Media silence as activist badly hurt trying to turn back John Key’s National Party attack on the working class community of Glen Inness on behalf of the wealthy developers and speculators.
Another protester to honour along with Christine Clark.
(from Obituaries on converge)
The last day of the 2nd Millennium was darkened by the death of Christine Clarke. She had been run over and critically injured two days earlier by a motorist who drove through a picket line of port workers at Lyttelton (for full details, see my In Memoriam piece on Christine Clarke, in Watchdog 93, April 2000).
The motorist concerned, Derek Paul Powell, a company manager, was chased and suffered instant justice from several enraged picketing workers. His 4WD was also damaged. The picketers were duly charged and convicted for assaulting him. He was charged with dangerous driving causing death, and then the charge was upgraded to the much more serious one of manslaughter (which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment).- Murray Horton
The motorist concerned, Derek Paul Powell, a company manager, was chased and suffered instant justice from several enraged picketing workers. His 4WD was also damaged. The picketers were duly charged and convicted for assaulting him. He was charged with dangerous driving causing death, and then the charge was upgraded to the much more serious one of manslaughter (which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment).- Murray Horton
I remember that, but I don’t remember what became of Powell, was he convicted of manslaughter?
Hi Jenny
Radio Live for instance is an openly hard right propaganda tool, it’s so obvious as to be disgusting.
Under the sleaze double talk “I want to give people more choices” Shonkey means he wants to completely dismantle New Zealand’s Public sector as far as he can get away with ’till we’re a privatized nightmare as in the U$$$ and UK where he made his dodgy dinero pile.
Karyn & Andrew on Radio Live at 7pm -10pm week nights are not even vaguely hard right, more to the left I would say as is Mitch Harris on Monday-Thurs at 10pm – 1a.m. Mitch moved from the dark side into the light not so long ago and Keith Stewart on Saturday nights is also very left wing.
I enjoy listening to talkback from a left perspective. Dont be so quick to reach conclusions that are incorrect.
The economic joke that is this National Government is now openly admitting that despite its election pledges to have the Government accounts in surplus by 2014/2015 this is now just another of the Tories guesses that they got wrong,
Blaming ”International conditions” Slippery simply refuses to take any responsibility for the present Government,s economic mismanagement,
The continuation of ”cost cutting” using the sacking of a further tranche of civil servants as the means to attempt to recoup the 1 billion annual loss in Government revenue by National,s not-fiscally neutral tax cuts simply exacerbates the Government revenue problem deepening the recession the economy has effectively been mired in since 2008,
This years economic miracle from National the part sale of at least one of the State,s electricity generation companies will not in any way address long term fiscal negativity as the 49% of revenue from any of the assets part sold will be lost to the Government and National have no fiscal policy to replace this,(unless National now plan to use parts of the proceeds to stem the flow of red ink bleeding from the Government accounts),
Despite Slippery,s latest bout of earnest used car sales-man speak at the press conference where the lack of His Government,s ability to fulfill this particular election promise where the culprit is anything other than His Governments economic mis-management we see the real rat in the room of an underlying agenda where after 2014 the whole mess will be dropped in the lap of a Labour/Green Government,
Labour/Green would do well now to lock into their thinking just what it will take to kick start the economy,return the Government accounts to a stable position and begin to implement its own social program,
We dare suggest that the level of Government debt coupled with an un-filled hole in Government revenue at 2014 will require a financial transaction tax to bring both the debt and income problems created by National back within acceptable economic parameters…
” despite its election pledges to have the Government accounts in surplus by 2014/2015 this is now just another of the Tories guesses that they got wrong,”
It wasn’t a guess mr bad, it was a knowingly incorrect statement. Anybody with half a brain and actively involved in the economy and business was well aware that there was no improvement on the horizon when this “guess” was made. Key knew it was a bullshit statements. So did English.
They simply lied to the public of New Zealand again at the time they made those claims.
Like John Key did yesterday re Collins and the legitimacy of her defamation claim when he said he didn’t have the requisite legal knowledge to judge whether she had a good case. Liar and deceptor extraordinaire. If that is the case then how on earth does Key know anything about running the country when the only knowledge he has is about how to trade money? He can’t seriusly be suggesting that he does not take advice on the issues of the day. He is a liar.
And so too is Peter Dunne and by association Pete George. Complicit in these deceptions and lies.
Aha,we dont disagree with you,but,we for the purposes of legal propriety will stick with the Finance Ministers ”guessing” of the economics for now,
Unless of course the Member for Dipton comes right on out and publicly states that He and Slippery made the whole lot up one night while sitting at the Cabinet table getting pissed on a bottle of Glen Fiddich,
Where is the Member for Dipton by the way???cleaning out the shearing shed or something, We are always amused by a news conference featuring the Member from Dipton,they are all bound at some stage to have any of us watching to descend into fits of mad laughter as we can bank on a look crossing the Member from Diptons face along with a furrowed brow which gives a distinct impression of a man thinking ”what the fuck am I doing here and oh might as well bullshit my way through this seeing as I am”…
David Shearer had seemed like a different hope in politics. But he seems to be backing the Mallard and Little approach to “perception politics” with no facts required – in fact appearing to deliberately ignore known facts.
Pete, you’re a shill for this government that your vile little leader is propping up. Everything you say is a piece of PR. Does Dunne pay you to stink up this place?
Let’s see, a sympathetic National reporter like John Armstrong says stuff like
“That someone within National’s ranks should risk dirtying the reputation of the party’s biggest asset illustrates just how bitter and Machiavellian things have become in this case. ”
And
“The upshot of the subsequent claims surrounding the email leak has been virtual civil war in the party.”
And the blogs are awash with leaks from the National Party designed to undermine Collins and Simon Lusk.
Yet Petey suggests that Mallard and Little have no “facts”.
Open your eyes Petey. Do not confuse your ignorance with a lack of proof that the National Party is tearing itself apart.
I can see that a few Labour operatives are trying to tear National apart and bring down the Government. That nonsense is overshadowing the real issues that need to be examined.
It’s nothing like “holding the Government to account”, it’s an attempt win power by any means, not fair but fowl.
You’ll keep spinning the lines you’ve been given micky. I guess you’re pleased Shearer has been consumed by the same old so quickly, but do you really think your Cunliffe will lift the Labour game?
Pete you are starting to touch on an interesting point, which I have raised many times here, and in other forums.
The point is that, politics is irrelevant now, because it has deliberately been taken away from the ability of the voters to make a democratic difference. Voting does not make a difference, backing any of the main parties does not make a difference, the systems have been hyjacked decades ago, and those who sell themselves as change enablers to the electorate, nothing more than total liers. Best case scenario is that those who enter parliament with integrity, quickly wither become part of the system, or it beats them into submission quickly!
Your leader is a classic case of where NZ politics has been taken away from the people. Sure you can argue all day that he was farily elected, and all that does is illustrate the idiocy of the folk who like those in Epsom etc will simply vote with “their mate”. PD is a traitor to NZ politics, a pocket liner, and fair weather politician who changes sides regardless of what his electorate ever wanted him to do…still they vote for the Dunny Brushm but that is another conversation.
No NZ political party is going to save NZ, and its time for those who tread these boards to start accepting responsibility for their involvement. No matter which team you back, you are backing a team who is responsible in the past for selling out, the present and the future selling out of NZ!
I suspect it’s overstated, especially within caucus (obviously Boag has caused some ructions externally) but time will tell on that. What we’re seeing now is:
– Key endorsing Collins’ right to take action on her own.
– Shearer nailing his colours to Mallard’s mast.
I suggest that it’s a lot riskier for Shearer, especially as he’s now supporting a political approach he recently talked against.
“…you choose to make such broad assertive comments.”
Mallard would never do that sort of thing, would he. But I haven’t seen the facts that back up his accusations against Collins.
You imply you have “background” information. If so please share – do you have a link to the facts? Or are you just making baseless broad assertive comments?
micky accused you of making broad assertive comments.
You quoted that phrase, and said “Mallard would never do that sort of thing, would he.”
If that’s not you comparing your actions to Mallard’s, then what is it? What other way is there to interpret your comment, in the context it was offered, using the English language?
“I can see that a few Labour operatives are trying to tear National apart and bring down the Government. That nonsense is overshadowing the real issues that need to be examined.
Really? “A few Labour Operatives” can bring down the entire government and National Party apparatus?!?!
Not much of a government then, is it??
Mind you, I think’re you’re kinda overstating the case, Pete: National are achieving their own destruction without much help from the Left. We’re quite content sitting back munching popcorn, and enjoying the entertainment of a government in full meltdown.
I didn’t say they can bring the Government down, but they can try.
I agree that National are creating problems of their own too, quite a cluster lately.
If Labour left National to self destruct (as any Government does sooner or later) and concentrated more on rebuilding, preparing for being in Government again and demonstrating they are ready to resume leadership do you think they would become more popular faster?
I had hopes that Shearer would be a breath of fresh air and rejuvenate Labour, with more positive pragmatic politics. But it appears as if he is a pawn for the same old – in fact an increase of the same old.
Don’t foregt the lack of knowledge about how stuff actually works like parliament, the law and other triffling areas that UF use to their self serving ends.
Pete, that’s twice in the last few days I’ve seen you deny being a politician.
In both cases it was your answer to being accused of “playing politics” or similar.
Is it now your contention that only a politician can be political? Are you saying that all the rest of the commenters here who you regularly accuse of “playing politics” or similar, are in fact politicians?
You keep saying that labour is being dishonest about this. Demonstrate how please.
A few weeks ago Shearer said “I want a new kind of politics, pragmatic and attentive to what works, not tied up in the squabbles of the past.”
What he said he wanted then is different to what he’s directly involving himself in now.
And Mallard and Little made accusations against Collins despite clear statements of denial from here and others. They supplied no facts to back up their assertions. I think that’s dishonest.
savagemicky may turn out to be more honest and link to the facts he also seems to be claiming are out there, somewhere. As a lawyer I don’t think he would claim that making major accusations against someone, possibly defamatory, and withholding supporting facts is being honest.
I heard Mallard on checkpoint, which seems to be the i/v under dispute. He explicitly stated that his beliefs were based on a source, one that had been reliable in the past.
And Pete, I notice in your blog post that you cite stephen franks.
Did you notice the second half of his post, which implies that Collins will be sypathetic in the eyes of many because Pullar was getting what she deserved. ie, he implies that Collins leaked it? And that’s not all he does:
And the National Party has already gained from Judith Collins’ steadiness under fire. Her determination has helped knocked the ACC claim to irrelevance. Pollling suggests that the public find it as boring as I do.
Most New Zealanders reason instinctively that anyone sucking off “the system” forfeits their right to privacy, at least in respects relevant to any complaints about the system’s fairness to them.
An unfairness complainer going public should have to accept that the rest of us are entitled to all the information necessary to judge the unfairness accusation in context.
See that? He is saying that Collins actions are great politics because they distract from the real issue.
But of course, you are so concerned about tearing down your political opponents that you can’t mention any other possibilities as to what might be going on, even in passing. Can’t even admit, even to tyourself that it’s a possibility.
I agree this has distracted from the real issues with ACC and Pullar, but Mallard and Little have been at the forefront of that very distraction, haven’t they.
Your quote includes:
An unfairness complainer going public should have to accept that the rest of us are entitled to all the information necessary to judge the unfairness accusation in context.
Collins will be aware that all information necessary will need to come out.
If Mallard and Little front up with information that backs up their accusations – and that it was available to them at the time despite clear claims to the contrary by Collins – then they have nothing to worry about. And the public will know who was being honest then, won’t we.
What has the rather sweet suggestion that ACC beneficiaries have no right to privacy if they complain about being shafted (as per your quote) got to do with Collins’ idiotic case?
Nothing whatsoever, but Pete likes to throw in some irrelevant shit when he’s tied himself up in knots and is about to disappear.
He thinks to the casual observer it might appear that he hasn’t made a complete fool of himself if he types something, anything before he runs away and pretends the thread never existed.
I do not have the slightest interest in showing you evidence that I may or may not have. The fact you do not have any source of your own does not concern me.
You should watch with your allegations too. The principle in Atkinson v Lange does not extend to stupid comments.
I do understand. You won’t back up your assertions with any facts.
I do have a source for my “allegations” – a lack of facts to back up accusations that were made. Therefore it’s easy to see a perception of political dishonesty.
What “allegations” should I watch? That some politicians are sometimes deliberately dishonest? It would be hard to prove that’s an unreasonable opinion wouldn’t it?
Citing isn’t required if you’re holding politicians to account, or that’s what some lawyers seem to be suggesting.
Greg: “I do not have the slightest interest in showing you evidence that I may or may not have.”
Andrew: “Asked if he believed Ms Collins had leaked the letter, despite her assurances she had not, Mr Little said there were still unanswered questions. ”
If there are unanswered questions do you just suggest your own versions of answers?
It seems all you need to do is make any allegations you want to (as long as it’s your opinion of course) and then refuse to provide evidence until someone takes a defamation case against you.
“It seems all you need to do is make any allegations you want to (as long as it’s your opinion of course) and then refuse to provide evidence until someone takes a defamation case against you.”
Anybody want to help me start a legal fund so that we can finally shut Pete up?
“If there are unanswered questions do you just suggest your own versions of answers?”
No, you just stop asking questions because those in power, looking after the best interests of the country as a whole, will undoubtably answer them in their own good time.
Pete, you often cry about the tough time you get on here, but what the f$#@k do you expect when your posts continue to be as lame and weak as this? This is a perfect example of why you get that hard time. You should reflect on it and sharpen up.
I couldn’t really believe it when I read that statement of yours. Dumbfounded would be an apt description. As Ps b says, you were on a party list and you stood in an electorate seat. In addition, you are no doubt a party member and you advocate hard for that party. You are without doubt a politician.
Luckily for the residents of Ohariu local MP and ”Leader” of the party of 1,United Future has long ago dropped the mantle of ”being something different in politics” except of course for those with an addiction to old videos featuring worms and a fixation with the word sensible…
Shameless self promotion of new blog looking at resource limits, environment, peak oil and peak everything from a New Zealand perspective.
Fracking Benefits Overblown
Why is it that oil and gas companies such as TAG Oil and Apache are so aggressively pursuing exploration of gas fields in New Zealand when US gas prices are at a 10 year record low of US$2.176 per mBtu? In January both Chesapeake Energy and ConocoPhillips announced plans to reduce gas natural gas output and shift towards more oil drilling. Futures as far forward as December 2017 were last week trading at below the US$5 per mBtu level that most companies require to make an adequate return on capital.
One of the reasons that natural gas production has still remained high even with these companies signalling changing tactics is that many of the wells currently producing are condensate wells. This means they not only produce natural gas but also natural gas liquids and oil. With Brent crude currently sitting at $123 a barrel and even higher prices for natural gas liquids this is more than enough to offset the low natural gas prices.
This brings us to New Zealand, the so called “Texas of the south” . A document from TAG Oil that was presented to investors in December 2012 threw around phrases such as the East Coast “literally leaking oil and gas” and announced the potential of “billions of barrels of oil.” TAG has said it has identified almost 700,000ha of conventional and unconventional targets. These unconventional targets are both deep sea resources such as Deepwater Horizon as well as land-based rigs using the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”
It would appear that with gas prices so low both now and for the at least the next five years TAG Oil is hoping to strike oil and strike it big. How much to trust the “billions of barrels of oil” line is however highly debatable. It is not uncommon for any extractive resource company to inflate the economic benefits in order to garner support. Oil companies are no different. Big numbers are the proverbial carrot dangled in front of those that inhabit both local and central government. With traditionally high unemployment in the East Coast any promise of jobs is bound to make the public more accepting of controversial practices such as fracking.
However, there is also concern about the ability for wells using fracking to provide long term economic benefits. A new well with multiple fractures costs between NZ$2.4 million and NZ$12.2 million to drill. After one year a well using fracking can have production fall by between 63 to 85 per cent compared to 25 to 40 per cent for a conventional well.
It is clear that these foreign oil companies such as TAG and Apache are here to make a quick buck. What will be left when the wells dry up is anyone’s guess but it certainly won’t be jobs.
Brent Crude is at $129US today, there is money in oil whilst demand lasts…the high price is going to kill demand and any “growth”. Here we go again, batten down the hatches guys.
Now that the price of oil and gas is going to be much higher we are heading for exploration of marginal fields that give low yields on energy invested.
Ask yourself a couple of questions:
1. Why is the oil industry now working marginal places like NZ so hard?
2. Why when we have global warming is there no great move away from oil and gas?
Exactly Bored. As John Michael Greer writes in The Long Descent, we will see a number of these periods characterised by high oil prices reducing demand and shrinking economies, which in turn increases demand for oil as economies stabilise for short periods. The truth is we are in a slow decline now, it’s just that the micro data distracts a lot from the macro data.
I’m sure you already know the answers yourself but for those who don’t:
1. All the easy oil has been got. Oil companies are not moving increasingly into shale resources, oil sands and deepwater drilling for fun. It’s because there is no where left to turn. These reports of “massive oil field found” pale in comparison to previous finds and are often incredibly difficult and energy intensive to distract. It’s all very well finding a large field, but it doesn’t mean much when it’s uneconomical to extract, refine and export it.
2. Because oil is a super liquid fuel. There is nothing in the world that comes close to the energy returned on investment that oil provides. No one wants to give up their standard of living and oil is almost the sole reason why we have such a high standard of living. It’s importance cannot be overstated. We can wish all we want for technology to save us but we are just as likely to have success sacrificing a cow to the Sun God. I’m interested in facts, not faith. Also very importantly, oil is a liquid fuel. We cannot fill up our cars with wind, hydro or solar energy. A move to change the world fleet to electric vehicles is out of the question in terms of the energy inputs required.
The only reason that fracking has become popular over the last few years is due to the high price of oil. If for whatever reason oil dropped back to around $30 a barrel such as in 2008 these oil companies would lose a huge amount of money.
In an interview on National Radio this morning Pita says he is angry again as another MP initiative is undermined. When will he be so angry that he will walk?
The International Monetary Fund has come out with criticism of the National Governments non-action in addressing the high cost of the NZ dollar saying that the dollar is over-valued by at least 20%,
Also in line for a serve is the National Governments anti-employment cost cutting activities with a warning from the IMF that National should not indulge in further radical attempts at balancing its books by severe cuts in its spending,
Its obvious to anyone with the slightest amount of economic nous that the loss of employment from Government will create an immediate + in terms of Government expenditure, BUT,the unintended effects of a job lost from within Government will simply mean LESS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY in the wider community and creating job losses en masse from within Government simply creates a lot less economic activity,
It doesnt take a mental giant to figure out what is in reality a simple economic equation,but,as National and its supporters have barely reached the giddy heights of ”BEST GUESS” as economic thinking we will break the effect of Government cost cutting via job losses from within Government service down to the equation understood even by 5 year olds,
Sack X amount of civil servants and out in the wider community the lawn mowing crews drop a worker off the payroll as their business decreases,down the road at the pie shop another worker loses employment as the lawn mowing crews that buy lunch and smoko from them have now shrunk in size and the pie shops selling less,
Its that simple,the tracking of a National Government exacerbated economic recession,what it simply says,understandable to even a 5 year old is that whatever the National Government saves in revenue from having sacked X civil servants it loses as much or more from the business shrinkage in the wider community along with the cost of having the numbers collecting the dole rise,
Simple enough???the IMF understand the economics,We understand the economics,We wonder what mental blockage is possessed by Slippery and His Minister of Finance where they dont even seem to be able to grasp such simple economic truisms….
“Also in line for a serve is the National Governments anti-employment cost cutting activities with a warning from the IMF that National should not indulge in further radical attempts at balancing its books by severe cuts in its spending”
B12 – The IMF history of intervention is exactly those measures of austerity (cutting), which are demanded before bailout funds are handed over….
We are of the distinct impression that Slippery and Co simply dont give a damn about the overall economic conditions that they are creating for EVERYONE, National is afterall the Party of naked self interest and we see the whole focus of National,s economics as to simply lock as much of the country,s wealth,income and assets into the hands of their core supporters befor the inevitability of an electoral sacking of the present Government,
Obviously with that in mind Slippery and Co are quite happy to at the end of this term drop the whole mess into the laps of a Labour/Green/NZfirst Government knowing that any party such as Labour that sees itself as reliant upon chiseling votes from the right to secure Government will be loath to reverse in any way Nationals billion dollar baby tax cuts for its rich mates,
We see in the belated admission from Treasury that these tax cuts were NOT fiscally neutral,Minister of Finance Bill English,s admission that Nationals economics were formulated upon a guess and Slippery,s admission that his government hasnt got a snowballs chance in hell of pulling the Governments accounts out of the red by 2014/15 where the IMF warning to the National Government might have been generated from,
incidently,initial advice from the IMF,later over-ridden by a later report from the IMF directly advised the incoming National government after the 2008 election to consider ”Quantitative Easing” as an economic tool to alleviate the worst effects of the 07/08 banking melt-down…
The Slippery One did promise to lower wages and the only way to do that is to increase unemployment so that there’s more competition for the available jobs.
I never mentioned anything about the Boxer wars so am unsure why you bring this up. There was also only one Boxer ‘war’ though. Again not sure why you choose to pluralise it.
Oh I saw it alright. It provided me with a good few seconds of merriment as I imagined the person trawling the internet to find a single article where the copywriter most likely mistakenly called the Boxer Rebellion by the wrong name. It is quite easy to dismiss actually with the simple question – How was it more than one war?
Because it was many separate incidents over time. Not one!
The defining part of all of them was the ongoing tension between Westerners and their Chinese supporters on one side and the Chinese authorities and sometimes the boxer movement, on the other.
I’ve always heard Chinese refer to them as the Boxer wars, in English. Rebellion is obviously not a popular interpretation in China.
It is correct that Chinese objected to opium being brought into China to pay for tea and other products. Britain and other Western countries, could not afford to pay in silver “shoes” the accepted currency. Many large and influential companies such as Swires and Jardins made their fortunes smuggling opium into China.
You’ve heard Chinese people refer to them as the Boxer wars? Hardly very persuassive evidence there. All wars pretty much involve separate incidents. The Second world war involved a huge number of separate wars and in fact could be classified as two distinct major conflicts (Pacific and Europe) plus a number of more minor conflicts such as the that in North Africa and the Middle East. It still isn’t refered today as the Second World Wars is it. The Boxer movement actually was created and defeated within a very short space of time so calling it Wars is not accurate at all. This is distinct from the Opium Wars which involved two conflicts between the UK and China that were separated by a number of years. It is quite clear to me that you mixed up the Boxer Rebellion with the Opium Wars and are now trying to cover your mistake.
I take that back to an extent. There does seem to be more than one newspaper calling them the Boxer Wars. However they are all quite old and mostly seem to be American. I also find that “boxer war” has 720 references to just 26 for “boxer wars”. “boxer rebellion” it must be stated has over 10,000 references. Regardless it certainly isn’t evidence that the Chinese call them that.
Topsy turvey gos – he says black when others see white, he sees inefficiency where others see good, he claims to provide evidence where others see none, he works when other people take lunch, and takes about the same amount of time at work that others take for lunch.
Probably has to ask repeatedly whether his clients “want fries with that?”
The Guardian writes about the start of the Falklands War-
‘After fewer than three years in office, Thatcher had achieved little beyond tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor’.
Sound familiar?
And she didn’t achieve much in overall cuts for the overall government spending because of the rise in unemployment and the need to pay more in dole payments.
And yet the Tories were in power for 18 years and the Labour government that replaced them pretty much carried on with most of the policies. I’d say that was highly successful politically wouldn’t you?
Just because idiot politicians and some experts in cognitive dissonance, like yourself, think that, “if it does not work, we need more of it”, does not make it successful.
Britain has FPP and, like us, voters were not offered alternatives to RW economic destruction.
Normally FPP allows a new Government to come in with rand new policies that are quite different to the ones implemented by the previous Government. However the Labour party in Britain didn’t do that really. Why is that KJT?
LOL – Gosman caught in broad daylight, showing why his arguments are circular garbage!
Well done Gosman, you have shown all your trolliness, why the righ/left paradigm is a total sham, and how the system is owned, and why Labour is what is now is!
Care to provide any evidence supporting your statement that the Chinese pluralise the ‘Boxer wars’ or did you just make this up to try and stop yourself from looking foolish?
Still hasn’t explained the immense political success of Thatcher at reorientating the political landscape in the UK. Last time that happened from the left would have been the First Labour Government here and the Atlee Government in the UK. That is around 70 years ago. The left seems pretty pathetic now wouldn’t you agree?
What left?
Labour has not been left since Norm Kirk/Rowling.
The shear weight of propaganda and BS from media and right wing, so called, think tanks has overwhelmed public discourse.
When I was young someone holding my, present, sort of social democratic opinions would have been compatible with National, let alone Labour. It shows how much the dialogue has been shifted to the loony right.
Oh, I see what you did there. You’d better write that one down for the ages – it would be a crying shame if civilization managed to preserve Shakespeare bu lost the collected works of Gos.
Don’t worry. So long as we have someone as obsessive as you I am sure my works here won’t be lost to posterity. See you can provide a useful service for society McFlap.
Stuart Hall, in his essay “The Great Moving Right Show” explained it well back in the 80s – Thatcher didn’t suceed in her stated claim of cutting government spending, but what she did suceed in doing was shifting popular opnion to the right where it embraced the neoliberal narrative.
This essay, which draws on Hall’s essay, explains how Thatcher’s government neutralised the left by targettung the contradictions the Labour Party was trying to negotiate. Basically, the Labour Party pandered to the capitalist establishment, creating a conflict between the Labour Party and the working class and unions they should have been supporting. Thatcherism applied pressure to this fissure, and then shifted the dominant narrative to one that promised much to the masses.
new internationalist 133 March 1984
THE NEW RIGHT Why Thatcherism appeals
The great moving right show
Roll up, roll up to see the radical Right’s reconstruction of the British political arena. We present an edited and revised version of Stuart Hall’s essay on the contemporary weakness of the Labour Party and the fatal attraction of Mrs Thatcher.
[…]
But once in government, social democracy is committed to finding solutions to the crisis which are capable of winning support from key sections of capital, since its solutions are always framed within the limits of capitalist survival. And this requires that the link between party and class be used not to advance but to discipline the class and organisation it represents.
[…]
Thatcherite populism is a particularly rich mix. It combines the resonant themes of basic Toryism (nation, family, duty, authority, standards, tradition) with the aggressive themes of a revived neo-liberalism (selfinterest, competitive individualism, anti-statism). ‘Freedom of the people equals the free market’ is once again in the foreground of the conservative ideological repertoire. Around this contradictory point the authentic language of ‘Thatcherism’ has crystallised.
[…]
Instead of confronting this contradiction at the heart of its strategy, Labour has fallen back on stressing the neutrality of the state, incarnator of the National Interest and above the struggle between the contending classes. It is precisely this abstract state which has been transformed by Mrs Thatcher into the enemy. It is ‘the State’ which has over-borrowed and overspent; fuelled inflation, fooled the people into thinking there would always be more where the last handout came from; tried to regulate things like wages and prices which are best left to the hidden hand of market forces; above all, interfered, meddled, intervened, obstructed, instructed and directed – against the essence, the genius, of the British People. It is time, she says with conviction, ‘to put people’s destinies back into their own hands’.
And gaining control over the narrative in the media was a key part of Thatcher’s success:
This populist language and the reconstruction of a ‘free market’ ethic has been given a sensitive public relations treatment to render it palatable. The excessively high-minded Sir Keith Joseph and the excessively broad-bottomed Rhodes Boyson, the ‘disinterested’ lead writers of The Times, The Telegraph and The Economist and the ventriloquists of populist opinion in the Mail, the Express, the Star and the Sun gave it their undivided attention. One of the country’s top advertising agencies, Saatchi and Saatchi, were called in to polish up the popular appeal of the Leader and her policies. Gaining the support of the popular press was a critical victory in the attempt to redefine the commonsense of the times: from the ‘caring society’ to the ‘by our own bootstraps’ nation.
“Ability” for economic destruction? Interesting view..
I’d actually dispute the point that the left don’t have people with that “ability” however fortunately they are much fewer and farther between than the surfeit of those on the right….
The Falklands war did work as an economic stimulus and distraction from the devastation Thatcher caused at home.
Interestingly enough, I was told by one of our Military that Britain could not mount another Falklands war. Thatcher also destroyed Britain’s commercial shipping fleet. Now outsourced to Panama and Liberia.
Given the fact they don’t have an active Aircraft Carrier at the moment I think the lack of a British owned commercial shipping fleet is the least of the problem. Anyway they won’t really need to carry out another Falklands war. The islands are well equipped with defence personnel, (as opposed to the handful of Royal Marines in 1982). The Argentinians would be crazy to attempt to invade.
Oh, I’m sure they’ll have a couple of logistics ships in the area and fly as much as they can in – but “stretched” was the case in 1982, and “very stretched” would be the case today.
The US would tacitly provide logistics support. The UK couldn’t do it itself.
And the Argentinians have a very good understanding of what went right and what went wrong for them last time. They won’t be making the same errors in any new argie-bargie with the UK. (See what I did there ha)
Interesting point about the US – they tried to keep a lid on it 30 years ago because it was allied with both nations. But I don’t think they’ll do the active support, even just for logistics, thing. No benefit in it for them.
Anyway it was fun playing with you McFlop but I must go and do some work now.
If you see KJT on here would you be a good chap and ask him about the evidence on the Boxer wars for me please? He seems to have gone all shy since I asked him for it for some reason.
Addressing what the IMF says is a 20% overvaluation of the New Zealand dollar for the next Labour/Green Government will be politically problematic,
The Governor of the reserve Bank,s role would seem to be in part to ”talk” the dollar down,this in reality has the same effect as urinating without first unzipped ones fly,in a world where markets decide attempts by the Governments banker to ”talk” things up or down are as close to useless,
Government devaluation is what has been the accepted tool in recent history in bringing a currency to a value that makes any county,s production competitive both internally and internationally,
Our view of Government devaluation by legislation is that it is a primitive blunt instrument which has an immediate long term negative impact upon the internal economy which in monetary terms is somewhat mollified by the increase in actual revenue to exporters but off-set by the revenue and social cost to the wider community devaluation is not particularly politically sustainable,
However,where an overvalued currency is also coupled to an economy in recession,in essence one feeding off of the other in a negative cycle, Quantitative easing is in fact the modern intelligent economic tool which smart economics dictate can,and should,be used to address both the problems of an overvalued currency and an economy mired in recession,
It is a simple matter of mathmatics that will enable the measurement of what amount of Quantitative Easing will create which amount of inflation within an economy,thus equating to X amount of growth and X amount of devaluation as the ”market” takes note of the increased supply of New Zealand dollars and revalues it accordingly,
How tho to distribute such Quantitative easing through the economy,simple!!!use the Quantitative easing to address the growing problem of the cost of housing both rental and purchase building State housing in areas of high demand,
80 years ago we had the exact same economic and social problems caused by housing shortages along with an economy mired in recession,what we have outlined above was in fact the means,the clever tools if you will that were used at the time to fix those problems…
Need to change the monetary system else no amount of quantitative easing will work. Essentially, the government needs to start printing it’s own money without interest rather than borrowing it by selling bonds.
“the government needs to start printing it’s own money without interest rather than borrowing it by selling bonds.”
That is exactly right. (there would of course need to be strict controls to prevent political use of such printing)
At the moment privately owned central banks around the world print money and lend it out at an interest rate.
Why is this allowed to happen?
Imagine if we did it ourselves…… Why couldn’t we? This is without a doubt the biggest rort the world has ever seen and bloody hardly nobody knows about it. It is real, it is right now and it is costing you and me fucking shitloads in interest payments to these privately-owned banks. For no reason. Big chunks of our working lives go directly to these parasites every day – it happened today, it will happen again tomorrow.
Aha,which is why we advocate a Financial Transaction Tax along with a specific Quantitative easing to be spent into a specific social policy,
A Financial Transaction Tax simply stops the need for Government to borrow while still giving an incoming Government the where-with-all to be able to implement it,s program without recourse to borrowing,
Quantitative easing simply the Government ”printing its own money” by creating a debt between Housing NZ and Treasury/The Reserve Bank allows for what is a growing social problem to be addressed via a strengthened State house building program,
Once alerted to a Government having increased the supply of NZ Dollars the ”markets” will simply reflect the Quantitative easing by revaluing the NZ Dollar downward to reflect that increased supply…
Government creates the money, spends it where they need to and then recollects it via taxes then to get quantitative easing all the government has to do is either not collect as high taxes or print more money.
Also, the value of the NZ$ is determined more by the interest rates being charged by the banks than by the amount of money in circulation. Drop those interest rates, by the government making money available through mortgages/business loans at no interest, and the foreign exchange value will fall even if there was no extra money in circulation.
Do you actually have a total understanding of what the term ”Quantitative Easing” means???
The ”debt” created between in our example given, Housing NZ and Treasury/Reserve Bank simply ”justifies” and ”quantifies” the amount of extra money that a Government proposes to produce,
We use such an example as what we have in all sincerity as we see a growing housing shortage +high unemployment+an economy mired in recession+a NZ Dollar overvalued by 10-20%,
The method of ”Quantitative Easing”(the production of an amount of money from no place in particular)simply addresses and alleviates to a lesser or greater degree all those issues of economy above while asking others to have confidence in such measures as they are measurable ”money creations” designed specifically as a non-exportable solution to internal matters of economy,
Having then built our X amount of State Owned Housing with our X amount of Quantitative Easing as Government we know have an asset that equals the debt which incidently is also owned by us as Government,
We simply then remove the debt,in the strange world of bean counting shown as an asset on our Government books and we end up with an asset of State owned housing,
We havnt much to say as to your economic solution except to say that your recipe of cutting taxes as you go would simply require your Government to indulge in an ongoing series of money printings and we dare say that befor such could ever be attempted you would have befor-hand instituted a One Party State and seized the means of production,distribution,and,supply…
We havnt much to say as to your economic solution except to say that your recipe of cutting taxes…
What recipe? I gave two options (there are probably more) for bringing about an increase in money within the system if the government prints the money without interest on it.
…as you go would simply require your Government to indulge in an ongoing series of money printings…
That’s pretty much what you’re arguing for. My use of taxes is to replace the present, non-functioning, OCR.
…we dare say that befor such could ever be attempted you would have befor-hand instituted a One Party State and seized the means of production,distribution,and,supply…
All the resources of the nation belong to the people of the nation and so they have a right to say how those resources are used – No parties needed. It’s called participatory democracy. Yes, it’s contrarian to the capitalists owning everything and thus having dictatorial control over everyone else’s lives.
The ”debt” created between in our example given, Housing NZ and Treasury/Reserve Bank simply ”justifies” and ”quantifies” the amount of extra money that a Government proposes to produce,
Right, so not actually creating a debt, merely a book entry.
(the production of an amount of money from no place in particular)
You do understand that that is how all money comes into being don’t you? The problem ATM is that it’s created by private banks that charge interest on it. That needs to be stopped and the government start printing the money without interest. When that happens then quantitative easing will have a significant effect upon the foreign exchange value.
Gosh who would have thunk it banks print money into existence,Wow,
Debating anything with someone that cuts the intent and meaning of paragraphs and sentences into smaller and smaller pieces and then gives out non-sensical answers on the straw-men He or She has created is a waste of energy and we dont propose to do much more of it with you,
We will add tho,your wee ”home ownership” model via tax cuts smacks of Sir(spit) Roger Douglas,s rantings which then in your latest post morphs into a rant worthy of the occupy movement,
However,we await with bated breath your ascendency to a non-party Governed State and our only question there is how will this utopia be achieved…
Does NZ even get a say in whether we invite Canada to join the TPP or does the US simply decide everything these days?
+ with Obama’s recently exposed pugilistic punditry, how much weight can there be in these words:
“Every country that’s participating is going to have to make some modifications,”
I wonder if Obama can name a single modification that the US is making ? Perhaps changing the size of their ‘what we want today!’ notepads as they incrementally deconstruct the decaying framework of the free market. Replacing it with an armour-plated super-structure solely designed to ease the transfer of ownership into fewer and fewer hands whilst simultaneously removing the legal sovereignty of the people and by default their independence.
Does NZ even get a say in whether we invite Canada to join the TPP or does the US simply decide everything these days?
Silly question, especially when you have a bunch of authoritarian followers in government who will kowtow to who they perceive to be the most powerful entity around.
The public hearing into a plan to build a monorail through Department of Conservation land in Fiordland has heard the 150 million dollar proposal
The hearing is on to get the OK to put this through at great cost to the environment. So the wealthy person can say ‘I think there is a place in the world I still haven’t been. I can spare a week in my busy schedule to go south to NZ and then be whisked off to this beauty spot with no time wasting – time is money to me. Then I can cross it off my list.” This is how they think when the whole point is to get the chance to see nature, enjoy it or feel stirred by its immense presence, largely unaffected by little us.
Venice is being loved to death with invading hordes of tourists. It is a built enironment that can stand even less the petulant demands of the wealthy tourist. The seeds of destruction of one of our beautiful places are in this speculative venture.
And this monorail-building crowd want a 40 year lease. Long before that time we won’t have large numbers of wealthy tourists visiting here, they will come but in smaller numbers or in discrete downloads from cruise ships. This may not be viable for maintaining a luxury service at a profit.. And it looks as if NZ is not going to regain the opportunity to achieve affluence for very many, so most of us won’t be able to afford to be replacement visitors.
There are numerous reasons why tourism could become a falling star for us. One is our remoteness. Already the British government have brought in a malicious long-haul exit tax that has started to reduce the number of valuable Brit tourists we receive. All right for Britain, conveniently placed to visit all of Europe which we helped them to keep at bay when the Nazis threatened. Now the sites are tourist spots, places of sad remembrance. We can be cut off at the knees by the right wing looking for taxes that their people may be able to stomach.
Smells a little bit like the Uruwera case, which was obviously porked in order to create some local terror fear in order to enable legislative clamp down.
Great thing with Anonymous is that you don’t actually have to prove anything at all, in order to clamp down!
Anonymous, even easier to manipulate, and propagate than Al Qaeda eh!
I thought the same thing. Accusing Anonymous also helps to make the security issues less so…eg “its Anonymous, who havent they hacked, if the FBI cant keep them out, well….”
Virtual terrorists – What hacker group in their right mind is going to call themselves Anonymous. The name is an absolute give away IMO, as are the obvious targets, and the fact they are being fingered for every attack going around. It’s the AQ playbook in cyber-space!
The Minister will withdraw and apologize!!!Crusher just copped one from the Speaker,
There,s an interesting dynamic going on within that particular little interplay between Labour,s Charles Cauvel, Crusher Collins, the Speaker, and, Winston Peters,
Crusher was asked by Chauvel why She was hiding behind the Privacy Commissioner,s inquiry when refusing to answer questions in the House on just who leaked the Boag email to Her to the media,
Crusher,s answer to Chauvel was in the vein of the usual ”not in the public interest” waffle and She finished this with a allusion to ”the liars in this place”,
It being unbecoming to have a Minister call another MP a liar in the House Chauvel objected to Speaker Lockwood Smith who refused His objection claiming that Crusher did not mention any particular MP as a liar,
NZFirst Leader Winston Peters was all over Smith in His point of order saying that Crusher was either calling all those occupying the opposition Benches liars or referring to Her own side of the House as liars,
End result Crusher is spanked by the Speaker and ordered to withdraw and apologize for the liar comment,
Raises 2 points dont it, it shows that there,s a lot to be said for ”experience” in the trench fight that is a constant in the Parliaments debating chamber and perhaps Crusher,s overt willingness to speedily withdraw and apologize for the remark made might have shown that remark as a Freudian slip where She actually was referring to ”liars in this place” as those who occupy the same side of the House as She does,
From the forensic psychologists point of view Crusher while still possessing that snide snigger as She rattles Her silver spoons in answer to such questioning also sounds bone weary,the wearyness of one under fire from all sides,(including Her own),
Winston should with all His canny perception of others weak points in the House, picked up on this and been all over Crusher like a rash,to us Crusher sounds a bit like Nick Smith on the point of major melt-down just after being made deputy leader of National under the leadership of Brash…
In an interview last Thursday on Morning Report, he solemnly proclaimed that – as minister – he was no more than “the purchaser of the ministry’s services.” This is free-market ideology gone mad. It is an astonishing new take on what the role of a minister is and should be, and betrays a shocking ignorance of what parliamentary government is about.
Ambrose met his lawyer yesterday morning to consider what action he could take to clear his name – one option might be asking the High Court to again consider making a declaratory judgment that he had acted entirely within the law. Another might be defamation action. Already, senior journalists from around New Zealand have indicated their willingness to support Ambrose in his pursuit of legal clarity and vindication.
Great. Had been thinking that Ambrose was maligned without foundation by the Police Deputy Commissioner and by John Key. Hope he takes them both to court and hope he WINS!
ianmac. Have just read the Jonathon Milne article. Ambrose got a very raw deal indeed. Key obviously saw an opportunity to exploit the situation and conned the cops into action and cynically maligned not only Ambrose but the Herald on Sunday in the process.What a thoroughly nasty little man John Key is. Hope the Herald on Sunday takes him to Court as well and wins.
Thanks for that link – it is a MUST read and I feel personally vindicated as I felt all along that this was what probably happened. I am really pleased that Ambrose has the support of others in his field.
Having worked in the justice area, I was also appalled at the Asst Police Commissioner’s statement last week suggesting that the Police considered Ambrose essentially guilty as only a court can make that decision. Really hope that Ambrose, with the support of others, do not let this matter rest.
Gosman, Yes “the left does seem pathetic now”, but left wing views are powerful and as I read history they have had more effect since the Protestant Reformation than right wing views. Right wing views are deservedly called “reactionary”.
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Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Media silence as activist badly hurt trying to turn back John Key’s National Party attack on the working class community of Glen Inness on behalf of the wealthy developers and speculators.
http://news.tangatawhenua.com/archives/16918
Jimmy O’Dea is a long term left activist who has been involved in a number of issues over the decades. I hope he has a speedy and full recovery.
Another protester to honour along with Christine Clark.
(from Obituaries on converge)
I remember that, but I don’t remember what became of Powell, was he convicted of manslaughter?
Hi Jenny
Radio Live for instance is an openly hard right propaganda tool, it’s so obvious as to be disgusting.
Under the sleaze double talk “I want to give people more choices” Shonkey means he wants to completely dismantle New Zealand’s Public sector as far as he can get away with ’till we’re a privatized nightmare as in the U$$$ and UK where he made his dodgy dinero pile.
“Radio Live for instance is an openly hard right propaganda tool”
Nah, depends what time of the day you’re listening.
Karyn & Andrew on Radio Live at 7pm -10pm week nights are not even vaguely hard right, more to the left I would say as is Mitch Harris on Monday-Thurs at 10pm – 1a.m. Mitch moved from the dark side into the light not so long ago and Keith Stewart on Saturday nights is also very left wing.
I enjoy listening to talkback from a left perspective. Dont be so quick to reach conclusions that are incorrect.
I would add Willie Jackson to that list, weekdays noon til 3. Not so sure about his mate though.
The economic joke that is this National Government is now openly admitting that despite its election pledges to have the Government accounts in surplus by 2014/2015 this is now just another of the Tories guesses that they got wrong,
Blaming ”International conditions” Slippery simply refuses to take any responsibility for the present Government,s economic mismanagement,
The continuation of ”cost cutting” using the sacking of a further tranche of civil servants as the means to attempt to recoup the 1 billion annual loss in Government revenue by National,s not-fiscally neutral tax cuts simply exacerbates the Government revenue problem deepening the recession the economy has effectively been mired in since 2008,
This years economic miracle from National the part sale of at least one of the State,s electricity generation companies will not in any way address long term fiscal negativity as the 49% of revenue from any of the assets part sold will be lost to the Government and National have no fiscal policy to replace this,(unless National now plan to use parts of the proceeds to stem the flow of red ink bleeding from the Government accounts),
Despite Slippery,s latest bout of earnest used car sales-man speak at the press conference where the lack of His Government,s ability to fulfill this particular election promise where the culprit is anything other than His Governments economic mis-management we see the real rat in the room of an underlying agenda where after 2014 the whole mess will be dropped in the lap of a Labour/Green Government,
Labour/Green would do well now to lock into their thinking just what it will take to kick start the economy,return the Government accounts to a stable position and begin to implement its own social program,
We dare suggest that the level of Government debt coupled with an un-filled hole in Government revenue at 2014 will require a financial transaction tax to bring both the debt and income problems created by National back within acceptable economic parameters…
” despite its election pledges to have the Government accounts in surplus by 2014/2015 this is now just another of the Tories guesses that they got wrong,”
It wasn’t a guess mr bad, it was a knowingly incorrect statement. Anybody with half a brain and actively involved in the economy and business was well aware that there was no improvement on the horizon when this “guess” was made. Key knew it was a bullshit statements. So did English.
They simply lied to the public of New Zealand again at the time they made those claims.
Like John Key did yesterday re Collins and the legitimacy of her defamation claim when he said he didn’t have the requisite legal knowledge to judge whether she had a good case. Liar and deceptor extraordinaire. If that is the case then how on earth does Key know anything about running the country when the only knowledge he has is about how to trade money? He can’t seriusly be suggesting that he does not take advice on the issues of the day. He is a liar.
And so too is Peter Dunne and by association Pete George. Complicit in these deceptions and lies.
liars liars liars.
Aha,we dont disagree with you,but,we for the purposes of legal propriety will stick with the Finance Ministers ”guessing” of the economics for now,
Unless of course the Member for Dipton comes right on out and publicly states that He and Slippery made the whole lot up one night while sitting at the Cabinet table getting pissed on a bottle of Glen Fiddich,
Where is the Member for Dipton by the way???cleaning out the shearing shed or something, We are always amused by a news conference featuring the Member from Dipton,they are all bound at some stage to have any of us watching to descend into fits of mad laughter as we can bank on a look crossing the Member from Diptons face along with a furrowed brow which gives a distinct impression of a man thinking ”what the fuck am I doing here and oh might as well bullshit my way through this seeing as I am”…
David Shearer had seemed like a different hope in politics. But he seems to be backing the Mallard and Little approach to “perception politics” with no facts required – in fact appearing to deliberately ignore known facts.
Unfortunately Shearer’s “new kind of politics” seems to have been an aspiratioin. Now ducked. Is David Shearer already owned by the Gotcha Gang?
Pete, you’re a shill for this government that your vile little leader is propping up. Everything you say is a piece of PR. Does Dunne pay you to stink up this place?
It’s got nothing to do with Dunne or UF. That’s just diversion as usual here (you know you hit a nerve when irrelevant and personal attacks come out).
It’s about Shearer showing he was paying lipservice to a “new kind of politics” as he now openly supports dishonest attack politics.
What’s dishonest about it?
Why isn’t your post a ‘gotcha’ attack on Labour?
Let’s see, a sympathetic National reporter like John Armstrong says stuff like
“That someone within National’s ranks should risk dirtying the reputation of the party’s biggest asset illustrates just how bitter and Machiavellian things have become in this case. ”
And
“The upshot of the subsequent claims surrounding the email leak has been virtual civil war in the party.”
And the blogs are awash with leaks from the National Party designed to undermine Collins and Simon Lusk.
Yet Petey suggests that Mallard and Little have no “facts”.
Open your eyes Petey. Do not confuse your ignorance with a lack of proof that the National Party is tearing itself apart.
I can see that a few Labour operatives are trying to tear National apart and bring down the Government. That nonsense is overshadowing the real issues that need to be examined.
It’s nothing like “holding the Government to account”, it’s an attempt win power by any means, not fair but fowl.
You’ll keep spinning the lines you’ve been given micky. I guess you’re pleased Shearer has been consumed by the same old so quickly, but do you really think your Cunliffe will lift the Labour game?
Pete you are starting to touch on an interesting point, which I have raised many times here, and in other forums.
The point is that, politics is irrelevant now, because it has deliberately been taken away from the ability of the voters to make a democratic difference. Voting does not make a difference, backing any of the main parties does not make a difference, the systems have been hyjacked decades ago, and those who sell themselves as change enablers to the electorate, nothing more than total liers. Best case scenario is that those who enter parliament with integrity, quickly wither become part of the system, or it beats them into submission quickly!
Your leader is a classic case of where NZ politics has been taken away from the people. Sure you can argue all day that he was farily elected, and all that does is illustrate the idiocy of the folk who like those in Epsom etc will simply vote with “their mate”. PD is a traitor to NZ politics, a pocket liner, and fair weather politician who changes sides regardless of what his electorate ever wanted him to do…still they vote for the Dunny Brushm but that is another conversation.
No NZ political party is going to save NZ, and its time for those who tread these boards to start accepting responsibility for their involvement. No matter which team you back, you are backing a team who is responsible in the past for selling out, the present and the future selling out of NZ!
Petey
Address Armstrong’s comments.
Go on, I dare you to.
I suspect it’s overstated, especially within caucus (obviously Boag has caused some ructions externally) but time will tell on that. What we’re seeing now is:
– Key endorsing Collins’ right to take action on her own.
– Shearer nailing his colours to Mallard’s mast.
I suggest that it’s a lot riskier for Shearer, especially as he’s now supporting a political approach he recently talked against.
Do you mind if Shearer goes down?
Address that, go on, I dare you.
So Petey you have moved on from saying Mallard has “no facts” to saying that you suspect Armstrong’s withering comments are “overstated”.
And it is clear that you have no background information on what is happening yet you choose to make such broad assertive comments.
You really are a waste of bandwidth sometimes Petey.
“…you choose to make such broad assertive comments.”
Mallard would never do that sort of thing, would he. But I haven’t seen the facts that back up his accusations against Collins.
You imply you have “background” information. If so please share – do you have a link to the facts? Or are you just making baseless broad assertive comments?
Comparing your actions to Mallard’s actions?
Why?
Thought you weren’t a politician, Pete?
That’s pretty weak felix, your heart doesn’t seem to be in the game any more.
I’m not comparing myself to Mallard or his actions. I suspect few would want that comparison, unless as a contrast.
Pete.
micky accused you of making broad assertive comments.
You quoted that phrase, and said “Mallard would never do that sort of thing, would he.”
If that’s not you comparing your actions to Mallard’s, then what is it? What other way is there to interpret your comment, in the context it was offered, using the English language?
Go.
Oh look, another one of Pete’s biodegradable comments.
whaddya mean sometimes MS, he’s about as relevant as a kerre Wooden /shelly bridgmen opinion piece and nowhere near as funny.
“I can see that a few Labour operatives are trying to tear National apart and bring down the Government. That nonsense is overshadowing the real issues that need to be examined.
Really? “A few Labour Operatives” can bring down the entire government and National Party apparatus?!?!
Not much of a government then, is it??
Mind you, I think’re you’re kinda overstating the case, Pete: National are achieving their own destruction without much help from the Left. We’re quite content sitting back munching popcorn, and enjoying the entertainment of a government in full meltdown.
(Pass the popcorn, please.)
I didn’t say they can bring the Government down, but they can try.
I agree that National are creating problems of their own too, quite a cluster lately.
If Labour left National to self destruct (as any Government does sooner or later) and concentrated more on rebuilding, preparing for being in Government again and demonstrating they are ready to resume leadership do you think they would become more popular faster?
A: No one in here but us chickens…
B: I ain’t tellin’ ya again. I’m makin’ you an ultimatum!
A; Ain’t no ul-tomatoes in here either…
😀
Pete, I continue to be amazed at how much hypocrisy you can cram into such a small space.
Your post decries gotcha politics and the politics of perception by engaging in, you guessed it, gotcha politics and the poiltics of perception.
Pete is complicit in the lies of this government. Saps the cred dry.
I’m not a politician.
I had hopes that Shearer would be a breath of fresh air and rejuvenate Labour, with more positive pragmatic politics. But it appears as if he is a pawn for the same old – in fact an increase of the same old.
Do you think Shearer is showing good leadership?
As opposed to the radical Neo-liberal ones that have now been tried, and failed!
We live in hope.
I’m not a politician.
That’s right – you show every sign of being completely unelectable. It’s the hypocrisy mostly, but also the witless trolling.
That’s witty. Or hypocritical trolling.
Don’t foregt the lack of knowledge about how stuff actually works like parliament, the law and other triffling areas that UF use to their self serving ends.
Pete, that’s twice in the last few days I’ve seen you deny being a politician.
In both cases it was your answer to being accused of “playing politics” or similar.
Is it now your contention that only a politician can be political? Are you saying that all the rest of the commenters here who you regularly accuse of “playing politics” or similar, are in fact politicians?
Pete, you are number 8 on the United Party’s list; you stood in an electorate seat a few months back.
By any resonable definition of the word, you’re a politician.
“But it appears as if he is a pawn for the same old – in fact an increase of the same old.”
How is that not ‘gotcha’ and ‘perception’ politics, and an attempt to tear down your political opponents through the use of unfounded smears?
You keep saying that labour is being dishonest about this. Demonstrate how please.
Other than assumption of bad faith, what do you base your accusation on?
A few weeks ago Shearer said “I want a new kind of politics, pragmatic and attentive to what works, not tied up in the squabbles of the past.”
What he said he wanted then is different to what he’s directly involving himself in now.
And Mallard and Little made accusations against Collins despite clear statements of denial from here and others. They supplied no facts to back up their assertions. I think that’s dishonest.
savagemicky may turn out to be more honest and link to the facts he also seems to be claiming are out there, somewhere. As a lawyer I don’t think he would claim that making major accusations against someone, possibly defamatory, and withholding supporting facts is being honest.
Cite the comments then.
I heard Mallard on checkpoint, which seems to be the i/v under dispute. He explicitly stated that his beliefs were based on a source, one that had been reliable in the past.
Are calling him a liar about that?
And Pete, I notice in your blog post that you cite stephen franks.
Did you notice the second half of his post, which implies that Collins will be sypathetic in the eyes of many because Pullar was getting what she deserved. ie, he implies that Collins leaked it? And that’s not all he does:
http://www.stephenfranks.co.nz/?p=4235
See that? He is saying that Collins actions are great politics because they distract from the real issue.
But of course, you are so concerned about tearing down your political opponents that you can’t mention any other possibilities as to what might be going on, even in passing. Can’t even admit, even to tyourself that it’s a possibility.
It’s all just nasty nasty lefties, 24/7.
I agree this has distracted from the real issues with ACC and Pullar, but Mallard and Little have been at the forefront of that very distraction, haven’t they.
Your quote includes:
Collins will be aware that all information necessary will need to come out.
If Mallard and Little front up with information that backs up their accusations – and that it was available to them at the time despite clear claims to the contrary by Collins – then they have nothing to worry about. And the public will know who was being honest then, won’t we.
Good grief.
What has the rather sweet suggestion that ACC beneficiaries have no right to privacy if they complain about being shafted (as per your quote) got to do with Collins’ idiotic case?
Stop trying to distract from the real issues McFlock! You’re as bad as Mallard!.
Nothing whatsoever, but Pete likes to throw in some irrelevant shit when he’s tied himself up in knots and is about to disappear.
He thinks to the casual observer it might appear that he hasn’t made a complete fool of himself if he types something, anything before he runs away and pretends the thread never existed.
That was a supremely relevant comment felix, typical of your contributions to debating on topic.
Don’t get too hissy when your demands are ignored, will you. You’re only sometimes useful.
My comment is an entirely relevant reply to McFlock’s question, Pete, and I stand by everything in it.
Would you like me to provide links to back up the veracity of my assertion that you frequently behave this way?
That was a supremely relevant comment felix, typical of your contributions to debating on topic.
That was either a pointless contribution, or sarcasm with astounding hypocrisy. Again. Or am I being nasty?
Pete you do not understand.
I do not have the slightest interest in showing you evidence that I may or may not have. The fact you do not have any source of your own does not concern me.
You should watch with your allegations too. The principle in Atkinson v Lange does not extend to stupid comments.
I do understand. You won’t back up your assertions with any facts.
I do have a source for my “allegations” – a lack of facts to back up accusations that were made. Therefore it’s easy to see a perception of political dishonesty.
What “allegations” should I watch? That some politicians are sometimes deliberately dishonest? It would be hard to prove that’s an unreasonable opinion wouldn’t it?
I’ve not seen you cite these ‘baseless allegations’ Pete.
I’d prefer a transcript, but a podcast or similar would be fine.
Citing isn’t required if you’re holding politicians to account, or that’s what some lawyers seem to be suggesting.
If there are unanswered questions do you just suggest your own versions of answers?
It seems all you need to do is make any allegations you want to (as long as it’s your opinion of course) and then refuse to provide evidence until someone takes a defamation case against you.
Pete George finally explians his modus operandi:
“It seems all you need to do is make any allegations you want to (as long as it’s your opinion of course) and then refuse to provide evidence until someone takes a defamation case against you.”
Anybody want to help me start a legal fund so that we can finally shut Pete up?
Yeah I’d pay real money to see that.
Pete George on Kiwiblog complaining about being threatened with legal action just for expressing his opinion in 3…2…1…
..Ms Collins had leaked the letter, despite her assurances she had not..
Gee Pete, you don’t think that a politician won’t lie to save their job? Such an innocent. Obviously doesn’t read much history.
I’m sure some politicians have lied to save their jobs, and for many other reasons.
Gee lprent, you don’t think that a politician won’t lie to try to destroy another politician’s job? Such an innocent.
(Note – that last sentence is not an allegation, it’s just a return jest in kind.)
felix – how much do you think they’ll need to raise to get someone to shut me up? You used to try it for free didn’t you?
“If there are unanswered questions do you just suggest your own versions of answers?”
No, you just stop asking questions because those in power, looking after the best interests of the country as a whole, will undoubtably answer them in their own good time.
“I’m not a politician.”
Pete, you often cry about the tough time you get on here, but what the f$#@k do you expect when your posts continue to be as lame and weak as this? This is a perfect example of why you get that hard time. You should reflect on it and sharpen up.
I couldn’t really believe it when I read that statement of yours. Dumbfounded would be an apt description. As Ps b says, you were on a party list and you stood in an electorate seat. In addition, you are no doubt a party member and you advocate hard for that party. You are without doubt a politician.
Think man think.
Luckily for the residents of Ohariu local MP and ”Leader” of the party of 1,United Future has long ago dropped the mantle of ”being something different in politics” except of course for those with an addiction to old videos featuring worms and a fixation with the word sensible…
Shameless self promotion of new blog looking at resource limits, environment, peak oil and peak everything from a New Zealand perspective.
Fracking Benefits Overblown
Why is it that oil and gas companies such as TAG Oil and Apache are so aggressively pursuing exploration of gas fields in New Zealand when US gas prices are at a 10 year record low of US$2.176 per mBtu? In January both Chesapeake Energy and ConocoPhillips announced plans to reduce gas natural gas output and shift towards more oil drilling. Futures as far forward as December 2017 were last week trading at below the US$5 per mBtu level that most companies require to make an adequate return on capital.
One of the reasons that natural gas production has still remained high even with these companies signalling changing tactics is that many of the wells currently producing are condensate wells. This means they not only produce natural gas but also natural gas liquids and oil. With Brent crude currently sitting at $123 a barrel and even higher prices for natural gas liquids this is more than enough to offset the low natural gas prices.
This brings us to New Zealand, the so called “Texas of the south” . A document from TAG Oil that was presented to investors in December 2012 threw around phrases such as the East Coast “literally leaking oil and gas” and announced the potential of “billions of barrels of oil.” TAG has said it has identified almost 700,000ha of conventional and unconventional targets. These unconventional targets are both deep sea resources such as Deepwater Horizon as well as land-based rigs using the controversial technique of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”
It would appear that with gas prices so low both now and for the at least the next five years TAG Oil is hoping to strike oil and strike it big. How much to trust the “billions of barrels of oil” line is however highly debatable. It is not uncommon for any extractive resource company to inflate the economic benefits in order to garner support. Oil companies are no different. Big numbers are the proverbial carrot dangled in front of those that inhabit both local and central government. With traditionally high unemployment in the East Coast any promise of jobs is bound to make the public more accepting of controversial practices such as fracking.
However, there is also concern about the ability for wells using fracking to provide long term economic benefits. A new well with multiple fractures costs between NZ$2.4 million and NZ$12.2 million to drill. After one year a well using fracking can have production fall by between 63 to 85 per cent compared to 25 to 40 per cent for a conventional well.
It is clear that these foreign oil companies such as TAG and Apache are here to make a quick buck. What will be left when the wells dry up is anyone’s guess but it certainly won’t be jobs.
http://southernlimitsnz.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/fracking-benefits-overblown.html
[Don’t make a habit of it – but welcome to the blogging world. — r0b]
Brent Crude is at $129US today, there is money in oil whilst demand lasts…the high price is going to kill demand and any “growth”. Here we go again, batten down the hatches guys.
Now that the price of oil and gas is going to be much higher we are heading for exploration of marginal fields that give low yields on energy invested.
Ask yourself a couple of questions:
1. Why is the oil industry now working marginal places like NZ so hard?
2. Why when we have global warming is there no great move away from oil and gas?
I walking to work now, seeya.
Thanks r0b – point taken.
Exactly Bored. As John Michael Greer writes in The Long Descent, we will see a number of these periods characterised by high oil prices reducing demand and shrinking economies, which in turn increases demand for oil as economies stabilise for short periods. The truth is we are in a slow decline now, it’s just that the micro data distracts a lot from the macro data.
I’m sure you already know the answers yourself but for those who don’t:
1. All the easy oil has been got. Oil companies are not moving increasingly into shale resources, oil sands and deepwater drilling for fun. It’s because there is no where left to turn. These reports of “massive oil field found” pale in comparison to previous finds and are often incredibly difficult and energy intensive to distract. It’s all very well finding a large field, but it doesn’t mean much when it’s uneconomical to extract, refine and export it.
2. Because oil is a super liquid fuel. There is nothing in the world that comes close to the energy returned on investment that oil provides. No one wants to give up their standard of living and oil is almost the sole reason why we have such a high standard of living. It’s importance cannot be overstated. We can wish all we want for technology to save us but we are just as likely to have success sacrificing a cow to the Sun God. I’m interested in facts, not faith. Also very importantly, oil is a liquid fuel. We cannot fill up our cars with wind, hydro or solar energy. A move to change the world fleet to electric vehicles is out of the question in terms of the energy inputs required.
I could go on and on but I’ll stop there 🙂
Andrew McKay
Insightful that the hard to get oil is our last option to keep the oil age on the road.
1+
The only reason that fracking has become popular over the last few years is due to the high price of oil. If for whatever reason oil dropped back to around $30 a barrel such as in 2008 these oil companies would lose a huge amount of money.
In an interview on National Radio this morning Pita says he is angry again as another MP initiative is undermined. When will he be so angry that he will walk?
Pita is angry? I’d say his Party members were pretty pi**ed off as well…
Count the number of ‘what I am saying..’ responses to questions the jabba the Mut gives.
Poor old Pita and turia’s Whanau Ora gravy train isn’t stopping to sprinkle taxpayer gifts where they want it to….boo hoo.
How many times has Pita and his mate, Tariana been angry now? Yet they keep going back for more.
They remind me of PG.
LOL!
Where is he, by the way? No.no.no – let sleeping PGs lie. For a long, long time.
The International Monetary Fund has come out with criticism of the National Governments non-action in addressing the high cost of the NZ dollar saying that the dollar is over-valued by at least 20%,
Also in line for a serve is the National Governments anti-employment cost cutting activities with a warning from the IMF that National should not indulge in further radical attempts at balancing its books by severe cuts in its spending,
Its obvious to anyone with the slightest amount of economic nous that the loss of employment from Government will create an immediate + in terms of Government expenditure, BUT,the unintended effects of a job lost from within Government will simply mean LESS ECONOMIC ACTIVITY in the wider community and creating job losses en masse from within Government simply creates a lot less economic activity,
It doesnt take a mental giant to figure out what is in reality a simple economic equation,but,as National and its supporters have barely reached the giddy heights of ”BEST GUESS” as economic thinking we will break the effect of Government cost cutting via job losses from within Government service down to the equation understood even by 5 year olds,
Sack X amount of civil servants and out in the wider community the lawn mowing crews drop a worker off the payroll as their business decreases,down the road at the pie shop another worker loses employment as the lawn mowing crews that buy lunch and smoko from them have now shrunk in size and the pie shops selling less,
Its that simple,the tracking of a National Government exacerbated economic recession,what it simply says,understandable to even a 5 year old is that whatever the National Government saves in revenue from having sacked X civil servants it loses as much or more from the business shrinkage in the wider community along with the cost of having the numbers collecting the dole rise,
Simple enough???the IMF understand the economics,We understand the economics,We wonder what mental blockage is possessed by Slippery and His Minister of Finance where they dont even seem to be able to grasp such simple economic truisms….
“Also in line for a serve is the National Governments anti-employment cost cutting activities with a warning from the IMF that National should not indulge in further radical attempts at balancing its books by severe cuts in its spending”
B12 – The IMF history of intervention is exactly those measures of austerity (cutting), which are demanded before bailout funds are handed over….
Perhaps Key and co are on a re-emptive strike?
We are of the distinct impression that Slippery and Co simply dont give a damn about the overall economic conditions that they are creating for EVERYONE, National is afterall the Party of naked self interest and we see the whole focus of National,s economics as to simply lock as much of the country,s wealth,income and assets into the hands of their core supporters befor the inevitability of an electoral sacking of the present Government,
Obviously with that in mind Slippery and Co are quite happy to at the end of this term drop the whole mess into the laps of a Labour/Green/NZfirst Government knowing that any party such as Labour that sees itself as reliant upon chiseling votes from the right to secure Government will be loath to reverse in any way Nationals billion dollar baby tax cuts for its rich mates,
We see in the belated admission from Treasury that these tax cuts were NOT fiscally neutral,Minister of Finance Bill English,s admission that Nationals economics were formulated upon a guess and Slippery,s admission that his government hasnt got a snowballs chance in hell of pulling the Governments accounts out of the red by 2014/15 where the IMF warning to the National Government might have been generated from,
incidently,initial advice from the IMF,later over-ridden by a later report from the IMF directly advised the incoming National government after the 2008 election to consider ”Quantitative Easing” as an economic tool to alleviate the worst effects of the 07/08 banking melt-down…
The Slippery One did promise to lower wages and the only way to do that is to increase unemployment so that there’s more competition for the available jobs.
Your date is screwed at the top of this Open Mike thread. We have moved into April now which I believe is the 4th month.
Gosman says something that is evidence based for the first time this week.
After all that boring and counter-factual RWNJ spin.
Congratulations.
Correct about the Boxer wars as well, but I have no idea, and neither does Gosman, what it has to do with the present day burglary of our economy.
I never mentioned anything about the Boxer wars so am unsure why you bring this up. There was also only one Boxer ‘war’ though. Again not sure why you choose to pluralise it.
Because the Chinese do.
And you have not been going on, ad infinitum, about the wars between China and the West in the Hickey thread. Almost totally irrelevant.
Where is your evidence that the Chinese choose to pluralise the Boxer Rebellion? I have seen nothing about this in any material I have read.
Don’t read much, do you?
That seems to imply there is lots of evidence out there supporting your view that it is wars plural. Care to link to some of them?
“Boxer Wars” such as those referred to like this?
“China’s Foreign Relations Gravest Since Boxer Wars”
The Evening Independent
June 3, 1925
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19250603&id=Ds1PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nVQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1854,1484241
Gosman will now proceed to pretend that he hasn’t seen your post.
Oh I saw it alright. It provided me with a good few seconds of merriment as I imagined the person trawling the internet to find a single article where the copywriter most likely mistakenly called the Boxer Rebellion by the wrong name. It is quite easy to dismiss actually with the simple question – How was it more than one war?
Because it was many separate incidents over time. Not one!
The defining part of all of them was the ongoing tension between Westerners and their Chinese supporters on one side and the Chinese authorities and sometimes the boxer movement, on the other.
Not just the most well known one in Beijing..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Rebellion
I’ve always heard Chinese refer to them as the Boxer wars, in English. Rebellion is obviously not a popular interpretation in China.
It is correct that Chinese objected to opium being brought into China to pay for tea and other products. Britain and other Western countries, could not afford to pay in silver “shoes” the accepted currency. Many large and influential companies such as Swires and Jardins made their fortunes smuggling opium into China.
You’ve heard Chinese people refer to them as the Boxer wars? Hardly very persuassive evidence there. All wars pretty much involve separate incidents. The Second world war involved a huge number of separate wars and in fact could be classified as two distinct major conflicts (Pacific and Europe) plus a number of more minor conflicts such as the that in North Africa and the Middle East. It still isn’t refered today as the Second World Wars is it. The Boxer movement actually was created and defeated within a very short space of time so calling it Wars is not accurate at all. This is distinct from the Opium Wars which involved two conflicts between the UK and China that were separated by a number of years. It is quite clear to me that you mixed up the Boxer Rebellion with the Opium Wars and are now trying to cover your mistake.
Duh
I take that back to an extent. There does seem to be more than one newspaper calling them the Boxer Wars. However they are all quite old and mostly seem to be American. I also find that “boxer war” has 720 references to just 26 for “boxer wars”. “boxer rebellion” it must be stated has over 10,000 references. Regardless it certainly isn’t evidence that the Chinese call them that.
I thought you left to do some “work” an hour ago?
With the amount of comments you managed yesterday & today I’m glad you’re not in my employ…
Topsy turvey gos – he says black when others see white, he sees inefficiency where others see good, he claims to provide evidence where others see none, he works when other people take lunch, and takes about the same amount of time at work that others take for lunch.
Probably has to ask repeatedly whether his clients “want fries with that?”
The Guardian writes about the start of the Falklands War-
‘After fewer than three years in office, Thatcher had achieved little beyond tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor’.
Sound familiar?
And she didn’t achieve much in overall cuts for the overall government spending because of the rise in unemployment and the need to pay more in dole payments.
And yet the Tories were in power for 18 years and the Labour government that replaced them pretty much carried on with most of the policies. I’d say that was highly successful politically wouldn’t you?
Tell that to someone living in Sunderland.
Just because idiot politicians and some experts in cognitive dissonance, like yourself, think that, “if it does not work, we need more of it”, does not make it successful.
Britain has FPP and, like us, voters were not offered alternatives to RW economic destruction.
Normally FPP allows a new Government to come in with rand new policies that are quite different to the ones implemented by the previous Government. However the Labour party in Britain didn’t do that really. Why is that KJT?
“to come in with rand new policies that are”
What a very Freudian slip. Ayn would be proud of you.
LOL – Gosman caught in broad daylight, showing why his arguments are circular garbage!
Well done Gosman, you have shown all your trolliness, why the righ/left paradigm is a total sham, and how the system is owned, and why Labour is what is now is!
Beautiful!
Ummmmm….. how exactly?
Bit too subtle for your comprehension levels, I’m afraid.
Care to provide any evidence supporting your statement that the Chinese pluralise the ‘Boxer wars’ or did you just make this up to try and stop yourself from looking foolish?
Gossie giving us sage advice on how to avoid looking foolish. Gold!
ahahahah!
Like our Labour party which is several steps to the right of Keith Holyoak.
Election funding by vested interest perhaps. As party membership becomes disillusioned with NACT light and leave.
Still hasn’t explained the immense political success of Thatcher at reorientating the political landscape in the UK. Last time that happened from the left would have been the First Labour Government here and the Atlee Government in the UK. That is around 70 years ago. The left seems pretty pathetic now wouldn’t you agree?
What left?
Labour has not been left since Norm Kirk/Rowling.
The shear weight of propaganda and BS from media and right wing, so called, think tanks has overwhelmed public discourse.
When I was young someone holding my, present, sort of social democratic opinions would have been compatible with National, let alone Labour. It shows how much the dialogue has been shifted to the loony right.
I did a Google search on Boxer Wars KJT. Is this what you were meaning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzgAUzsFUSs
I didn’t see any obvious Chinese people in that video though. Perhaps those guy’s in the masks are.
Tool.
Yeah I agree. Someone making a statement that is unwilling to back it up with any evidence is an enormous tool. Good to have you on my side McCock.
Oh, I see what you did there. You’d better write that one down for the ages – it would be a crying shame if civilization managed to preserve Shakespeare bu lost the collected works of Gos.
Don’t worry. So long as we have someone as obsessive as you I am sure my works here won’t be lost to posterity. See you can provide a useful service for society McFlap.
oh my god – you think I rely on anything other than the search engine?
You provide fresh bullshit everyday, and it seems to be a limitless resource, so I don’t need to stockpile it. We have not yet reached Peak Gos.
Stuart Hall, in his essay “The Great Moving Right Show” explained it well back in the 80s – Thatcher didn’t suceed in her stated claim of cutting government spending, but what she did suceed in doing was shifting popular opnion to the right where it embraced the neoliberal narrative.
This essay, which draws on Hall’s essay, explains how Thatcher’s government neutralised the left by targettung the contradictions the Labour Party was trying to negotiate. Basically, the Labour Party pandered to the capitalist establishment, creating a conflict between the Labour Party and the working class and unions they should have been supporting. Thatcherism applied pressure to this fissure, and then shifted the dominant narrative to one that promised much to the masses.
http://www.newint.org/features/1984/03/05/show/
And gaining control over the narrative in the media was a key part of Thatcher’s success:
So a very successful politician then. If only the left had people with the same sort of ability. Thankfully you don’t.
“Ability” for economic destruction? Interesting view..
I’d actually dispute the point that the left don’t have people with that “ability” however fortunately they are much fewer and farther between than the surfeit of those on the right….
No, unlike the right we try to stay away from having psychopaths as leaders.
The Falklands war did work as an economic stimulus and distraction from the devastation Thatcher caused at home.
Interestingly enough, I was told by one of our Military that Britain could not mount another Falklands war. Thatcher also destroyed Britain’s commercial shipping fleet. Now outsourced to Panama and Liberia.
Given the fact they don’t have an active Aircraft Carrier at the moment I think the lack of a British owned commercial shipping fleet is the least of the problem. Anyway they won’t really need to carry out another Falklands war. The islands are well equipped with defence personnel, (as opposed to the handful of Royal Marines in 1982). The Argentinians would be crazy to attempt to invade.
Really. Military expert as well. I am gobsmacked!
Why do you think the NZ navy thought it necessary to buy a logistics ship when the last vestiges of New Zealand’s merchant fleet were sold out?
Ever heard of supply lines?
Ever heard of providing evidence for your views when asked? Where is your evidence about the Boxer rebellion being pluralised by the Chinese?
This deflection was brought to you by an IQ of 80 and the letter “S”.
So your bold military strategy of defending islands 8000 miles from the UK with no supply lines isn’t to be adjusted, then?. Tool.
Why wouldn’t they have a supply line?
Care to supply evidence for this rather bold asertion McFluck or are you as bigger tool as KJT?
Oh, I’m sure they’ll have a couple of logistics ships in the area and fly as much as they can in – but “stretched” was the case in 1982, and “very stretched” would be the case today.
The US would tacitly provide logistics support. The UK couldn’t do it itself.
And the Argentinians have a very good understanding of what went right and what went wrong for them last time. They won’t be making the same errors in any new argie-bargie with the UK. (See what I did there ha)
Interesting point about the US – they tried to keep a lid on it 30 years ago because it was allied with both nations. But I don’t think they’ll do the active support, even just for logistics, thing. No benefit in it for them.
On second thought don’t answer that. I think I already know.
Another bold claim from Gos – that he thought twice in one day.
Anyway it was fun playing with you McFlop but I must go and do some work now.
If you see KJT on here would you be a good chap and ask him about the evidence on the Boxer wars for me please? He seems to have gone all shy since I asked him for it for some reason.
Toodle pip till next time.
Gosman, our local expert on Oriental history and our inscrutable neighbours in the north.
Another search threw up this link
http://www.myspace.com/video/skyhart-pictures/boxer-wars/2391916
Again no Chinese that I could see but the Boxer’s in question could have been possibly made in China.
Is this what you were meaning KJT?
Interesting how Vietnam is also a regional power…
In that video?!?
I think you overestimate their chances of connecting that video to geo-political realities.
Absolutely yes!!!!
Addressing what the IMF says is a 20% overvaluation of the New Zealand dollar for the next Labour/Green Government will be politically problematic,
The Governor of the reserve Bank,s role would seem to be in part to ”talk” the dollar down,this in reality has the same effect as urinating without first unzipped ones fly,in a world where markets decide attempts by the Governments banker to ”talk” things up or down are as close to useless,
Government devaluation is what has been the accepted tool in recent history in bringing a currency to a value that makes any county,s production competitive both internally and internationally,
Our view of Government devaluation by legislation is that it is a primitive blunt instrument which has an immediate long term negative impact upon the internal economy which in monetary terms is somewhat mollified by the increase in actual revenue to exporters but off-set by the revenue and social cost to the wider community devaluation is not particularly politically sustainable,
However,where an overvalued currency is also coupled to an economy in recession,in essence one feeding off of the other in a negative cycle, Quantitative easing is in fact the modern intelligent economic tool which smart economics dictate can,and should,be used to address both the problems of an overvalued currency and an economy mired in recession,
It is a simple matter of mathmatics that will enable the measurement of what amount of Quantitative Easing will create which amount of inflation within an economy,thus equating to X amount of growth and X amount of devaluation as the ”market” takes note of the increased supply of New Zealand dollars and revalues it accordingly,
How tho to distribute such Quantitative easing through the economy,simple!!!use the Quantitative easing to address the growing problem of the cost of housing both rental and purchase building State housing in areas of high demand,
80 years ago we had the exact same economic and social problems caused by housing shortages along with an economy mired in recession,what we have outlined above was in fact the means,the clever tools if you will that were used at the time to fix those problems…
Need to change the monetary system else no amount of quantitative easing will work. Essentially, the government needs to start printing it’s own money without interest rather than borrowing it by selling bonds.
“the government needs to start printing it’s own money without interest rather than borrowing it by selling bonds.”
That is exactly right. (there would of course need to be strict controls to prevent political use of such printing)
At the moment privately owned central banks around the world print money and lend it out at an interest rate.
Why is this allowed to happen?
Imagine if we did it ourselves…… Why couldn’t we? This is without a doubt the biggest rort the world has ever seen and bloody hardly nobody knows about it. It is real, it is right now and it is costing you and me fucking shitloads in interest payments to these privately-owned banks. For no reason. Big chunks of our working lives go directly to these parasites every day – it happened today, it will happen again tomorrow.
WAKE UP EVERYBODY !!
Aha,which is why we advocate a Financial Transaction Tax along with a specific Quantitative easing to be spent into a specific social policy,
A Financial Transaction Tax simply stops the need for Government to borrow while still giving an incoming Government the where-with-all to be able to implement it,s program without recourse to borrowing,
Quantitative easing simply the Government ”printing its own money” by creating a debt between Housing NZ and Treasury/The Reserve Bank allows for what is a growing social problem to be addressed via a strengthened State house building program,
Once alerted to a Government having increased the supply of NZ Dollars the ”markets” will simply reflect the Quantitative easing by revaluing the NZ Dollar downward to reflect that increased supply…
Why create the debt?
Government creates the money, spends it where they need to and then recollects it via taxes then to get quantitative easing all the government has to do is either not collect as high taxes or print more money.
Also, the value of the NZ$ is determined more by the interest rates being charged by the banks than by the amount of money in circulation. Drop those interest rates, by the government making money available through mortgages/business loans at no interest, and the foreign exchange value will fall even if there was no extra money in circulation.
Do you actually have a total understanding of what the term ”Quantitative Easing” means???
The ”debt” created between in our example given, Housing NZ and Treasury/Reserve Bank simply ”justifies” and ”quantifies” the amount of extra money that a Government proposes to produce,
We use such an example as what we have in all sincerity as we see a growing housing shortage +high unemployment+an economy mired in recession+a NZ Dollar overvalued by 10-20%,
The method of ”Quantitative Easing”(the production of an amount of money from no place in particular)simply addresses and alleviates to a lesser or greater degree all those issues of economy above while asking others to have confidence in such measures as they are measurable ”money creations” designed specifically as a non-exportable solution to internal matters of economy,
Having then built our X amount of State Owned Housing with our X amount of Quantitative Easing as Government we know have an asset that equals the debt which incidently is also owned by us as Government,
We simply then remove the debt,in the strange world of bean counting shown as an asset on our Government books and we end up with an asset of State owned housing,
We havnt much to say as to your economic solution except to say that your recipe of cutting taxes as you go would simply require your Government to indulge in an ongoing series of money printings and we dare say that befor such could ever be attempted you would have befor-hand instituted a One Party State and seized the means of production,distribution,and,supply…
What recipe? I gave two options (there are probably more) for bringing about an increase in money within the system if the government prints the money without interest on it.
That’s pretty much what you’re arguing for. My use of taxes is to replace the present, non-functioning, OCR.
All the resources of the nation belong to the people of the nation and so they have a right to say how those resources are used – No parties needed. It’s called participatory democracy. Yes, it’s contrarian to the capitalists owning everything and thus having dictatorial control over everyone else’s lives.
Right, so not actually creating a debt, merely a book entry.
You do understand that that is how all money comes into being don’t you? The problem ATM is that it’s created by private banks that charge interest on it. That needs to be stopped and the government start printing the money without interest. When that happens then quantitative easing will have a significant effect upon the foreign exchange value.
Gosh who would have thunk it banks print money into existence,Wow,
Debating anything with someone that cuts the intent and meaning of paragraphs and sentences into smaller and smaller pieces and then gives out non-sensical answers on the straw-men He or She has created is a waste of energy and we dont propose to do much more of it with you,
We will add tho,your wee ”home ownership” model via tax cuts smacks of Sir(spit) Roger Douglas,s rantings which then in your latest post morphs into a rant worthy of the occupy movement,
However,we await with bated breath your ascendency to a non-party Governed State and our only question there is how will this utopia be achieved…
What home ownership model via tax cuts?
I think you should learn to read. That way you can stop putting words into others mouths.
We aren’t even on the radar when it comes to TPP.
Does NZ even get a say in whether we invite Canada to join the TPP or does the US simply decide everything these days?
+ with Obama’s recently exposed pugilistic punditry, how much weight can there be in these words:
“Every country that’s participating is going to have to make some modifications,”
I wonder if Obama can name a single modification that the US is making ? Perhaps changing the size of their ‘what we want today!’ notepads as they incrementally deconstruct the decaying framework of the free market. Replacing it with an armour-plated super-structure solely designed to ease the transfer of ownership into fewer and fewer hands whilst simultaneously removing the legal sovereignty of the people and by default their independence.
Silly question, especially when you have a bunch of authoritarian followers in government who will kowtow to who they perceive to be the most powerful entity around.
Does George Galloway’s upset win in Bradford’s by election hold a lesson for the NZ left?
http://www.readingthemaps.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/from-bradford-to-auckland.html
Fracking fuzzy logic
Of course the bogs in-house trolls are lapping up Farrars’ fuzzy logic…
The public hearing into a plan to build a monorail through Department of Conservation land in Fiordland has heard the 150 million dollar proposal
The hearing is on to get the OK to put this through at great cost to the environment. So the wealthy person can say ‘I think there is a place in the world I still haven’t been. I can spare a week in my busy schedule to go south to NZ and then be whisked off to this beauty spot with no time wasting – time is money to me. Then I can cross it off my list.” This is how they think when the whole point is to get the chance to see nature, enjoy it or feel stirred by its immense presence, largely unaffected by little us.
Venice is being loved to death with invading hordes of tourists. It is a built enironment that can stand even less the petulant demands of the wealthy tourist. The seeds of destruction of one of our beautiful places are in this speculative venture.
And this monorail-building crowd want a 40 year lease. Long before that time we won’t have large numbers of wealthy tourists visiting here, they will come but in smaller numbers or in discrete downloads from cruise ships. This may not be viable for maintaining a luxury service at a profit.. And it looks as if NZ is not going to regain the opportunity to achieve affluence for very many, so most of us won’t be able to afford to be replacement visitors.
There are numerous reasons why tourism could become a falling star for us. One is our remoteness. Already the British government have brought in a malicious long-haul exit tax that has started to reduce the number of valuable Brit tourists we receive. All right for Britain, conveniently placed to visit all of Europe which we helped them to keep at bay when the Nazis threatened. Now the sites are tourist spots, places of sad remembrance. We can be cut off at the knees by the right wing looking for taxes that their people may be able to stomach.
gosman the boxer was first multiplied in a di-lithium drive then passed through a chronosynclastic infandubulum.
so there smarty pants.
Question three looks interesting.
Gotta get through question one first though and that could take most of the day.
http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/2/f/3/00HOH_OralQuestions-List-of-questions-for-oral-answer.htm
edit: And we’re off to a roaring start!
Anonymous..Seems to me they get used just the way Al Qaeda has. Nothing to do with the desire to regulate the internet!
Smells a little bit like the Uruwera case, which was obviously porked in order to create some local terror fear in order to enable legislative clamp down.
Great thing with Anonymous is that you don’t actually have to prove anything at all, in order to clamp down!
Anonymous, even easier to manipulate, and propagate than Al Qaeda eh!
I thought the same thing. Accusing Anonymous also helps to make the security issues less so…eg “its Anonymous, who havent they hacked, if the FBI cant keep them out, well….”
Virtual terrorists – What hacker group in their right mind is going to call themselves Anonymous. The name is an absolute give away IMO, as are the obvious targets, and the fact they are being fingered for every attack going around. It’s the AQ playbook in cyber-space!
The Minister will withdraw and apologize!!!Crusher just copped one from the Speaker,
There,s an interesting dynamic going on within that particular little interplay between Labour,s Charles Cauvel, Crusher Collins, the Speaker, and, Winston Peters,
Crusher was asked by Chauvel why She was hiding behind the Privacy Commissioner,s inquiry when refusing to answer questions in the House on just who leaked the Boag email to Her to the media,
Crusher,s answer to Chauvel was in the vein of the usual ”not in the public interest” waffle and She finished this with a allusion to ”the liars in this place”,
It being unbecoming to have a Minister call another MP a liar in the House Chauvel objected to Speaker Lockwood Smith who refused His objection claiming that Crusher did not mention any particular MP as a liar,
NZFirst Leader Winston Peters was all over Smith in His point of order saying that Crusher was either calling all those occupying the opposition Benches liars or referring to Her own side of the House as liars,
End result Crusher is spanked by the Speaker and ordered to withdraw and apologize for the liar comment,
Raises 2 points dont it, it shows that there,s a lot to be said for ”experience” in the trench fight that is a constant in the Parliaments debating chamber and perhaps Crusher,s overt willingness to speedily withdraw and apologize for the remark made might have shown that remark as a Freudian slip where She actually was referring to ”liars in this place” as those who occupy the same side of the House as She does,
From the forensic psychologists point of view Crusher while still possessing that snide snigger as She rattles Her silver spoons in answer to such questioning also sounds bone weary,the wearyness of one under fire from all sides,(including Her own),
Winston should with all His canny perception of others weak points in the House, picked up on this and been all over Crusher like a rash,to us Crusher sounds a bit like Nick Smith on the point of major melt-down just after being made deputy leader of National under the leadership of Brash…
McCully explains that he’s not responsible:-
An MP ” is not responsible”
That is news?
Contrary to RWNJ theory, the MPS aren’t there just to receive high pay checks.
Natural justice would seem to support Ambrose in this quest to see his name cleared.
Jonathon Milne has laid out the tea-saga process in his review.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10796192
Great. Had been thinking that Ambrose was maligned without foundation by the Police Deputy Commissioner and by John Key. Hope he takes them both to court and hope he WINS!
ianmac. Have just read the Jonathon Milne article. Ambrose got a very raw deal indeed. Key obviously saw an opportunity to exploit the situation and conned the cops into action and cynically maligned not only Ambrose but the Herald on Sunday in the process.What a thoroughly nasty little man John Key is. Hope the Herald on Sunday takes him to Court as well and wins.
Thanks for that link – it is a MUST read and I feel personally vindicated as I felt all along that this was what probably happened. I am really pleased that Ambrose has the support of others in his field.
Having worked in the justice area, I was also appalled at the Asst Police Commissioner’s statement last week suggesting that the Police considered Ambrose essentially guilty as only a court can make that decision. Really hope that Ambrose, with the support of others, do not let this matter rest.
Hey Gosman, from Stiglitz to you… “there is no intellectual basis for the view that unfettered markets lead to efficiency..”
Gosman, Yes “the left does seem pathetic now”, but left wing views are powerful and as I read history they have had more effect since the Protestant Reformation than right wing views. Right wing views are deservedly called “reactionary”.