Jacindas “year of delivery” was a quick on the fly catchphrase – which it seems was never supposed to be taken seriously or to be held to account for
“Last week Beehive insiders told leading political journalists that the “Year of Delivery” promise was actually a spin-line produced on the fly by the PM’s top spin doctor to get his boss out of a tight situation when she needed something memorable to say at the start of 2019. The explanation from the Beehive was to convey that it’s not actually fair to hold the PM to account for a catchphrase that was never intended to be taken so seriously.”
I wonder what her 2020 catchphrase is going to be ? Are we supposed to take it seriously?
More concerning is the rise in public service PR flacks – not a practice confined to this government – but now significantly outnumbering journalists. Loosely speaking, 8000 people paid to lie to the public instead of delivering improved service.
Are we supposed to take it seriously? It depends. Different people take different things seriously.
For example: A journalist wrote, “Last week Beehive insiders told leading political journalists that the “Year of Delivery” promise was actually a spin-line produced on the fly by the PM’s top spin doctor to get his boss out of a tight situation."
Whenever I read something like that what I actually read is, "Some random dude we passed in the corridor stopped to gossip with us for five minutes. None of what he said is in any way verifiable, but it makes for good copy." Another victory for quality journalism.
“Last week Beehive insiders told leading political journalists that the “Year of Delivery” promise was actually a spin-line produced on the fly by the PM’s top spin doctor to get his boss out of a tight situation…"
That only raises the questions of who are the Beehive insiders, who are the political journalists, and what was the tight situation? Trotting out a vague line can get a politician – not just any pollie but the PM! – out of a tight situation? Yeah nah.
As anyone who has had anything to do with the staff and journalists in parliament know, it is all in a little world of its own. Back in the 70s when my partner was a parliamentary journalist I was of the (often expressed) opinion that if the rest of the world died it would be at least a fortnight before anyone in the Beehive noticed! Truth and ethics had very little to do with most of their shennanigins, entered on, in most cases as far as I could see, in a closed little game of one-upmanship
A bit like a previous Prime Ministers "We'll doing everything to bring your boys home" and that was dealing with mourning families and dead relatives. You must of been outraged.
Actually and this coalition govt has delievered…..increasing minimum wage, increased wage for teachers and nurses, insulation for rentals, the winter energy supplement, building more state houses and some kiwibuild, Pike River, banning plastic bags, stopping overseas owners buying our property, Best start, increase to working for families, stopping bogus meth testing that saw state house tenants being kicked out of their homes and wrongly accused, re-starting payments to the superfund, changing our gun laws, starting the Dunedin hospital build, fixing or beginning to fix Middlemore Hospital, funding infrastructure spending) on schools, committing money to making our roads safer (following the Swedish model, where they have brought the road toll down), beginning the building of light rail in Auckland, extending paid parental leave, changes to consumer law (helping to stop the worst exploitation of vulnerable people, establishing a climate change commission and getting cross party support in ensure we are carbon neutral by 2050, including most recently announcing that 2020 is the year our carbon emissions will peak, holding an enquiry into fuel prices demonstrating that fuel prices are too high (hopefully forcing fuel companies to bring them down). Mental Health Enquiry and billions of dollars to mental health to develop the work force and implement services (both well underway, but a huge job). The cancer agency, including increasing funding for cancer and other drugs, buying new radiology equipment. Chch call, and did I say the best leadership in the world during two National crisis? Compare and contrast Jacinda with Scotty from marketing. WTF did Key and National do in 9 years? Seriously
Exactly. This Government is delivering already more than the last, but that doesn't fit with the relentless negative narrative of the Newstalk ZB and National crowd. Thank you for taking the time to list the above.
No social-democrat likes her but we prefer her to Simon Bridges. Never voted for laissez-faire 'Labour'. Thinking about giving the Greens the heave-ho, as compromised by , basically, middle class values. That's how far out '35 social-democratic values by which we grew up are. Amerika!!!
People are so polite. The women who let Morrison shake her hand, I would have told him to get fucked in no uncertain terms. Hand shaking has meaning, and there needs to be an agreement between the two people for it to happen. I don't blame her, we get socialised into it and then to respect authority. So glad to see the people later telling him off, "scumbag". Then he ran away. Gutless scumbag then.
"The Oxford Children’s Dictionary notoriously dropped the words acorn and buttercup in favor of bandwidth and chatroom, but restored them after public pressure."
They're a funny lot OUP – you know getting on for half their income in recent years has been from their Advanced Learner's Dictionary? The various Cobuilds are probably better, but don't have quite the same imprimatur.
Well they did enjoy a royal monopoly on printing bibles for a century or two there.
But Robert's point is more animist, I think, consonant with ideas of participation in a living community, which we see in the likes of the Ghibli films like Totoro, which I'll take the risk of asserting has some relevance to the Maori idea of wairua.
The thing about animist metaphysics is that, if you credit Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis at all, is that it provides some predictability to interactions with complex systems like the environment – if one disrespects the spirit of the environment, particular kinds of problems tend to develop.
I was struck by a local example recently – the stigmatisation of carp . I can readily accept that they're a problem in terms of water quality and predation of natives, but to assert that they are inedible seems pretty prejudicial, as this writer notes. Current estimates put them at 80% of the fish biomass in the Waikato.
I've eaten them in China, and there's nothing wrong with them. They don't have a taint like red cod or southern blue whiting that are eaten. I wonder how respectful it is to the wairua of the river to consign them to fertiliser when we have food banks struggling to feed increasing numbers of our people. I’d go as far as to say we should have a fishery of them – employment and food right there.
Along those lines, Stuart and from the same story:
"Writing as an indigenous plant woman I might say, 'My plant relatives have shared healing knowledge with me and given me a root medicine.' Instead of ignoring our mutual relationship, I celebrate it. Yet English grammar demands that I refer to my esteemed healer as it, not as a respected teacher, as all plants are understood to be in Potawatomi. That has always made me uncomfortable. I want a word for beingness. Can we unlearn the language of objectification and throw off colonized thought? Can we make a new world with new words?"
"I have been reading the Call of the Reed Warbler by Charles Massey, he is an Aussie farmer who had an epiphany after nearly killing himself trying to survive farming the Australia way – a fantastic book. I really liked his take on how we got into industrial agriculture and its links to growth and especially to capitalism, this idea of “mechanisation of the mind”.
I had to write it down, interested if it makes as much sense to you as it does to me.
Prior to the beginning of agriculture, a worldview called animism had reigned for >200,000 years in human societies. This view constituted the organic mind, as it did not see humans as separate from the environment or from an objective reality. Instead reality was an interconnected spirit filled landscape in which nonhuman entities – plants, animals, inanimate objects like rocks and rivers and mountains or phenomena like thunder, wind and shadows – possessed a living soul or spiritual essence and had awareness and feelings. Animism’s significance was that it contained strong ethical and spiritual implications for nurturing in sustaining the earth; an associated value system.
The shift from this organic mindset to our society's dominant mechanical worldview was triggered by the development of domesticated agriculture about 10,000 years ago. In time, domestication meant that plants, animals and other natural phenomena became manipulable property as opposed to sacred beings or entities. Consequently, from the dawn of agriculture until the Renaissance humans on the European and Southwest Asian continents in particular, began a slow process of progressively throwing off the long, co-evolved organic mind that had previously bound them to nature. Mother earth and a spiritual world.
This new cultural practice of agriculture and its resultant abundance of food eventually lead to population growth and intensified urban living, culminating in the ‘urban revolution’ and the appearance of cities. Thence came the rise of large-scale political and social systems: all an increasingly far cry from our genetic evolutionary conditioning as hunter-gatherers investing in the organic mind.
Humans now began to focus in on themselves and their societies (the beginnings of humanism). Part of this involve people beginning to apprehend the power of the human mind to manipulate the earth and its resources. Therefore, a massive shift in value systems, ethics and morals began to occur. Less and less was there an unquestioning recognition of the worth of all natural things, or the concept of cyclical renewal. So human evolution radically shifted.
A key influence was Judeo-Christianity. This gave us the idea of ‘man as nature's guardian and caretaker…. a managerial interpretation of the doctrine of domination’. This blended with classical and pastoral attitudes towards nature as being something that could be ploughed and cultivated, used as a commodity and manipulated as a resource, tamed and subdued for human benefit – particularly by males. This worldview also saw females as passive and receptive: thinking incorporated into the new Mechanical worldview. Such a mindset was easily and quickly adapted from 16th-century through to 18th-century enlightenment: that crucial phase of the scientific revolution and the evolution of the market economy.
The mechanical model meant humans perceive the world as a place where matter and nature were inert constituents of a new, machine-like world – one capable of manipulation.
As historian Henri Frankfort wrote in 1949, “the world around us has become an ‘it’ rather than a ‘thou’”. This also paved the way for the rise of capitalism, which goes hand in hand with the Mechanical mind. The machine image under Descartes and fellow ‘mechanists’ in the 17th-century, which invoked human power over lifeless, mechanistic nature, was a forerunner to modern capitalism as it became the foundation stone of materialist reductionism, empiricism and objectivism. In effect Descartes had ‘de-souled’ the Earth.’
The next step what's the linkage of the ideas of Bacon, Descartes, Newton and peers into that of economic and political theory, thereby embedding a capitalist philosophy. In this way of thinking, nature has no value except where it was reduced to a means to human ends – just an instrument for use. This bridge and its accompanying moral handwashing was made by John Locke and Adam Smith.
Locke's ideas on ‘rationality’ helped establish a platform for the value system of the European Enlightenment: that one could profitably appropriate the whole sphere of nature as ‘reason’s own individual property’. The acquisition of private property helped enable the idea that humanity could ‘progress’ from the state of nature into ordered civil society, where the natural world had no ‘rights’.
Adam Smith's contribution to the evolving master discourse was to incorporate new thinking on progress. This laid down a system of capitalist economic laws built on the advancement of science and technology, property and polity.
In the process morals and values regarding the Earth, nature, women, colonised lands and their indigenous people, and other ‘creatures’ began to be jettisoned. Thus, it was Smith’s thinking regarding the market system’s slow and steady growth that opened the way to the destructive shift to capitalist market economy and economic rationalism: the belief that continual growth is necessary and desirable.
The transition to capitalism marked the moment when the traditional organic model of communal, interdependent society (one that emphasized the whole as well as the parts) was undermined and transformed by competitiveness and acquisitiveness. Inherent now was an intellectual arrogance towards nature, which was regarded is the raw material for wealth creation, with little to no ethical restrictions on this."
Looks like instant grounds for impeachment by that take, but….well, the Democrats don't do impeachments for launching illegal wars (Pelosi refusing to consider impeachment Bush for the Iraq debacle).
They (the Democrats) prefer to run impeachment on the basis of someone's assumption. (Their 'star witness' on impeachment is on record as saying they assumed Trump was running a quid pro quo on holding back arms from Banderists in Ukraine for an announcement about an investigation into Biden's corruption) Arms, btw, that Obama refused to provide in spite of pressure from neo-cons within his own party and the foreign policy establishment.
Anyway. Middle East today. Not fucking good. Possibly very bad.
Well I'm not at all surprise that they have finally got their man, they have been trying for a few yrs now at knocking him off and it was really been cranked up a notch or two since the civil war in Syria. When there was reports of him travelling about the region via covert and invert means, so it was a matter of time before his luck will run out aka the law of averages will catch up with you sooner or later.
Where this leads as too, I really don't know? Probably more unrest in Iraq, Beirut and Gaza around Israeli borders areas? Or would Iran play a waiting game and attack at their time and place of their choosing?
Or would Iran play a waiting game and attack at their time and place of their choosing?
so far Iran has shown remarkable patience and restraint.
it is the US that is swinging the whole dog carcass at Iran hoping to provoke a reaction that would allow them to call for a coalition of the willing . Lets hope that Iranians once more be the more level headed player in this game of fuckwits.
Gee. That concern about the "public interest" needing protection from my "false narrative"didn't last long, did it? Oh, I get it. You seriously think that an MiT Professor, a former Guardian journalist, 2 OPCW whistleblowers and a current Independent journalist are running lines I created! That's funny. So you disagree with them and their analyses, meaning there is no "false narrative" of mine to expound on. Oh well. Care to highlight a comment I've made that might reasonably be deemed as "untrustworthy" instead?
Or will you merely wait for a comment to spring up and commence with your stupid gaslighting in lieu of ‘good faith’ commenting? (I wouldn't do that if I was you btw)
Oh, so you do have some exposition on this 'false narrative' malarkey?! I've asked that you expound on it, so there's no way I'm going to ban you for doing that. Do you think you could carry off such an exercise without resorting to smears and false bullshit about where I sit philosophically and politically? So, y'know, none of this childish bullshit that would assert issues only have two possible positions (eg against "this" = for "that")? You think you can do that Stuart? I'll come back later, and hopefully read some cogent thoughts from you on "my false narrative" 😉
Bill I'm really not interested – you've banned me before on specious grounds – you never produce any credible evidence – you even produced multiple posts denying Russian involvement in the novichok poisonings.
If you wanted to engage the place to do so was on and in respect of your post, if you don't want to engage you can go and jump in the lake. I've had enough of you for one day in either case.
Can't remember what those "specious grounds" might have been. Maybe I'll go and look. (I can't actually remember banning you.)
I "never produce any credible evidence"? Really? You think the rather indepth articles and video interview I provided on the OPCW post lack credibility? Gee.
And I never "denied" Russian involvement in the novichok poisonings. In fact, the very speculative post I did where I suggested a culprit,( git me some hot water for that one 🙂 ) – that culprit was Russian.
I still don't buy the assertion it was the Russian government, but if evidence is produced on that front, then hey…
Meanwhile you had nothing to say on the post I submitted today. Some arm waving, some bad faith engagement and gaslighting was about the entirety of it…and given that level of engagement…well, it's just not appropriate for that crap to be entertained beneath a discrete post.
Maybe tomorrow you'll submit that stuff you promised around "the public interest", aye?
edit – only ban I can find on you was handed down by Lynn because you were “offering violence”. Anyway…
Oh. I know that 🙂 But Stuart was lying again and I was kindly cutting him some slack. Not buying into the UK Government's version of events is simply not the same as denying the possible complicity of the Russian government. It's difficult for ideologues to get their head around that, but there it is.
I think you'd better substantiate that slander Bill.
I was kindly cutting him some slack
rofl – I posted a factual link but it was too much for you – you insulted me and bumped me.
You are a disgrace to this site Bill.
[If you are past the point of agreeing to disagree with an Author, I think it might be better that you stop commenting or you might find that you have used enough rope to hang yourself. Just to make it crystal clear to anyone who reads this, as a Moderator I will protect The Standard closely followed by shielding Authors from personal attacks and insults. I am known for my patience but it is starting to wear thin after yesterday’s shit storm. Another Moderator is infamous for handing out harsh bans without (much) prejudice to keep everybody on their toes. Nobody would want to attract Moderators’ attention for all the wrong reasons – Incognito]
What level of stupid is it that you operate at Stuart?
You were lying when you claimed I did posts denying Kremlin involvement in the novochok stuff. But I chose to interpret "Russian" in a wider context. (ie – I cut you some slack).
To repeat Not buying into the UK Government's version of events is simply not the same as denying the possible complicity of the Russian government. It's difficult for ideologues to get their head around that, but there it is.
btw, I was kindly alerted to the ban you whined aboutbefore. (Y'know, the one that was "specious"). Well…here's the link to the comment where you referred to a contributor as Lord Haw Haw – a "wretched sell out" and then topped it off by accusing them of lacking political purity and being a supporter of Putin.
That was a lot of shit to squeeze into one comment and know what? I didn't ban you for it.
Then you claimed I was "down with supporting despotic regimes" and….I still didn't ban you. It was when you didn't provide a link to anything I'd written that would back up that claim and instead went on a fairly unhinged rant that I banned you – for a couple of months.
And what strikes me is that all this time later you still puke out the same senseless accusations when someones views don't align with your own (I see what I'm told to see and hear what I'm told to hear) views.
Someone else might be along to deal with you attacking an author in the way you have btw. So if you've anything more to say, you might want to say it kinda tout suite 😉
(I guess I ain't going to be getting that "public service/Bill's false narrative" exposition now. Ah well…)
Stuart, have a look at Psycho's comment at 8.3 and ask yourself is is really worth being nailed to the cross in a thread populated by a handful of the same regulars whose take on the subject matter is one you may, or may not, dismiss out of hand anyway?
No-one debating the post in good faith will get nailed to anything, let alone a cross. I think the original point Adrian was highlighting was that those who have cleaved to "official" lies spun around Douma would have nothing of substance to contribute on that post if they were going to hang on to their previous notions of what happened.
And to be fair…scanning the comments, it would seem he was basically correct on that front.
McFlock is dancing on semantics,(which is kinda bad faith and boring) and that aside, it's been people submitting links and claiming the links contain info that they don't contain, somewhat ironically registering huffy justifications for not commenting…and gaslighting – which I can't be fucked with. Hope that clears things up for you there Al1en. 😉
Whilst knowingly chuckling at your framing of unmade contributions as "bullshit or nonsense", I thought it was pretty firmly implied by agreeing with “Bollocks. I don’t bother disputing anything Bill writes these days"
Just to be clear. You know I'm going to hold you to that, yes? And I don't want to hear any bitching from you if you do respond to something I say and cop a ban for going back on this deal.
(You can respond to this comment, or not, as you see fit.)
So to be really sure, for clarification, you're going to ban me if I ever respond to something you post again, even on the off chance it was to agree with you, because I subscribe to not bothering to dispute anything you write these days?
Ah, see the "won't" confuses the tense – previously it was quite clearly a description of current behaviour, rather than a commitment to future behaviour.
Well, McFlock, as I agree with "I don’t bother disputing anything Bill writes these days, for reasons made obvious in comment 5.1.1.1.1 above.”, and have observed that since his recent return, and as I see no worthwhile reason to change that stance, it follows that I will continue to observe it, so maybe "won't bother disputing anything Bill writes these days, for reasons made obvious in comment 5.1.1.1.1 above." isn't too far of a stretch moving forward.
The promise of a ban under the terms of Bill's imposed 'deal', that's a bit controlling, though I suspect sort of justifies the original PM quote in the first place.
I can live with it. One less eye roll to send out, and all that.
Yeah, like semantics between the possibility of fraud and the certainty of it. Semantics about whether one person saying several people think something is the word of one person or the word of all those people.
That stuff is actually important in geopolitics, but you steamroll over it.
No McFlock. A falsified document is fraud. The document was meant to be based on the facts found on the ground by the OPCW's own inspectors. And it most assuredly wasn't. Do yourself the favour of watching to the Postol interview if you have difficulty understanding the nature of actions taken by the OPCW 'big wigs'.
Bill, a document you or any other person doesn't agree with isn't necessarily "falsified" intentionally and might not even be false at all, even if some criticisms of it are accurate. Big if.
And yet you are categorical that there's "fraud" – intentional deception. That's just more of the inflation I talked about.
The other significant test was when Fisk was there shortly after,there was an entomologist being interviewed from Douma who suggested that there seemed to be no evidence of collateral damage to the adjacent insect population.
Spend some time on the links I provided. Go through them. (Because you obviously haven't). I most certainly didn't do a "he said she said" post as comments from you seem to be implying – ie, the suggestion that both sides of the OCPW report coin are equally valid and no detailed evidence of tampering, suppression and outright destruction of documentation has been produced..
I did not imply that. At one stage I even asked why the "whistleblowers" weren't due the same caution you give to the OPCW board.
I haven't bothered with the videos. More often than not they're a waste of time. I see no reason to expect this to be any different.The typed links had no new information, and none of it as damning as one might expect – as long as scepticism is applied to all parties involved, not just the OPCW.
I even asked why the "whistleblowers" weren't due the same caution you give to the OPCW board.
Get real McFlock. In even a general context, a whistle blower puts their future prospects on the chopping block. That's never done lightly.
And these ones have produced oodles of evidence to support their position (which again) is not one anyone adopts lightly.
Meanwhile, a board that's arm waving about how there's nothing to see here while denying requests for an airing by experts who work under its management…yeah. Nah.
edit – In Vino has a question for you here that you may not be aware of and may wish to respond to.
And an international, prior-to-now-respected scientific body would risk its existence and the professional reputations (and careers) of everyone involved if they created fraudulent reports.
Indeed. And it's been my recent experience (I don't claim to understand this) but it's a mind set not unknown within managerial boards. (To put everything on the line)
And it's maybe worth bearing in mind that the OPCW has recently (post Douma) been politicised, such that instead of merely gathering evidence, it is now charged with apportioning culpability. So we already know that impartiality has been sacrificed, and with that, probably a goodly proportion of its reputation.
Full court press is a logical approach when confronted with a popular leader – not that I'm suggesting the ascendant faction of the Nats is taking any notice of what Hoots has to say.
Genuinely shocked at the Suleimani assassination, that a Western democracy could resort to the flagrant and cold blooded political murder of a senior governmental figure of a major regional power.
The equivalent would be Colin Powell or Mike Pompeo getting knocked off in Toronto.
"The scientific community has been trying to warn the government of the need to plan to adapt to climate change for at least a decade. In fact, the world’s first global conference on climate change adaptation was hosted here in Australia, on the Gold Coast in 2010.
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This conference was run by the former National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCARF), which lost its federal funding in June 2018. It was a visionary initiative to attempt to help the most vulnerable nation in the developed world prepare for climate change. Despite this immensely important task, the initiative is now vastly scaled-down and operating through Griffith University by a handful of dedicated researchers.
How anyone thought that axing funding to the only dedicated national climate change adaptation program in the country was a good idea is completely beyond me.
This summer has been a brutal reminder that no matter how much we want to avoid addressing the problem of climate change, it simply can no longer be ignored. As this summer has shown, it is now part of every Australian’s lived experience."
you are past the point of agreeing to disagree with an Author, I think it might be better that you stop commenting or you might find that you have used enough rope to hang yourself
People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Bill was and remains deliberately grossly offensive to me, on top of posting his… material.
I will no longer comment directly to him, but it is my view (which you are free to ignore) that the material he posts degrades the experience of this site – the moreso because it is evidently protected by some kind of special pleading.
[“was and is deliberately grossly offensive” and senseless etceteras…. You’re fucking gone after that wee add on rant/attack Stuart. To be fair – that last time you were banned for attacking people, it was for two months. Since that obviously wasn’t long enough to facilitate intelligent reflection, you can take twice the time this time around ] – B
[Since your comment was addressed to me, I will give you my perspective although you have already taken the rope and hanged yourself despite my friendly warning 🙁
People are free to express their opinion, argue their point, and disagree with others, including Authors. It is not tolerated that people attack and insult Authors or litigate Moderation.
Some commenters here have taken some kind of ‘vow’ to not directly respond to certain others. However, indirectly attacking Authors or litigating Moderation is not tolerated either.
One-upmanship and slagging others creates a negative vibe and lowers the experience of this site.
Stuart, the “special pleading” was for another Moderator to deal with the situation and the irony is that it could have shielded you from a (long) ban. Alas, Bill swapped his hat for his Moderator one and dealt with you himself.
We Authors and Moderators are only human and we do make mistakes. Nevertheless, we all endeavour, each in our own unique way and in our precious spare time, to make this site an inclusive site for robust debate and sharing of (our) progressive views and ideas with a broad audience, which is mostly the silent readership.
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With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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. ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tom Baker, Associate Professor in Human Geography, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images As local and regional councils struggle with inadequate infrastructure and unsustainable costs, New Zealand will be hearing a lot more about the potential solution offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gary Sacks, Professor of Public Health Policy, Deakin University Drazen Zigic/Shutterstock In recent years, there’s been increasinghype about the potential health risks associated with so-called “ultra-processed” foods. But new evidence published this week found not all “ultra-processed” foods are linked ...
Fears that New Zealand is relying too heavily on low-cost forests to absorb its carbon dioxide emissions have been reignited by a report from the OECD. ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed the total dollar savings target from public sector cuts has been met, but the reductions have not been felt evenly across public agencies. Government departments were told to make savings set at 6.5 percent or 7.5 percent where headcount had grown by more than ...
She doesn’t have a single kind word for me and it’s getting under my skin.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,I have two amazing friends that I absolutely adore. Grace (all names have been changed) and I lived together across 2023 and Olivia moved in with us this ...
Can Western science and Māori science work together to support our well-being? The Te Ohu Mō Papatūānuku (TOMP) Trials Project was a landmark case for healing the land and people with the guidance of Māori science and leadership. This is what happened when Papatūānuku (Earth) was contaminated by toxic discharge, ...
The District Plan is a blueprint for a bigger, better Wellington, through tens of thousands of new apartments and townhouses and a new approach to urban growth. Joel MacManus lays out the vision. The process of putting together Wellington’s new District Plan has been long and excruciating. As a city, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leah Williams Veazey, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, University of Sydney DavideAngelini/Shutterstock In the 2007 film The Bucket List Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two main characters who respond to their terminal cancer diagnoses by rejecting experimental treatment. Instead, they go ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mohan Singh, Professor of Agri-Food Biotechnology, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at the University of Melbourne., The University of Melbourne Tanja Esser/Shutterstock Australia’s vital agriculture sector will be hit hard by steadily rising global temperatures. Our climate is already ...
The Acumen Edelman Trust barometer reported that New Zealand’s political trust score now sits below the global average, a topic explored in a recent discussion paper by Maxim Institute. ...
Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman says, "The Fast-Track Bill is the most damaging piece of environmental legislation any Government has introduced in living memory. People are angry, and it’s time to march." ...
The school lunches programme has been retained – and will be extended to some preschoolers. So how is it going to cost $107 million less? To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. The minister with many hats David Seymour wears a number of hats, but this week ...
“Show us the bird,” I found myself muttering at times while reading Hard by the Cloud House by Peter Walker, a deeply thoughtful, often hilarious, at times rambling – but somehow delightfully so – search for the story of a big bird. But not just any bird: the bird. This ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Marley, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition DPVUE .images/Shutterstock Your home was probably designed for a climate that no longer exists. As long as humanity continues to burn fossil fuel, padding the heat-trapping blanket of gases in Earth’s atmosphere, the ...
A senior lawyer has filed a complaint about tikanga becoming a required law school module. Law lecturer Carwyn Jones explains what he’s getting wrong. “…the first law of Aotearoa, a law that served the needs of tangata whenua for a thousand years before the arrival of tauiwi.”– Ani Mikaere ...
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Belated happy new year all.
here is to a happy and successful 2020.
Same to you James. Thanks for your participation here these past few years; you've helped stopped the place from becoming a complete echo-chamber 🙂
Thank you.
very kind of you to say.
I second that.
Happy New Year James.
We're going to have fun.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/31/new-zealands-year-of-style-over-substance
Jacindas “year of delivery” was a quick on the fly catchphrase – which it seems was never supposed to be taken seriously or to be held to account for
“Last week Beehive insiders told leading political journalists that the “Year of Delivery” promise was actually a spin-line produced on the fly by the PM’s top spin doctor to get his boss out of a tight situation when she needed something memorable to say at the start of 2019. The explanation from the Beehive was to convey that it’s not actually fair to hold the PM to account for a catchphrase that was never intended to be taken so seriously.”
I wonder what her 2020 catchphrase is going to be ? Are we supposed to take it seriously?
Better not to worry about it.
More concerning is the rise in public service PR flacks – not a practice confined to this government – but now significantly outnumbering journalists. Loosely speaking, 8000 people paid to lie to the public instead of delivering improved service.
Are we supposed to take it seriously? It depends. Different people take different things seriously.
For example: A journalist wrote, “Last week Beehive insiders told leading political journalists that the “Year of Delivery” promise was actually a spin-line produced on the fly by the PM’s top spin doctor to get his boss out of a tight situation."
Some people took that seriously.
Whenever I read something like that what I actually read is, "Some random dude we passed in the corridor stopped to gossip with us for five minutes. None of what he said is in any way verifiable, but it makes for good copy." Another victory for quality journalism.
“Last week Beehive insiders told leading political journalists that the “Year of Delivery” promise was actually a spin-line produced on the fly by the PM’s top spin doctor to get his boss out of a tight situation…"
That only raises the questions of who are the Beehive insiders, who are the political journalists, and what was the tight situation? Trotting out a vague line can get a politician – not just any pollie but the PM! – out of a tight situation? Yeah nah.
As anyone who has had anything to do with the staff and journalists in parliament know, it is all in a little world of its own. Back in the 70s when my partner was a parliamentary journalist I was of the (often expressed) opinion that if the rest of the world died it would be at least a fortnight before anyone in the Beehive noticed! Truth and ethics had very little to do with most of their shennanigins, entered on, in most cases as far as I could see, in a closed little game of one-upmanship
A bit like a previous Prime Ministers "We'll doing everything to bring your boys home" and that was dealing with mourning families and dead relatives. You must of been outraged.
Actually and this coalition govt has delievered…..increasing minimum wage, increased wage for teachers and nurses, insulation for rentals, the winter energy supplement, building more state houses and some kiwibuild, Pike River, banning plastic bags, stopping overseas owners buying our property, Best start, increase to working for families, stopping bogus meth testing that saw state house tenants being kicked out of their homes and wrongly accused, re-starting payments to the superfund, changing our gun laws, starting the Dunedin hospital build, fixing or beginning to fix Middlemore Hospital, funding infrastructure spending) on schools, committing money to making our roads safer (following the Swedish model, where they have brought the road toll down), beginning the building of light rail in Auckland, extending paid parental leave, changes to consumer law (helping to stop the worst exploitation of vulnerable people, establishing a climate change commission and getting cross party support in ensure we are carbon neutral by 2050, including most recently announcing that 2020 is the year our carbon emissions will peak, holding an enquiry into fuel prices demonstrating that fuel prices are too high (hopefully forcing fuel companies to bring them down). Mental Health Enquiry and billions of dollars to mental health to develop the work force and implement services (both well underway, but a huge job). The cancer agency, including increasing funding for cancer and other drugs, buying new radiology equipment. Chch call, and did I say the best leadership in the world during two National crisis? Compare and contrast Jacinda with Scotty from marketing. WTF did Key and National do in 9 years? Seriously
Exactly. This Government is delivering already more than the last, but that doesn't fit with the relentless negative narrative of the Newstalk ZB and National crowd. Thank you for taking the time to list the above.
So much for PR and spin lines….it isn't working so good for Scotty from marketing over the ditch is it.
Astonishing though that there are 8000 people paid to lie to the public instead of delivering……as outlined by Stuart below.
Welcome back. That article was noted hereabouts a couple of days ago.
It sure was 🙂
I wonder what her 2020 catchphrase is going to be ? Are we supposed to take it seriously?
20/20 vision?
Wordsmiths smith words.
Wordsmith smithed words about wordsmiths smithing words.
How many words can a wordsmith smith about a wordsmith smithing words?
This blew my mind to smithereens.
word.
What are words worth?
The Tom Tom Club
No social-democrat likes her but we prefer her to Simon Bridges. Never voted for laissez-faire 'Labour'. Thinking about giving the Greens the heave-ho, as compromised by , basically, middle class values. That's how far out '35 social-democratic values by which we grew up are. Amerika!!!
And this is only the start:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/118567741/australia-bushfires-pm-scott-morrison-forced-to-retreat-after-being-abused-by-angry-locals
https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/australian-crop-report
https://twitter.com/isobelroe/status/1212500562102505472
People are so polite. The women who let Morrison shake her hand, I would have told him to get fucked in no uncertain terms. Hand shaking has meaning, and there needs to be an agreement between the two people for it to happen. I don't blame her, we get socialised into it and then to respect authority. So glad to see the people later telling him off, "scumbag". Then he ran away. Gutless scumbag then.
She should have given him a piece of glowing amber to take to Parliament.
The article says this:
I could say more, but I won’t …
We're brought up to be polite and reverential to authority. The older and wiser we get, the less reverential and polite to authority we become. 👿
"The Oxford Children’s Dictionary notoriously dropped the words acorn and buttercup in favor of bandwidth and chatroom, but restored them after public pressure."
https://www.terriwindling.com
They're a funny lot OUP – you know getting on for half their income in recent years has been from their Advanced Learner's Dictionary? The various Cobuilds are probably better, but don't have quite the same imprimatur.
Imprimatur. That has to be word of the week! 👍
Well they did enjoy a royal monopoly on printing bibles for a century or two there.
But Robert's point is more animist, I think, consonant with ideas of participation in a living community, which we see in the likes of the Ghibli films like Totoro, which I'll take the risk of asserting has some relevance to the Maori idea of wairua.
The thing about animist metaphysics is that, if you credit Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis at all, is that it provides some predictability to interactions with complex systems like the environment – if one disrespects the spirit of the environment, particular kinds of problems tend to develop.
I was struck by a local example recently – the stigmatisation of carp . I can readily accept that they're a problem in terms of water quality and predation of natives, but to assert that they are inedible seems pretty prejudicial, as this writer notes. Current estimates put them at 80% of the fish biomass in the Waikato.
I've eaten them in China, and there's nothing wrong with them. They don't have a taint like red cod or southern blue whiting that are eaten. I wonder how respectful it is to the wairua of the river to consign them to fertiliser when we have food banks struggling to feed increasing numbers of our people. I’d go as far as to say we should have a fishery of them – employment and food right there.
Along those lines, Stuart and from the same story:
"Writing as an indigenous plant woman I might say, 'My plant relatives have shared healing knowledge with me and given me a root medicine.' Instead of ignoring our mutual relationship, I celebrate it. Yet English grammar demands that I refer to my esteemed healer as it, not as a respected teacher, as all plants are understood to be in Potawatomi. That has always made me uncomfortable. I want a word for beingness. Can we unlearn the language of objectification and throw off colonized thought? Can we make a new world with new words?"
I favour favour over favor.
por favore
Meanwhile, Norway is in the process of opening an enormous North Sea oil field that will be in operation until 2070.
Western Norway is experiencing a rare heatwave for early January, at a time when temperatures should normally be below freezing.
The highest temperature of 19C (66F) – more than 25C above the monthly average – was measured in the village of Sunndalsora.
This makes it Norway's warmest January day since records began.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50971446
Good fun, reality.
Given my struthers (?) I'd be completely perplexed. But facing in the right direction, unlike the fools who rule.
"I have been reading the Call of the Reed Warbler by Charles Massey, he is an Aussie farmer who had an epiphany after nearly killing himself trying to survive farming the Australia way – a fantastic book. I really liked his take on how we got into industrial agriculture and its links to growth and especially to capitalism, this idea of “mechanisation of the mind”.
I had to write it down, interested if it makes as much sense to you as it does to me.
– Kevin Jay
link or citation please.
https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=330yDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT7&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
or, https://g.co/kgs/thPPLM
big if true
https://twitter.com/worldonalert/status/1212902947895566336
hoo boy
https://twitter.com/Dannymakkisyria/status/1212903234895003648
Looks like the moran in chief has started a war with Shiite Islam.
https://twitter.com/leithfadel/status/1212910351378997248
And Iran in particular. They killed a current general who reported directly to the Iranian head of state.
I wonder if he's had any phone calls with MBS lately?
but her fucking emails.
Thanks for the giggle Sabine.
Is the orange turd trying to start a war to distract from his impeachment proceedings?
In all probability – it wouldn't be the first time and he wouldn't be the first either.
My first thoughts too. In fact somebody here predicted it would happen weeks ago.
It won't be lost on anybody including Iran.
https://twitter.com/realTuckFrumper/status/1212926032954609664
https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1212301034871279616
Things are as peachy AF.
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1212929014341369856
U.S. Senator from Connecticut
https://www.twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1212913952436445185
Looks like instant grounds for impeachment by that take, but….well, the Democrats don't do impeachments for launching illegal wars (Pelosi refusing to consider impeachment Bush for the Iraq debacle).
They (the Democrats) prefer to run impeachment on the basis of someone's assumption. (Their 'star witness' on impeachment is on record as saying they assumed Trump was running a quid pro quo on holding back arms from Banderists in Ukraine for an announcement about an investigation into Biden's corruption) Arms, btw, that Obama refused to provide in spite of pressure from neo-cons within his own party and the foreign policy establishment.
Anyway. Middle East today. Not fucking good. Possibly very bad.
read engels statement
https://twitter.com/W7VOA
always
Well I'm not at all surprise that they have finally got their man, they have been trying for a few yrs now at knocking him off and it was really been cranked up a notch or two since the civil war in Syria. When there was reports of him travelling about the region via covert and invert means, so it was a matter of time before his luck will run out aka the law of averages will catch up with you sooner or later.
Where this leads as too, I really don't know? Probably more unrest in Iraq, Beirut and Gaza around Israeli borders areas? Or would Iran play a waiting game and attack at their time and place of their choosing?
so far Iran has shown remarkable patience and restraint.
it is the US that is swinging the whole dog carcass at Iran hoping to provoke a reaction that would allow them to call for a coalition of the willing . Lets hope that Iranians once more be the more level headed player in this game of fuckwits.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12296040
This will be a compelling read no doubt, Jude'll give it both barrels!
You strike me as an irredeemable idiot
Well thanks for that, Bill.
I feel the same about you – but more importantly I feel that the public interest lies in opposing your false narrative.
Lousy as the US is, Putin is not a cause that anyone pretending to progressive values can support.
lol
Well, for the sake of "public interest" would you care to expound that "false narrative" (or is it just a catch phrase you thought might fit)?
I wholeheartedly agree with the final sentence of your comment btw.
I don't trust you Bill.
My conversation relates to your post – but you intend to control comment there.
That being the case, stay in your silo.
Gee. That concern about the "public interest" needing protection from my "false narrative"didn't last long, did it? Oh, I get it. You seriously think that an MiT Professor, a former Guardian journalist, 2 OPCW whistleblowers and a current Independent journalist are running lines I created! That's funny. So you disagree with them and their analyses, meaning there is no "false narrative" of mine to expound on. Oh well. Care to highlight a comment I've made that might reasonably be deemed as "untrustworthy" instead?
Or will you merely wait for a comment to spring up and commence with your stupid gaslighting in lieu of ‘good faith’ commenting? (I wouldn't do that if I was you btw)
You'd just ban me.
So, back to your false narrative Bill, and leave me alone.
Oh, so you do have some exposition on this 'false narrative' malarkey?! I've asked that you expound on it, so there's no way I'm going to ban you for doing that. Do you think you could carry off such an exercise without resorting to smears and false bullshit about where I sit philosophically and politically? So, y'know, none of this childish bullshit that would assert issues only have two possible positions (eg against "this" = for "that")? You think you can do that Stuart? I'll come back later, and hopefully read some cogent thoughts from you on "my false narrative" 😉
Bill I'm really not interested – you've banned me before on specious grounds – you never produce any credible evidence – you even produced multiple posts denying Russian involvement in the novichok poisonings.
If you wanted to engage the place to do so was on and in respect of your post, if you don't want to engage you can go and jump in the lake. I've had enough of you for one day in either case.
Can't remember what those "specious grounds" might have been. Maybe I'll go and look. (I can't actually remember banning you.)
I "never produce any credible evidence"? Really? You think the rather indepth articles and video interview I provided on the OPCW post lack credibility? Gee.
And I never "denied" Russian involvement in the novichok poisonings. In fact, the very speculative post I did where I suggested a culprit,( git me some hot water for that one 🙂 ) – that culprit was Russian.
I still don't buy the assertion it was the Russian government, but if evidence is produced on that front, then hey…
Meanwhile you had nothing to say on the post I submitted today. Some arm waving, some bad faith engagement and gaslighting was about the entirety of it…and given that level of engagement…well, it's just not appropriate for that crap to be entertained beneath a discrete post.
Maybe tomorrow you'll submit that stuff you promised around "the public interest", aye?
edit – only ban I can find on you was handed down by Lynn because you were “offering violence”. Anyway…
I think by "Russian involvement" people mean involvement of the Russian gummint. That would seem rather obvious.
Oh. I know that 🙂 But Stuart was lying again and I was kindly cutting him some slack. Not buying into the UK Government's version of events is simply not the same as denying the possible complicity of the Russian government. It's difficult for ideologues to get their head around that, but there it is.
But Stuart was lying again
I think you'd better substantiate that slander Bill.
I was kindly cutting him some slack
rofl – I posted a factual link but it was too much for you – you insulted me and bumped me.
You are a disgrace to this site Bill.
[If you are past the point of agreeing to disagree with an Author, I think it might be better that you stop commenting or you might find that you have used enough rope to hang yourself. Just to make it crystal clear to anyone who reads this, as a Moderator I will protect The Standard closely followed by shielding Authors from personal attacks and insults. I am known for my patience but it is starting to wear thin after yesterday’s shit storm. Another Moderator is infamous for handing out harsh bans without (much) prejudice to keep everybody on their toes. Nobody would want to attract Moderators’ attention for all the wrong reasons – Incognito]
What level of stupid is it that you operate at Stuart?
You were lying when you claimed I did posts denying Kremlin involvement in the novochok stuff. But I chose to interpret "Russian" in a wider context. (ie – I cut you some slack).
To repeat Not buying into the UK Government's version of events is simply not the same as denying the possible complicity of the Russian government. It's difficult for ideologues to get their head around that, but there it is.
btw, I was kindly alerted to the ban you whined about before. (Y'know, the one that was "specious"). Well…here's the link to the comment where you referred to a contributor as Lord Haw Haw – a "wretched sell out" and then topped it off by accusing them of lacking political purity and being a supporter of Putin.
That was a lot of shit to squeeze into one comment and know what? I didn't ban you for it.
Then you claimed I was "down with supporting despotic regimes" and….I still didn't ban you. It was when you didn't provide a link to anything I'd written that would back up that claim and instead went on a fairly unhinged rant that I banned you – for a couple of months.
And what strikes me is that all this time later you still puke out the same senseless accusations when someones views don't align with your own (I see what I'm told to see and hear what I'm told to hear) views.
Someone else might be along to deal with you attacking an author in the way you have btw. So if you've anything more to say, you might want to say it kinda tout suite 😉
(I guess I ain't going to be getting that "public service/Bill's false narrative" exposition now. Ah well…)
See my Moderation note @ 9:13 AM.
Stuart, have a look at Psycho's comment at 8.3 and ask yourself is is really worth being nailed to the cross in a thread populated by a handful of the same regulars whose take on the subject matter is one you may, or may not, dismiss out of hand anyway?
No-one debating the post in good faith will get nailed to anything, let alone a cross. I think the original point Adrian was highlighting was that those who have cleaved to "official" lies spun around Douma would have nothing of substance to contribute on that post if they were going to hang on to their previous notions of what happened.
And to be fair…scanning the comments, it would seem he was basically correct on that front.
McFlock is dancing on semantics,(which is kinda bad faith and boring) and that aside, it's been people submitting links and claiming the links contain info that they don't contain, somewhat ironically registering huffy justifications for not commenting…and gaslighting – which I can't be fucked with. Hope that clears things up for you there Al1en. 😉
Sure does, it’s why I agree with Psycho Milt 😉
“Bollocks. I don’t bother disputing anything Bill writes these days, for reasons made obvious in comment 5.1.1.1.1 above.”
Jolly! 🙂 Then you and PM are most welcome to not contribute any bullshit or nonsense in response to anything I write hereabouts. Deal?
Whilst knowingly chuckling at your framing of unmade contributions as "bullshit or nonsense", I thought it was pretty firmly implied by agreeing with “Bollocks. I don’t bother disputing anything Bill writes these days"
Just to be clear. You know I'm going to hold you to that, yes? And I don't want to hear any bitching from you if you do respond to something I say and cop a ban for going back on this deal.
(You can respond to this comment, or not, as you see fit.)
So to be really sure, for clarification, you're going to ban me if I ever respond to something you post again, even on the off chance it was to agree with you, because I subscribe to not bothering to dispute anything you write these days?
If by "post" you mean an OP, then no. I'm including comments/discussion. And it's not a threat. I'm simply looking to hold you to your word.
If by my word, I'll certainly be held by I won't "bother disputing anything Bill writes these days".
Glad that's settled. 🙂
Ah, see the "won't" confuses the tense – previously it was quite clearly a description of current behaviour, rather than a commitment to future behaviour.
#semanticsareimportant
Well, McFlock, as I agree with "I don’t bother disputing anything Bill writes these days, for reasons made obvious in comment 5.1.1.1.1 above.”, and have observed that since his recent return, and as I see no worthwhile reason to change that stance, it follows that I will continue to observe it, so maybe "won't bother disputing anything Bill writes these days, for reasons made obvious in comment 5.1.1.1.1 above." isn't too far of a stretch moving forward.
The promise of a ban under the terms of Bill's imposed 'deal', that's a bit controlling, though I suspect sort of justifies the original PM quote in the first place.
I can live with it. One less eye roll to send out, and all that.
You didn't have to seal the deal Al1en. Now stop bitching and wailing.
Yeah, like semantics between the possibility of fraud and the certainty of it. Semantics about whether one person saying several people think something is the word of one person or the word of all those people.
That stuff is actually important in geopolitics, but you steamroll over it.
No McFlock. A falsified document is fraud. The document was meant to be based on the facts found on the ground by the OPCW's own inspectors. And it most assuredly wasn't. Do yourself the favour of watching to the Postol interview if you have difficulty understanding the nature of actions taken by the OPCW 'big wigs'.
Bill, a document you or any other person doesn't agree with isn't necessarily "falsified" intentionally and might not even be false at all, even if some criticisms of it are accurate. Big if.
And yet you are categorical that there's "fraud" – intentional deception. That's just more of the inflation I talked about.
Fisk recent article suggests that it does not pass the sniff test.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-war-chemical-weapons-watchdog-opcw-assad-damascus-russia-a9262336.html
The other significant test was when Fisk was there shortly after,there was an entomologist being interviewed from Douma who suggested that there seemed to be no evidence of collateral damage to the adjacent insect population.
His last paragraph sums up the 'debate' here.
Spend some time on the links I provided. Go through them. (Because you obviously haven't). I most certainly didn't do a "he said she said" post as comments from you seem to be implying – ie, the suggestion that both sides of the OCPW report coin are equally valid and no detailed evidence of tampering, suppression and outright destruction of documentation has been produced..
I did not imply that. At one stage I even asked why the "whistleblowers" weren't due the same caution you give to the OPCW board.
I haven't bothered with the videos. More often than not they're a waste of time. I see no reason to expect this to be any different.The typed links had no new information, and none of it as damning as one might expect – as long as scepticism is applied to all parties involved, not just the OPCW.
I even asked why the "whistleblowers" weren't due the same caution you give to the OPCW board.
Get real McFlock. In even a general context, a whistle blower puts their future prospects on the chopping block. That's never done lightly.
And these ones have produced oodles of evidence to support their position (which again) is not one anyone adopts lightly.
Meanwhile, a board that's arm waving about how there's nothing to see here while denying requests for an airing by experts who work under its management…yeah. Nah.
edit – In Vino has a question for you here that you may not be aware of and may wish to respond to.
And an international, prior-to-now-respected scientific body would risk its existence and the professional reputations (and careers) of everyone involved if they created fraudulent reports.
Indeed. And it's been my recent experience (I don't claim to understand this) but it's a mind set not unknown within managerial boards. (To put everything on the line)
And it's maybe worth bearing in mind that the OPCW has recently (post Douma) been politicised, such that instead of merely gathering evidence, it is now charged with apportioning culpability. So we already know that impartiality has been sacrificed, and with that, probably a goodly proportion of its reputation.
Which actors politicised it…?
Can you guys please take this back to its own post.
Agree – and can McFlock answer the question I posted there?
was playing computer games. I'll have a look.
https://twitter.com/swordfish7774/status/1212943110143004672
Full court press is a logical approach when confronted with a popular leader – not that I'm suggesting the ascendant faction of the Nats is taking any notice of what Hoots has to say.
Possibly. Just seems like an insipid version of a woefully unsuccessful 50 year old National Party slogan.
second time lucky?
stopped clock, twice a century
phew…the last time was last century, we should be safe
How often do Labour have charismatic leaders anyway..
Genuinely shocked at the Suleimani assassination, that a Western democracy could resort to the flagrant and cold blooded political murder of a senior governmental figure of a major regional power.
The equivalent would be Colin Powell or Mike Pompeo getting knocked off in Toronto.
I honestly weep for the US.
Not even the current USian regime could think this would be allowed to pass.
But any direct response would play to dolt45's base and its racism.
But the Houthis have had some success lately – maybe they'll get an upgrade in their weapons…
Someone needs an election year war
Can't impeach the commandeur in chief, some might be hoping..
Usually it's unpatriotic to vote out a leader in war time, well, unless the body bag count is much higher than nationalist fervour.
I've accused you of being a footnotes section, but you're the most educational and entertaining footnotes section.
"The scientific community has been trying to warn the government of the need to plan to adapt to climate change for at least a decade. In fact, the world’s first global conference on climate change adaptation was hosted here in Australia, on the Gold Coast in 2010.
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This conference was run by the former National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCARF), which lost its federal funding in June 2018. It was a visionary initiative to attempt to help the most vulnerable nation in the developed world prepare for climate change. Despite this immensely important task, the initiative is now vastly scaled-down and operating through Griffith University by a handful of dedicated researchers.
How anyone thought that axing funding to the only dedicated national climate change adaptation program in the country was a good idea is completely beyond me.
This summer has been a brutal reminder that no matter how much we want to avoid addressing the problem of climate change, it simply can no longer be ignored. As this summer has shown, it is now part of every Australian’s lived experience."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/03/we-are-seeing-the-very-worst-of-our-scientific-predictions-come-to-pass-in-these-bushfires?CMP=share_btn_fb&fbclid=IwAR20Et4aE1QhfndzsUq4KN81c7dTEXFKWs7us88wTYuDGQZQcn3lfiK6NHk
@ Incognito
you are past the point of agreeing to disagree with an Author, I think it might be better that you stop commenting or you might find that you have used enough rope to hang yourself
People are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Bill was and remains deliberately grossly offensive to me, on top of posting his… material.
I will no longer comment directly to him, but it is my view (which you are free to ignore) that the material he posts degrades the experience of this site – the moreso because it is evidently protected by some kind of special pleading.
[“was and is deliberately grossly offensive” and senseless etceteras…. You’re fucking gone after that wee add on rant/attack Stuart. To be fair – that last time you were banned for attacking people, it was for two months. Since that obviously wasn’t long enough to facilitate intelligent reflection, you can take twice the time this time around ] – B
[Since your comment was addressed to me, I will give you my perspective although you have already taken the rope and hanged yourself despite my friendly warning 🙁
People are free to express their opinion, argue their point, and disagree with others, including Authors. It is not tolerated that people attack and insult Authors or litigate Moderation.
Some commenters here have taken some kind of ‘vow’ to not directly respond to certain others. However, indirectly attacking Authors or litigating Moderation is not tolerated either.
One-upmanship and slagging others creates a negative vibe and lowers the experience of this site.
Stuart, the “special pleading” was for another Moderator to deal with the situation and the irony is that it could have shielded you from a (long) ban. Alas, Bill swapped his hat for his Moderator one and dealt with you himself.
We Authors and Moderators are only human and we do make mistakes. Nevertheless, we all endeavour, each in our own unique way and in our precious spare time, to make this site an inclusive site for robust debate and sharing of (our) progressive views and ideas with a broad audience, which is mostly the silent readership.
Incognito]
See my (belated) Moderation note @ 6:02 PM.