll him within six months to a year because he doesn’t have what it takes, then Labour will be caught up in the sort of messy bloodbath jounalists adore, leaving the public with negative feelings about Labour as a disunited, dysfunctional party and gifting John Key a third term.
If ‘dazed and confused’ is any indication, I think the RWNJs are changing their game plan from endorsement of Shearer to the undermining of Cunliffe. Expect the rumours and innuendo to surface any day now.
That was what the Wellington astroturfer I banned last night “Albie” something was pushing. I guess that will be the message of the day
You can see their endgame though, if Shearer wins they get someone who they think Key is better able to compete with, if Cunliffe wins against the “Shearer ground swell!1!!!” they get to say Labour is still out of touch with the electorate due to back room wheeling and dealing.
They’ve put themselves in a win/win situation, it’s pretty clever really.
…but Key fucked the world over as part of a cadre of scumbag wanksters.
There are more people dying unnecesarily than ever before.
good or bad is irrelevent, who made the bigger difference ?
Dont think there is any argument over that, at least none that would stand up. But, and its a big but, just because someone has taken a moral stand at some point in their career does not a leader of a left wing political party make.
By all means, yay for Shearer, but as noted, if you cant lead, you cant lead.
Are we talking about the same David Shearer?
Previously Senior Humanitarian Affairs Adviser in Liberia; Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations in Rwanda; Senior Humanitarian Adviser in Albania?
Chief of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Belgrade
Senior Adviser to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
Head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Jerusalem;
Humanitarian Coordinator during conflict in Lebanon in 2006
Appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as his Deputy Special Representative (Humanitarian, Reconstruction and Development) for Iraq
and the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the Humanitarian Coordinator.
He also ran one of the largest refugee camp in Somalia and recieved Queens hours for his efforts. I guess they must have read David Shearer all wrong. Either that or he makes right wing twats puke because he puts his mouth where his life is and gets the job done – all without bashing a single beneficiary. That’ll scare them to death alright. What they want is a smile ‘n’ wave stunt double.
Shearer isn’t much of a stock standard leader, he’s more Prime Minister material.
Its entirely possible you are dead right – time will tell really, will it not? Other than that, pure speculation based on three very quiet years in Parliament.
Which adds up to the sort of Labour Party leader that we need /What Shearer has achivied is exactly why I joined Labour so many years ago.
Labour people has always been proud of humanitarian leaders we have sometimes had in the the past. The men and women who have a difference to the displaced and unfortunates. if Shearer is elected leader it will be with pride among us .The Right is already moving to disrupt and divide Labour.they already have the next election planned.They were succesfull in destroying Phil Goff. They were so succesfull they even had some of our own people believing them. Dont lets go down that path again.tell these Right wing bastards that we will run our party not them.I for one do not need their advice on who should be the Leader of my party. I remember Garner saying “Im going to do Goff . Right-Wing columists like Garner .Plunket and ACT supporter Holmes and the others need to be told just where they can go with their anti Labour/Green sleaze and lies. Stop,them now !.
Um, Sean Plunket, right wing? Anti labour??
Ive no idea what you’re drinking dude, but SP is as right wing as Im Queen Lizzie.
Seriously, seriously delusional. Having worked with his neighbour and old school chum for years, and borne witness to his alcohol fueled rants, nope, not now, not then, not ever.
He called it how he saw it, and good on him for having the nuts to do it.
Sean is as Right Hand Drive as a brand new Mustang.
Don’t go the Mustang CV, driven one, they aren’t much cop.
😀
I just read that in order to make their numbers look better GM just saddled their dealers with 620,000 new cars, unsold and in inventory. A record all time high. These guys are screwed.
“David Shearer left to save lives.”
What a load of bollocks Lanthanide. Just make this up did you? Sorry, rhetorical question. You did.
“It began a few years ago when I was something of a hippy, travelling around the world like many Kiwis take the time to do.” David Shearer, speech to the Teritiary Education Conference 28 November 2011.
Truth doesn’t sit at the bottom of a wine bottle – or in your case a whine bottle.
You cite the beginning of an explanation as to how David Shearer became involved in humanitarian causes and then imply he isn’t a humanarian, but a selfish hippy? If I could, I would ban commenters like you. You’re trolling, poorly, and wasting space. Get out and do some work you thought bludger – that’s what you tell people isn’t it? Of course you already know about context, you’re just stupid, bored and likely half drunk.
For others, here is the full context of what David Shearer said:
“It began a few years ago when I was something of a hippy, travelling around the world like many Kiwis take the time to do.
A friend and I decided to follow the Nile River to its source in Uganda. I think we had this romantic notion of following in the footsteps of those great explorers.
I remember we were reading a couple of wonderful books by Alan Moorehead, who wrote about those who had passed through these same places 100 years earlier. They were called called ‘White Nile’ and the ‘Blue Nile’.
In South Sudan we hitched a ride on a Somali truck that seemed the only way to cross the wild terrain of the Turkana tribe. It was about a five day trip.
We were sitting in the back of the truck peeling a mango and throwing the skins over the side.
I heard noises below and looking down I saw children fighting over the skins – simply because they were hungry. It was a real shock. Here I was, a tourist, travelling through a land where people were so hungry they fought over mango skins.
Over the next few days we saw many people sitting or walking – who knows where – who were just skin and bones, their lives devastated by a drought and conflict in the area, many were close to dying.
For me it was one of those turning points – it hit me that perhaps I should be doing something more to make a difference in the world.
I returned to NZ but the idea of doing something never left me. I pushed and prodded various agencies and was eventually hired by Save the Children to work in Sri Lanka where a war was being fought between the government in the south and the Tamil Tiger guerrillas in the north.”
You would ban me for pointing out an erroneous statement made by Lanth? How childish you are. At no point did I make any implications. I made a statement that Lanth made up the statement that Shearer went overseas to save lives. He did not originally go overseas to save lives. He went on his OE, that is all. The evidence is in your reproduction of his speech. If you read implications into my short earlier response, you are either far too sensitive, or perhaps the wine bottle you refer to is taking a hammering at your end.
I have nothing against David Shearer, his achievements are many, and uplifting. In my opinion he would make a fine leader of the Labour Party, the only pity being that he is not National.
Very well, vino veritarse, would you regard the phrasing:
as achieving the required level of accuracy?
Pointless objection you had there, imo.
So he went on his OE and ended up doing a vast amount of good. Maybe if you had your eyes opened a bit you wouldn’t be sitting around here wasting our time with such pointless exercises in pedantry and diversion.
Why –
because he has real talent, other than playing roullette with other peoples money like Shonkey did? That bloke hasn’t done a hard days work in his life!
“He will be able to tell when Key uses our bogus statistics”
Irony, much?
Always with the laughable conspiracy theory. If you got over yourself for half a second, you would see it as debate on something topical. Me, I see it as, from my perspective, the chance for labour to understand whats broken and fix it. Because remember, the electorate has just told you it is broken. And the option is yours to fix it.
It’s easier to keep blaming everything else and dream up yet another conspiracy.
Understanding and fixing is difficult, especially if it involves examining your own failings.
The too hard basket case.
and what are your failings, pete?
I’m learning from the ones I’m aware of.
GO AWAY – you make me depressed!
shhh – you’re just adding to the extensive list of things pete has to learn.
Yeah but they don’t have to feed the MSM with appearances on close up etc and deflect any questions with how about that mine, or that mine safety, stuffed forecasts etc etc etc
This gives opportunity to turn it back on the dodgy behaviour the Nats excel and if they persist simply state it’s an internal party matter…..the MSM don’t deserve the time of day let alone indulge the CT initiative.
actaully TC i disagree…its both worthwhile, mature and a fresh approach…labour need to reconnect so why hide the process away from the public.
These public apearances i.e beauty contests allow the party the opportunity to gauge support, create interest with the candiadates and also the party.
This whole ‘road show’ event if properly managed will create situational responces that we can use for the future.
This is both honest fresh and relevant – go team labour and its new look.
A Christmas message from the National Party
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/qUuDm1Mt2TuhyMCo4K4x
(Farts will always be funny)
National’s next election campaign kicks off with a bang.
Or should that be a poof!
a pffft !
Proof that RWNJs believe at least two impossible things before breakfast.
Basically, the Republicans are demanding that the tax cuts given to the poor be revoked while demanding that the tax cuts given to the rich, which caused the deficit and aren’t creating jobs, be kept.
It’s laughable. The same people who say a tax cut for them will generate jobs are arguing a package that includes reducing the Federal workforce by 10%. Do they comprehend the words that tumble out their mouths or are they just so utterly conceited they don’t care anymore.
Spiegel: A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses.
Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed — well, they shouldn’t make such a big deal about it.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world of what they call their presidential campaigns. For months now, they’ve been traipsing around the country with their traveling circus, from one debate to the next, one scandal to another, putting themselves forward for what’s still the most powerful job in the world.
As it turns out, there are no limits to how far they will stoop.
It’s true that on the road to the White House all sorts of things can happen, and usually do. No campaign can avoid its share of slip-ups, blunders and embarrassments. Yet this time around, it’s just not that funny anymore. In fact, it’s utterly horrifying.
It’s horrifying because these eight so-called, would-be candidates are eagerly ruining not only their own reputations and that of their party, the party of Lincoln lore. Worse: They’re ruining the reputation of the United States.
How Republicans are being taught to talk about Occupy Wall Street.
“I’m so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I’m frightened to death,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation’s foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. “They’re having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism.”
Also: http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/12/01/379365/frank-luntz-occupy-wall-street/
Cognitive dissonance. The worst part is they probably don’t even realise they’re doing it.
MediaMatters: “Climategate” Redux: Conservative Media Distort Hacked Emails … Again
Selectively Edited Email Implies Scientists “Left Out” Information To Fit A “Message.” A December 2004 email from the University of Arizona’s Jonathan Overpeck to Argentinian scientist Ricardo Villalba was cropped to say:
Overpeck:
The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what’s included and what is left out. [Email excerpt, accessed 11/28/11]
Email Was Actually About Meeting Page Limits. The full email reveals that Overpeck is advising Villalba to edit a lengthy outline down to “0.5 pages of HIGHLY focused and relevant stuff.” They are discussing a “Section on Modes of Variability” for the Palaeoclimate chapter of the draft 2007 IPCC report. From Overpeck’s email:
I think the hardest, yet most important part, is to boil the section down to 0.5 pages. In looking over your good outline, sent back on Oct. 17 (my delay is due to fatherdom just after this time), you cover ALOT. The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid what’s included and what is left out. For the IPCC, we need to know what is relevant and useful for assessing recent and future climate change. Moreover, we have to have solid data – not inconclusive information.
[…]
So, the trick is for you to lead us (Dick, Keith, me – maybe Julie – ENSO expert) to produce 0.5 pages of HIGHLY focused and relevant stuff. Can you take another crack at your outline and then tell us what you need? [Email 4755, 12/16/04]
Kyoto – Not unconditional [sic]
I guess we should have expected it… National looks set to bypass the Kyoto protocol. Not that New Zealand adhered to the deal to reduce emissions the first place…
Yeah, when I read that Canada was thinking of pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol I figured it wouldn’t be long before this government did the same.
Huffpost: Arab Spring, American Fall
It is highly symbolic that the social unrest took place in America in the Fall, for rather than expressing a social upheaval that would turn the country upside down, it actually expressed something profoundly sinister — the further application and extension of national security state power. The take-downs of the Occupy sites were nationally coordinated. The rationales given were all the same. The overwhelming police presence was similar. The acquiescence of the protestors in leaving, overwhelmingly non-violently, was strikingly common.
What makes this sinister is that it comes at just the moment when the Senate has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (SB 1867) co-authored by Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, which contains a “worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial” provision. The bill legislates into law the capacity of the president to deploy the U.S. military anywhere in the world, including the United States, and have the legal right to arrest, hold without charge, incarcerate indefinitely, and even execute any U.S. citizen as a military matter without judicial oversight or control. As Senator Lindsey Graham says, the bill “does apply to American citizens and it designates the world as the battlefield, including the homeland.” This is the mentality dealing with Occupy, and unlike the Arab Spring, there is nothing that Occupy has done to date that has shaken this prevailing mentality. While Occupy has certainly challenged the prevailing elites, it has also given them the opportunity to exercise more powerfully the very powers Occupy is protesting.
ACLU: Senators Demand the Military Lock Up of American Citizens in a “Battlefield” They Define as Being Right Outside Your Window
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1867/show
For a glimpse of where the US and, by adjunct, NZ is going go read The Handmaid’s Tale. Even though it’s fiction it’s becoming more accurate by the day.
Send in the bullies
Earlier this year the National party completely failed to consult with local Iwi about their plans to explore for oil off the East Coast of New Zealand. To combat the negative public backlash National have now appointed a former District Commander and Superintendent of Police as Iwi Relations Manager, who just happens to have a history of violence and corruption…
Why does this remind me of Dicky ”Diesel” Maxwell and Chris Campbell?.
Peters won’t rule out release of tea tape
Game on.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
He will do it to. No matter if the cops try to bury it with a bs ruling Peters knows this will put him on the front page. I am so in the gallery that day!
He’s got a pretty big bone to pick… so my guess is he will as well.
hahah yeah Winnie Bring it
Hate to say it, love him or loathe him, NZ politics is a far more fun spectator sport with Winston on hand.
Parliamentary Privilege! Aha. Other gremlins to come out do you think?
Be interesting to see what pre-emptive strikes are unleashed on Winston.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6075286/Tamihere-Cunliffes-deputy-pick-smarmy
Dubious disclaimer is dubious or, he is calling her stupid and the quip of:
Just reinforces my idea that Tamihere considers Nanaia Mahuta a non-person combined with the anti-disabled bullshit as well…
And:
Translation: misogyny = Labour Party values (oh noes wez can’t has women in leadership!111!!), and he’s anti-porn in the single most stupidest way to boot*, which is ironic given he’s talking about the “men’s vote”.
Methinks perhaps he should just stick to talk back, were the audience is full of “traditional” values, such as calling anything you don’t like “politically correct” and misogyny is held in high esteem.
_______________________________________________________________
*”self mutilation”? lolwut? it sounds like something from dodgy fundie tracts and utterly ignores the shit that goes on in the porn industry, nor issues with sexual roles/behaviours and exploitation.
According to Willie Jackson today, Tamihere is working for Shearer.
If this is true both the women’s sector and the rainbow sector will be really annoyed. With good reason.
Tamihere is the arse-hole who got kicked out of Labour for being misogynist. IIRC, he also took an extreme jump to the right after he left Labour as well. I don’t think anything he says is worth listening to as he’s proven, quite conclusively, that his judgement is lacking credibility.
Maui Street: JT on Nanaia
I’ve given up even responding to Tamihere, on account of how much of a fuckwit he is. I can’t believe New Zealand voted for the guy.
And Nanaia busts out a smack down.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10770406
Maybe she does have enough fire in the belly for the deputy position.
Fuck yes.
I can see why Cunliffe choose her now, as she’s got the steel needed for the front bench and whipping MP’s into line.
Unless it’s some bizarre Machiavellian plot and he supported her all along, he’s unintentionally helped her claims to be deputy.
Good work JT!
yeah she sure aint scared of no-one and I admire her for that…………….
JT – New Zealand’s answer to Jeremy Clarkson – another one with his snout in the trough of far too many trust boards.
It begs the question what he was ever doing in a left leaning party coming out with shit like that.
The Spy Files
Idiot/Savant gets the best stories.
There are ways to technically usurp the system. Mainly by learning the opt out and block features on cell phones and ensuring that tracking software is not operational on your computer. However that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The other day I drove past an unmarked car that obviously had a sophisticated surveillance system in operation with a camera mounted on the inside of the windscreen. With digital facial recognition and most people having their photo online somewhere, there really is no escaping.
Therefore the best option is to politicize and work to restrict their intrusiveness and power.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/secret-software-logging-video/
The Android developer who raised the ire of a mobile-phone monitoring company last week is on the attack again, producing a video of how the Carrier IQ software secretly installed on millions of mobile phones reports most everything a user does on a phone
http://allthingsd.com/20111201/carrier-iq-speaks-our-software-monitors-service-messages-ignores-other-data/#
Carrier IQ rebuts.
USSR taxed its way into putting the first man in space.
The USA taxed its way to being the first to put a man on the moon.
The USSR removed property rights on individuals as it was a tax on the people.
The Greens argue that turning DOC land over to mining is essentially a tax on future generations who will nolonger be able to attract tourists, or utilize the nature wealth of the area.
As all property essentially excludes everyone but the property right holder, and so is a tax on everyone else.
So for a citizenry to guard property rights (the duty to deny themselves access to property) there is a responsibility on property owners to use property, rather than hoard or pollute it.
From a Green perspective wasting a landscape by mining it over a decade means the loss of future profits of generations of tourists, downstream pollution of water ways leaving costs on farmers…to…biological firms finding profit in genetic diversity.
Now why does this make the Green party more of a libertarian party than the ACT party?
Well simple, because ACT isn’t a libertarian party, it ignores property right holders duty to make a profit (by claiming they always do), in fact it pushes policies that ‘take profit’ creating no wealth.
Take for example the taxpayer built dams that are now up for sale, which is a property transfer transaction not wealth creation.
So Prebble was right, well obviously he wasnt saying taxes don’t create wealth when he said taxation doesn’t create wealth, what are the tax funded dams about to be sold because they represent so much wealth.
What he was clearly saying was the sale of assets, a cost to tax payers, is a waste of taxes as it transfers wealth rather than makes any wealth.
Well okay he wasn’t, but that what happens when an ignoramus like Prebble makes the absurd claim that taxation doesn’t create wealth, obviously sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.
Property rights is a tax and potentially creates weath when property owners aren’t deluded about their role.
But if you are associated with the ACT party then either you’re delusional, ignorant or just a cheap bleating lying, which is easily discernable by those not associated with said ideology.
Much like an atheist when hearing a be-godist speach; strangely, ACT is a religious dogmatic economic party.
So here we have the problem, Dunne saying asset sales, where they happen, should be for the good of NZ, yet incapable of answering the simplest of questions!
How does transfering ‘some’ property rights to foreigners conform to Dunne’s view that sales should for the good of NZ?
Dunne is far worse than the ACT party, ACT keeps their stupidity up front and in your face, Dunne weazely wishy washy view is to cloak asset sales as some liberal pragmatism when obviously its not.
Asset sales that place ownership in foriegn hands, or even in kiwi hands where those kiwis live overseas or will inevitably have to move once they sell the asset to pay for the flight out of NZ.
The world is printing money, and our elite is selling into that market despite those assets being key to our economic future in an energy limited world.
Sorry but this is akin to leaving the Trojens gates open after returning the gift of a horse statue.
Remember every name of every MP that votes Key’s budget in (or abstains – the Maori party) because they obviously plan on having homes in Australia and need to pay for them somehow (except Maori who have a history of selling off property cheap or so Maori tell it).
The Maori party providing any form of support to ‘asset sales’ National is a disgrace imo.
Castro’s Cuba gives land away gratis to those who will use it productively, but if they fail to do so it is taken back and given to someone else who can use it productively.
Yes, and that requires someone to be watching. Capitalism does that differently by laying taxes that pressures land owners to use land, and fines for pollution. And why National ideology will always be anti-Green as it denies governments role in the process or water downs the policies.
“The good of of NZ” is best served by selling power at cost. However this is only likely to happen if the power companies are owned by the government since private owners will usually want to chase profit. I seems a pity that Labour condoned the setting up of profit making, dividend paying SOE’s, otherwise they might have contested the election with the message that selling power companies would mean an increase in power prices.
NYmag: 2012=1968?
In 2008, Barack Obama lit a fire among young activists. Next year, Occupy Wall Street could consume him
from.
Interesting there is no comment regarding the Port of Auckland strike by called by the Union. I note that the average wage of these people is a lazy $91K (plus the extras they each get). This puts them just outside the top 5% of earners in NZ, therefore they must be Michael Cullen’s “rich pricks”. Good to see that no one here is supporting them.
[lprent: There is a comment – you just made one. Congratulations.
However I fail to see why you’re calling the wharfies “John Key”. After all that was the only person that Michael Cullen directed his remark to. As far as I can see the only comparison is that they earn less than John Key, and they work just below the MP for Helensville’s residence in Parnell.
In other words if you want to quote history then please quote real history rather than the slop that wingnuts dish up as fact. Besides I have to go through the effort of releasing it from moderation. ]
The banners the protestors were holding stated they get $13 per hour and the CEO gets $3000 per day. Now, if you would like to go down and ask to see their pay slips and confirm or deny their banner, and simultaneously justify your claimed $91K, we’d appreciate that.
The figure you are quoting means they would have to work 150 hours per week @ $13 an hour to get to $91K, or a 50 hour week earning $39 per hour – so which is it seeing as you claim to be in the know?
A Banker Speaks, With Regret
If you want to understand why the Occupy movement has found such traction, it helps to listen to a former banker like James Theckston. He fully acknowledges that he and other bankers are mostly responsible for the country’s housing mess.
As a regional vice president for Chase Home Finance in southern Florida, Theckston shoveled money at home borrowers. In 2007, his team wrote $2 billion in mortgages, he says. Sometimes those were “no documentation” mortgages.
“On the application, you don’t put down a job; you don’t show income; you don’t show assets,” he said. “But you still got a nod.”
“If you had some old bag lady walking down the street and she had a decent credit score, she got a loan,” he added.
Theckston says that borrowers made harebrained decisions and exaggerated their resources but that bankers were far more culpable — and that all this was driven by pressure from the top.
“You’ve got somebody making $20,000 buying a $500,000 home, thinking that she’d flip it,” he said. “That was crazy, but the banks put programs together to make those kinds of loans.”
the trillion word image that gets more real every day
Support locked-out workers
111 Meat workers are still locked-out from the jobs at in Rangitikei. They’ve been more than six weeks without wages and they need support. This weekend is a national day of fund-raising and action in support of the locked-out workers. McDonalds are being targeted, as they are one of the primary customers of the company. There are events organised all over the country…
Ask the stevedores in Auckland, they’ll have plenty to share around.
I presume you’re referring to Cathy Odgers claims that the Auckland wharfies are rich pricks when she does not link to her source. I think you can take her divide and conquer bullshit with a grain of salt Roflcopter.
I thought it rather unbecoming of John Key when he said that National had the “largest majority since the Waterfront strike” which occurred in 1951.
The reason for National winning the snap election then is because they ran a negative campaign on an anti-Communist platform, labeling many men who had fought bravely for their country in the second world war as communists, which further entrenched the resentment felt by the waterfront workers. They went on strike after missing out on a 15% pay increase awarded by the Arbitration Court to all other workers.
The National led government then went about beating and starving the families of the protesting workers into submission. Back then you weren’t even allowed to produce pamphlets to disseminate information. National has a history a fascism that they should be ashamed of.
Labour lost ground in the snap election because they tried to remain moderate and did not come out strongly in support of the Unions. Instead of negotiating with the unions, National chose to use violence and propaganda to repress the uprising. Hopefully it’s a lesson learned by all sides.
Looking at what’s happening it’s lesson that’s been forgotten – but we’ll all get the chance to re-learn it as the psychopaths in NAct continue their war on the poor and the theft of our assets and resources.
So who does Mora on Afternoons turn to for a legal opinion?
Stephen Franks (often panelist). And introduced as former
MP. (Not former ACT MP)
http://bikyamasr.com/49799/egypt-import-tear-gas-from-us/
CAIRO: The arrival of 7 and half tons of tear gas to Egypt’s Suez port created conflict after the responsible officials at the port refused to sign and accept it for fear it would be used to crackdown on Egyptian protesters
[…]
Egypt’s al-Shorouk newspaper reported that upon the arrival of the shipment, massive disagreements broke out between employees, where five employees refused to sign for the shipment, one after the other.
The five, being dubbed by activists as the “brave five”, were to be refereed to a investigative committee as to why they refused to perform their duties, which has since called off.
Sharples will stand down as Maori Party co-leader
Interesting…
Fixed your munted link DTB.
And I reckon Pita’s jumping before the SS MP hits the asset sales reef.
Gah, thanks.
If he resigns it would trigger a by-election which Labour could conceivably win. Depending on what happen with the special votes that could actually be the end of the NAct government.
hell yes
fukn A
If there is a by-election, Wall has her safe seat and Jones has a high ranking on the list, could Labour please stand a candidate who’s a born and bred local.
Whoa!
Nek minnit the Poll Idol election takes a nasty turn as the razor-back Slippery Govt steps on a banana skin.
Hang onto your assets and lubricate your pencils, Turi and Te Ure, your price just went up – before specials.
He obviously wasn’t happy to be forced to stand down:
From TV3 News: “This is what happens in politics… You work yourself to death … And you really get passionate about what you achieve…Then some drunk staggers up and calls you a prick,” he said after the interview.
Maybe he should just defect to the opposition benches. He always seemed to have a soft spot for Labour.
Not certain if I am permitted to post this in entirety … but here goes .. too important not to post imho .. this is from a trusted and credible website …. the email is dated today
NaturalNews Insider Alert ( http://www.NaturalNews.com ) email newsletter
Dear NaturalNews readers,
In a stunning move that has civil libertarians stuttering with disbelief, the U.S. Senate has just passed a bill that effectively ends the Bill of Rights in America.
This bill, passed late last night in a 93-7 vote, declares the entire USA to be a “battleground” upon which U.S. military forces can operate with impunity, overriding Posse Comitatus and granting the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate and even assassinate U.S. citizens with impunity.
It’s being called the most traitorous act ever witnessed in the Senate, and the language of the bill is cleverly designed to make you think it doesn’t apply to Americans, but toward the end of the bill it essentially says it can apply to Americans “if we want it to.”
Even WIRED magazine was outraged at this bill, reporting:
…the detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners. It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — “U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.”
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/senate-military-detention/
The passage of this law is nothing less than an outright declaration of WAR against the American People by the military-connected power elite. If this is signed into law, it will shred the remaining tenants of the Bill of Rights and unleash upon America a total military dictatorship, complete with secret arrests, secret prisons, unlawful interrogations, indefinite detainment without ever being charged with a crime, the torture of Americans and even the “legitimate assassination” of U.S. citizens on right here on American soil!
If you have not yet woken up to the reality of the police state we’ve been warning you about, I hope you realize we are fast running out of time. Once this becomes law, you have no rights whatsoever in America — no due process, no First Amendment speech rights, no right to remain silent, nothing.
Read my red alert warning on this urgent development at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034291_SB_1867_war_on_terror.html
… and watch this urgent interview with Alex Jones of InfoWars.com at:
http://www.infowars.com/stewart-rhodes-crossroads-ndaa-bill-is-pure-treason/
The mainstream media is engaged in a shameful and conspiratorial news blackout of this entire issue:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-medias-blackout-of-the-national-defense-authorization-act-is-shameful-2011-12
… and even the ACLU is outraged about this potential law:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/senate-rejects-amendment-banning-indefinite-detention
Are you getting all this? Do you realize America is about to be overrun by our own military?
The rule of law is about to be utterly destroyed. No due process. No legal representation. Not even a right to know what you’re being charged with when you are (indefinitely) detained.
This is an urgent time for action to protest the overreaching military police state in America. Immediately call your representatives in Washington and urge your House members to reject this bill in the reconciliation phase with the Senate. Call the office of the President and urge Obama to veto this bill if it is passed by both houses.
Call your local newspapers and protest this outrageous and traitorous attempt to nullify the entire Bill of Rights.
Do not be fooled by the trolls and disinfo agents who claim this bill does not apply to U.S. citizens — a fact which has already been established without question. If this is signed into law, military humvees will roll down the streets in U.S. cities, with gunpoint checkpoints, illegal arrests, secret torture operations and the outright murder of U.S. citizens right in their own home towns.
In observing all this, you might ask WHY is this happening right now? Why would the U.S. Senate deliberately nullify the Bill of Rights and seek the authorize military action on the streets of U.S. cities?
The answer, my friends, will not comfort you: A global economic collapse is coming, and once started, it will likely unleash a wave of social unrest and rioting that could burn many U.S. cities to the ground. The U.S. Senate is probably trying to rush authorization of the military to operate in American cities before the economic collapse arrives, thereby placing troops deep within the roughest U.S. cities where they stand a chance at halting the runaway riots that are sure to materialize when peoples’ life savings vanish as the banks collapse.
Keep reading NaturalNews.com for updates on this situation. We will continue to cover the Eurozone economic crisis as well as this Senate bill 1867, which is not yet law. Our last-ditch hope would be for Obama to veto it. We’ll issue a red alert if that action is needed…
And remember, folks, the Bill of Rights protects us all — liberals, conservatives, libertarians, agnostics, Christians, Jews, everybody! If you lose the Bill of Rights, you lose America and all the freedoms many generations have fought for. Right now protecting the Bill of Rights is perhaps the single most important thing we can do for our collective futures.
All of us who have been screaming about the importance of the U.S. Constitution have been trying to protect YOU from exactly this kind of scenario. The whole purpose of the Bill of Rights is to limit the power of government so that this kind of Senate action is never allowed.
In other news today, a federal court has reversed a lower court decision and granted corporate ownership over human genes for breast cancer:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034301_breast_cancer_genes_intellectual_property.html
“naturalnews.com”…
Great, here’s a tip, don’t trust news that comes from a site well known in sceptic and science-based medicine circles for being utterly full of shit on everything from autism to cancer to HIV and beyond.
Let alone spam other places with this paranoid bullshit, as the senate lacks the power to easily mess with the bill of rights without a super majority + presidential support.
just been alerted to that fat slob leighton smith.
he went flat out on the radio all last week to denigrate the candidates for the labour party leadership.
he denigrated the United Nations and David Shearer and every time he gets the chance he denigrates Obama.
How can New Zealanders tolerate such an ugly person getting in their face to tell them lies and set the tone of hatred every morning.
I shudder to think that some actually like him and think there is some shred of truth in what he says.
If that is so then country is in deep trouble.