This article shows up a few interesting and pertinent points.
NZ is sadly pimping for Obama’s TPP.
What was promised at Hawaiian golf game?
Funny John Campbell wasn’t taken to the holiday house Key actually goes to each summer.
So this is what happens to Reserve Bank Governors? They work for the globalist agenda.
The TPP, despite the upbeat headline, isn’t going to happen.
Japan and Australia are ensuring this is not occurring, while we play lapdog to US corporate interests.
“A sticking point has been Japanese reluctance to open market access in the “sacred” agricultural sectors — rice, wheat, beef, pork, sugar and dairy products. The recent visit to Japan by US President Barack Obama failed to deliver a major breakthrough on that front..”
“It is possible a Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal will be thrashed out by the end of the month, says Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) executive director Alan Bollard.” The key word here is possible. Not probable or likely.
the fact that we are among the group for an ‘ambitious, high quality agreement.’ In other words a totally open global market for corporate predators to maximise their profits in.
“Bollard said another question was whether, if the TPP negotiations arrived at a “mediocre” outcome, New Zealand and some other TPP partners keen on an ambitious, high quality agreement would sign up to it anyway. “I wouldn’t know.”
Well I suppose it depends what the manifestations of ambition and high quality are, but the fact is (cf: Wikileaks) NZ’s negotiating stance has not been aligned with that of the US. Far from it.
Because neither of them are on their respective negotiating teams? Our negotiating team was established and briefed by the fifth Labour cabinet, by the way.
Not a party political point on my behalf.
Merely think that signing the TPP would impact badly in the country’s sovereignty as NAFTA did to Mexico, Canada and the US.
Yes and the whole deal will not be see till it’s signed.
So, no thanks. I prefer not to sign deals over which I have no oversight. Surely this allies to country’s citizens as well.
Or do you implicitly trust that our leaders have ordinary NZ citizens best interests at the top of their list?
The events of the 1984 – 1993 would suggest we would be wise not to trust that.
Um, the whole deal will not be seen until Parliament is required to ratify it.
That’s a consequence of the fact that it’s negotiated behind closed doors. Many people who don’t like that seem oblivious to the reason for it, namely that if we debate it in the open all the other parties will know what our bottom lines are, giving them an advantage over us.
As for free trade deals, Closer Economic Relations with Australia seems to be a good one. They say NAFTA is bad for Mexico, but they also say it’s good for Canada, and I think Mexico’s economy might be suffering more because of the, y’know, death squads than the free trade deals. I understand our FTA with China is helping cushion us from the GFC.
Nonetheless, I will be implacably opposed to any agreement that weakens Pharmac and I’ll be looking very cynically at anything that impacts internet freedom, such as it is.
The TPPA was on my list of things to do until Wikileaks proved that our negotiating team are trustworthy.
I think in matters involving other countries and matters that have of such long term consequences to people of the the country and agreements that cannot be easily stopped at will, a simple majority in parliament should not be enough. There should be at least a 67% (2/3) approval of MPs, in my opinion.
That sort of % should also apply for constitutional and other very important issues such as change of flag, legalising of cannabis,
becoming a republic etc for example.
The TPPA was on my list of things to do until Wikileaks proved that our negotiating team are trustworthy.
Please remind me – which Minister is the NZ negotiating team directed by? What has led you to place so much of your trust in this National Government Minister?
In your response to your comment saying NAFTA has benefited Canada.
“Canada has become a noticeably more unequal society in the free trade era. Real incomes declined for the large majority of Canadians in the 1990s; they increased only for the top fifth. Employment became more insecure and the social safety net frayed.
While productivity has grown—rapidly in some sectors—wages have not, a trend mirroring the de-linking that has taken place in the U.S. But the overall productivity gap with the U.S. has not narrowed as free trade proponents predicted; rather, it has widened recently.
Successive waves of corporate restructuring—bankruptcies, mergers, takeovers, and downsizing—have been accompanied by public sector restructuring—downsizing, deregulation, privatization, and offloading of state responsibilities. Public sector spending and employment have declined sharply, and publicly owned enterprises in strategic sectors such as energy and transportation have been transferred en masse to the private sector.”
“NAFTA has also been used to weaken Canada’s sovereignty and promote its economic assimilation by the United States. It has led to greater pressure on Canada and Mexico to conform to U.S. foreign policy objectives.”
“The experience of Canadian farmers clearly demonstrates that more trade does not necessarily translate into more prosperity. The National Farmers Union points out that, since 1988, agricultural exports have almost tripled, but net farm income (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by 24%. ”
I already answered that – I’m telling you what I think, Phil. This notion of yours that they’ll fold…what’s stopping them already?
It’s right there in plain(ish) English at Wikileaks – the USA vs. everybody else at the table including NZ.
The people who have serious skin in this game are importers and exporters. If anyone loses big it will be them. Farmers, for example.
The National Party’s support base, in other words.
Let’s look at this another way. If trade terms with the USA are shit then I can go hawk my wares in China instead. There’s absolutely no purpose in anyone selling anyone else out: it’s Underpants Gnomes stuff
Sell out.
???
Profit!
Perhaps you think the officials involved will all take a nice fat bribe? Shares in Oravida?
It comes down to one simple fact that nobody seems to understand – we don’t need the agreement. We don’t even need the FTAs and WTO that we’re presently signed up with. Not for trade.
Of course, as has been said time and time again – this really isn’t a FTA, it’s a free capitalism agreement. More about the easy movement of money across borders, the easy purchasing of land by anybody and the implementation of IP laws that will restrict innovation and prevent competition.
So, the fact that the IP proposals, like most of the other clauses, have two or more separate versions that differ markedly on the details is irrelevant?
Do you think Helen Clark sent our negotiating team in there with no bottom lines? Or do you think National have shifted our bottom lines?
Do you think that the CER with Australia is a bad idea too?
No, I’m not planning for some future scenario. I just think expecting our negotiators to betray us is the sort of behaviour that deserves betrayal, and I still want to read the eventual agreement they present to us to sign up to before I make my mind up about it.
And that’s the point. 600 corporates have had more oversight of the proposals than our elected representatives. The US government is controlled by corporate lobbyists ( sadly this pattern is beginning to emerge here…Collins, Williamson, Key)
The TPP not democratic and I can’t believe any progressive party would ever support it. If Labour support it, then they are still follow the neoliberal cult of unrestrained capitalism.
Clearly people should vote Mana or Green to ensure this does not happen.
So, the fact that the IP proposals, like most of the other clauses, have two or more separate versions that differ markedly on the details is irrelevant?
I believe that IP law needs significant overhaul and shouldn’t be entrenched before that overhaul happens and the TPPA will entrench them.
Do you think Helen Clark sent our negotiating team in there with no bottom lines? Or do you think National have shifted our bottom lines?
I’d say that National have changed the bottom lines – that’s generally what happens when a government is changed. That said, I don’t think that Labour should have started the negotiations either.
Do you think that the CER with Australia is a bad idea too?
Yes. All we need to do is to set up our own rules of trade and make sure that they are about trade. This free movement of money that we’ve got is destroying us but doing wonders for the already rich.
There’s a real manipulation of the Bollard quote by the NZ Herald article.
Headline:
TPP deal on cards this month: Bollard
Highlighted quote in big print in the middle of the article:
“What I see is the possibility that something gets initialled late May … and at that stage it is all out on the table.”
Alan Bollard, Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation executive director
Full quote, including an omitted part, in the article is much more ambivalent:
“What I see is the possibility that something gets initialled late May — I just don’t know if they will make it — and at that stage it is all out on the table,” he said.
Yes the Herald has turned the whole story round with the heading.
About 4 key factors mentioned in the detail of the story that will prevent it…US congress, China, Australia, Japan
Good to see the Japanese actually care about their citizens to protect key industries, so much so they see them as ‘sacred.’
Pity we don’t share the same attitude.
One of the reason that organised crime has taken such massive hold in some areas of Mexico is the unemployment and economic destruction of many farming and provincial areas resulting from NAFTA. Tens or hundreds of thousands of small and medium scale family type farms closed down or were bankrupted as subsidised big corporate US agricultural products flooded into Mexico.
It meant that there was a major vacuum which criminal organisations moved in and filled. Economic abandonment made it hard to resource law enforcement properly and made it easy for corruption of public servants and officials to take hold.
But you would have to know some historical context to understand that, which is not necessary if all you want to do is flip a quick, meaningless quip.
I’ll save the next quick quip for when I have a better understanding of the context, CV, but from your description it looks like the Mexicans got shafted.
As for the TPPA, if we ever see a document put up for ratification, I’ll be surprised and on the look-out for fishhooks. Although I am looking forward to DtB’s response too.
As for the TPPA, if we ever see a document put up for ratification
Well, the parts of it which need legislative chances will be put up under urgency as a fait accompli with no negotiable clauses, and the rest of it which doesn’t need to go through parliament (eg just requires regulatory changes) will have already been signed up to and be a done deal.
No, that’s not the problem with Oravida. The problem there is that Collins used her government position to improve her own family’s financial position.
..end the danse macabre…just decriminalise/regulate/tax the safest intoxicant of all..eh..?
..(and the misleading/lies about pot continue unabated..even a supposed ‘serious’ website like slate has published bullshit claiming you have ‘to smoke at least 15 grams’ to die from a cannabis overdose..(!?)
..bloody hell..!..that’s only a half an oz…!
..and were that true..myself (and many others) should be dead many times over..
..to become the first ever to die from smoking cannabis..
..and guess which corporate/access-media outlet has jumped to reprint this tripe..?
..yep..!..long that bastion of clear/accurate information on the cannabis-issue..
..you sneer at ‘the paper’ as being the only evidence produced..which it is not..
..and as for the findings of that ‘paper’..
..what do you disagree with here..?
“..“The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change – and justification of inequality
and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat” –
Jost and his co-authors wrote in the abstract.
These are not merely American phenomena, –
-nor is there any reason to think they’re particularly modern. .”
Want to know what a major Wellington employer has done to a friend of mine?
This is second hand, so some minor details may be incorrect, but…
They are highly qualified, including having a relevant PhD in their area and has good performance reviews for seven years, but the employer has decided that casualising the workforce suits them in retaining “flexibility”. Consequently, this friend has had to reapply for their job every four months, sometimes not knowing if they have any until three days before work starts.
Several years ago they suffered bullying at another workplace which the employer realised was indefensible and decided not to contest, instead giving a large out-of court settlement on condition of anonymity.
Naturally this person has been diagnosed with stress-induced anxiety and is prone to triggering.
Early this year, they noticed tremors. Then they had a severe episode of illness, taking two days off work for the first time in seven years.
Then a few personal tragedies occurred – a sibling’s cancer returned and a close friend died suddenly. Then they were hit by a car while on a pedestrian crossing and concussed. The employer was informed of this, the anxiety and the triggering.
The employer decided that this was an excellent time for a performance review and so surveyed this person while they were still impaired by the effects of their concussion.
They also demanded meetings for Mondays on Friday afternoons, refusing to reveal the agenda, allowing my friend to stew over the weekend.
Eventually my friend’s Union extracted partial information, but the employer refused to reveal any true detail of some supposed “complaints” or the alleged complainants.
Not long after, my friend’s tremors became convulsions and they were hospitalised and spent a week being treated under sedation. They were warned that the convulsions could have become seizures in which they might have suffered harm or even death.
After leaving hospital and facing months of medication still to come, the employer informed them that they needn’t apply for any more work.
Also, they’re not the only one to have a generally similar experience with this employer.
This is a profession is stereotyped as one of the most progressive. It isn’t.
Computer programming I’d guess, the industry is sadly rife with dudebro’s, libertarians of the non-civil type and other such fun that causes issues if you have disabilities, are female or anything else the founder/owner/etc can’t understand or doesn’t like.
I’m being deliberately obscure bearing in mind lprent’s care about attracting the beady eyes of lawyers.
In any case, the exact profession or workplace is less important than the effects and abuse of casualisation. My friend’s exact experience may be unique, but the general quality of it is not.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s experiences and subsequent illness. How are they doing now, and where are they at ?- no need to answer if you don’t want to.
I am hoping that their Union, if taking a personal grievance against the employer will use the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002, which requires the employer to take all practicable steps to prevent illness arising from stress and to reduce harm from stressors. This is my botched wording and not the wording from the Act. I’ve done a super quick google and can’t find the appropriate phrasing relevant to your friend’s case, only the epic length Act itself and I don’t have time to do a proper search right now, sorry. I might be able to come back to it later
Also I wonder did the employer offer your friend access to EAP: Employee Assistance Programmes? I’m guessing they didn’t but they should have.. Several large corporate employers do provide this service. There’s a couple of organisations in Wellington providing this service.
I once did an essay on the impact of of work on the well being of NZ workers. From my learnings I found that we are not as proactive as other comparable countries in preventing stress related illness. Sadly this seems to reflected in example after example of work stress related illness in real life (including my own when I had a breakdown in 2010 due to my work situation and ended up on meds to cope and help me recover).
All the best for your friend’s recovery. I hope they can find justice – they should never been put at such risk, especially as they had others stressors to cope with in their personal life.
However, my – and their – point that they want made known is just how bad casualisation has become and how cynically it is abused by employers. It affects older, qualified professionals as much as the 90-day rule affects younger, unqualified people.
My friend suspects that a standard regime change is happening – a new senior person has been appointed and a number of new faces are replacing familiar ones. Apparently it’s a move by him to get his own team, no matter how inexperienced, to take over.
The casualisation of the labour force is poisonous, insidious and being taken up all around the globe.
Just a local example, also Wellington, is of a not for profit organisation who I a short contract with last year. None of the positions are permanent, they are all fixed term. At the end of your term the job is re advertised and you re apply for it. They were also users of the 90 day Act. Quite amazing really, the hypocrisy, given their “social values” mission and presence in the community, and the otherwise good work they do.
As for the company your friend worked for, their short sighted approach may lead to a drop in standards of their service, (what ever their industry is) that they are delivering to their client. The would be manager may find the loss of skilled experienced staff will lead to the loss of quality work and to unhappy clients. I hope she or he see’s the errors in the end, but most likely won’t, those self advancing types usually don’t.
I would hope though, that your friend’s Union would be willing to pursue a personal grievance. Sounds to me like they have good grounds to.
@ Rhino
This sounds like a rerun of something that happened to a friend of mine in the tertiary education sector about 4 years ago … and in retrospect “it’s a move by him to get his own team, no matter how inexperienced, to take over” is exactly what it was all about – as well as enabling the ‘Joyce-ing’ of the entire sector.
Real partisan control-freak stuff!
Further evidence how how poor the NZ Herald is at framing a story.
The headline is ‘Cheaper power bills this winter., accompanied by a happy punter smiling by an electrical heater.
Given the breezy and cheerful headline, you might think that this was because the electrical companies haven’t stopped rotting NZers and declared a price freeze. You know something of be for to NZ citizens.
However, the detail in the story tells of something else.
Cheaper prices are down to climate change, not that you’d catch a paper that promotes Chris de Freitas ever using that term.
To quote the Herald rag…
“The cheerful outlook has been put down to sea surface temperatures being warmer for 16 consecutive months.”
Climate change …warming sea temperatures…cheerful
Apparently dozens of pro-Russian militia and pro-Russian civilians who had taken over a government building in Odessa died due to fire and smoke inhalation when Ukrainian forces attacked the offices.
Odessa is critical to Ukraine now as I understand that it is their last remaining major sea port.
The IMF has told the unelected Ukrainian “government” that their multi-billion dollar bail out deal will be reviewed if they lose control of the eastern side of the country = if you want your money, move your military in, now.
Consultants believe that major military action may cause Russia to cut off some or all oil exports to the EU, leading to a major oil price spike = global recession.
A NATO deputy head is quoted as saying that Russia is no longer acting as a partner of NATO and will have to now be treated more like an adversary.
To me it seems like the oligarchs in the west are deliberately poking away at a hornet’s nest.
A comment by Sanctuary made over at Dimpost that is very funny and deserves to be repeated.
““…Let me qualify that. It’s an impossible task this time around. Short of a miracle nothing Labour can do can win them this election…”
And yo, the Lord spake. And across kingdom of Maurice of Pakuranga a big, gay rainbow of corruption did shine. Thus the Lord looked at the raiments of corruption and smiled, for they were juicy and entangled the PM. And across the land the left did rejoice, and raise hosannas of praise to lord for his miracle of Maurice, and small things with raffia detail were put to one side, all the better to spread on the blogsphere the miraculous works of the Lord.”
“…The questions caused extraordinary contretemps within the department. To their shame, no one – Labour, the Greens or the media – had ever asked such questions before. The poor officials had to start from scratch. …”
Some of us have asked questions about ‘corporate welfare’ before – missed this Mathew?
Thursday, 3 November 2011, 5:28 pm
Press Release: Penny Bright
PRESS RELEASE: Independent Candidate for Epsom Penny Bright:
“How many billion$ of public monies could be saved by ‘CUTTING OUT THE CONTRACTORS’?
3 November 2011
Where’s National’s ‘corporate welfare’ reform?
Which of the maor political parties are pushing for ‘corporate welfare’ reform and shrinking the long-term dependency of the private sector on our public monies?
Where is the ‘devilish detail’ at both local and central government level – which shows EXACTLY where our public rates and taxes are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
Why aren’t the names of the consultant(s)/ contrators(s) – the scope, term and value of these contracts, published in Council or central government Annual Reports – so this information on the spending of OUR public monies is available for public scrutiny?
Where are the publicly-available ‘Registers of Interests’ for those local government elected representatives, and staff responsible for property and procurement, in order to help guard against possible ‘conflicts of interest’ between those who ‘give’ the contracts and those who ‘get’ the contracts?
When Auckland Council is not upholding the LAW (Public Records Act 2005 and Local Government Act 2002) and telling residents and ratepayer exactly where our public monies are being spent on consultants and private contractors, and when statutory ‘third party Public Watchdogs’ are NOT doing their jobs and holding them to account – what is a CITIZEN to do?
Meekly tug one’s forelock and become a mindless, compliant ‘ca$h cow’ ?
Sorry – WRONG woman.
I’m making a stand which is upholding YOUR lawful rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable’ local government.
One day – you’ll get it.
Hopefully sooner rather than later?
Actually rates revolts are not unheard of in the Auckland region.
Have some of you had an effective frontal lobotomy and forgotten the 2003 rates revolt against the ARC, which thousands of Aucklanders joined?
Maybe these ‘brain fades’ which are currently very fashionable at the highest levels of government are contagious?
This market cult you belong to fascinates me, SSLands. Has it ever made a mistake?
What you remind me of more than anything is a young member of a Moscow aligned Communist Party, many years ago. A member of a more Beijing aligned Communist Party asked him what were the procedures if the leaders headed off down the wrong path and made some revisionist deviation or other. He was unable to accept that this could actually ever happen.
I much preferred him to you. Subjectively at least, he stood against privilege, poverty, corruption, and racism. He was human.
Yes srylands belongs to a ciult alright and unlike those utopian ones ..it appears not to care not one jot about anyone else but the individual.
Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ offers a grim vision when put along the ideas of Rosa Luxembourg.
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, or the baker, that we expect dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.
The bizarre thing here is that, at the time Smith was writing, this simply wasn’t true. Most English shopkeepers were still carrying out the main part of their business on credit, which meant that customers appealed to their benevolence all the time. Smith could hardly be unaware of this. Rather, he is drawing a utopian picture.
Debt: The first 5000 years by David Graeber
So, yeah, it is a utopian view just one that’s rather nasty and removes all human contact.
Draco, you’re as bad as the free marketeers in ignoring Smiths other famous book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) in which the philosopher explicitly sets out the individual’s responsibilities to their community.
The problem with that critique is that modern society isn’t based around Smith’s previous work. In fact, we seem to have a tendency to ignore philosophers unless they allow the sociopaths to accumulate wealth and to rule.
And yes, I’m also quite aware that srylands and redbaiter would be calling Smith a dirty stinking commy for his attitude towards the poor despite the fact that their attitude is based upon his work.
Is that why he has been so silent on the Williamson story?
“Liu hired consultancy group Exceltium, run by political consultant Matthew Hooton, to lobby the Government over the business immigration rules.”
Well I guess the person who wrote this must be reeeaaalllly cynical:
Led by Managing Director Matthew Hooton, Exceltium uses its combination of intellect, experience and networks to design strategy-led communications programmes that shift opinions and policies to support the business plans of our clients.
If the RW trials are going to be so prevalent with their predictably self-centred, self-advancing views then time can be better spent on reading people who do attempt thought rather than different way of parrotting I’m OK – You’re Not OK and you and your opinion and your needs and wants are of no importance.
Joe 90 and others are great at giving links.
This is one that was supplied here. Chris Trotter on David Parker’s newly announced economic ideas. These will be game changers for us having untold advantages as Chris puts it. http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/
And Brian Easton on Distribution and poor people struggling and sliding down the plughole,
and on data stats in Been Counter. Seeing that many journalists don’t understand the figures they very artfully quote, perhaps the rest of us who haven’t studied stats etc. should bring our knowledge up to speed to bridge the ignorance gap. http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/2014/03/been-counters/
Thank you Tracey your regular comments are informative.
I think that Bryan Gould makes some important points about the difficulties our exporters have and these should be repeated here.
Exporting successfully is an expensive business. Unless margins are good enough to make possible the spending needed to cover all the additional costs, such as freight and commissions, to develop the overseas market through promotion and after-sales service, and to provide the re-investment needed for product development so as to keep pace with foreign competition, it is not worth the effort.
No wonder so many of our potential exporters don’t try or give up quickly.
Even our most successful exporters pay a price for the dollar’s overvaluation – ask our dairy farmers. Export profits are lower than they would be if the dollar was at a more competitive level. Even our best firms – let alone those who are struggling at the margin – are therefore less able in the long run to keep pace with foreign competitors who don’t have to face the same currency headwind.
At the same time, we prepare to enjoy the consumer and import boom that accompanies the huge volume of bank-created credit that is fuelling the rise in house prices in Auckland in particular.
Glad to see that getting an airing in the MSM.
And from Brian Easton:
So while the revision does not change my views, it confirms that New Zealand is in the top half of the OECD for inequality, whereas three decades ago we were in the bottom half.
Yep, three decades of neo-liberalism has left us worse off.
It’s not all bad news. After all if you are in the top 5% to 10% you are noticeably better off, and if you are in the elite top 0.1%, you are winning the world with tens of millions of gains. The peasants, well, they can eat cake and buy their PS3s on hire purchase.
Serious questions over money and influence in National
Thursday, 1 May 2014, 2:12 pm
Press Release: Green Party
In my considered opinion, as an ‘Anti-corruption Public Watchdog’ – Minister of Justice Judith Collins is CORRUPT – has misled both the House and the NZ public over her role in promoting the interests of her friends’ and husband’s private company Oravida, and must be stood down as a Minister – FORTHWITH.
I predict that this may happen on Monday 5 May 2014 – if not before ………..
I would love to be a fly on the wall of the National Auckland Regional Convention which is taking place in Auckland this weekend. No doubt Williamson – and Collins – will be hot topics for discussion …..
Was thinking that too veutoviper and was wondering if there would be a piece on the 6pm news, “Collins resigns!”. She really is holding on by her fingernails, super strong glossily painted shellac fingernails.
Last night I saw TV3’s ‘on the street’ piece and maybe it was just the editing, but it looked decidedly like many in his electorate were turning away from Williamson now, regardless of how well they thought he had done in the past.
An article supporting something you said the other day phillip, along the lines of animal testing on synthetics only being part of a very large problem, just in NZ alone. On the front page of the Dom Post today:
Yes, I recall you mentioned something about that once phillip, the SPCA’s involvement in supply of animals to labs. That information, is that inside information or is there documented evidence of it happening or having once happened?
And a question I had the other day to you, that you may not have seen, was regarding Massey University’s (Palmy) animal testing. I had heard somewhere that they were the largest animal testing facility in NZ, testing commercial domestic products such as cleaners and cosmetics as well as medical research as they might be expected to undertake. Is this your understanding, that they are the largest?
Labs who do any significant experimental or chemical trial work on animals usually need several, to several dozen, of the exact same species and age of animal.
So no, I’d say that the SPCA would not be where they go for their test subjects (in the main).
The murder of Sarwen Lata occurred on 25th November 2013, a street away from where I live. The story of her relationship with her husband is very sad and even sadder because she is one of many women who have been killed by partners or ex partners who they protection orders against. Sarwen was killed the day after white ribbon day.
The one thing that has stayed in my mind that is particularly upsetting was that in the last hours of her life no body helped her. The one call to 111 came from her. Although neighbours heard screaming, the only call that was made came from the victim:
You can see in the video above that Sarwen’s house is very close to other houses, all around. Her particular house is plaster clad, as all the houses around her are too, they were all built at the same time. The walls are thin and none of those houses are double glazed in that part of the development. Why on earth did no one pick up the phone? When Singh broke the ranch slider glass surely that would have woken people and they should have been on to 111 straight away. For the record this is the most unfriendly neighbourhood I have lived in but surely the instinct to help when someone’s life is in danger would take over any social indifference? What the fuck is wrong with people?
Tragic. He was a classic high risk for murder-suicide and it’s very difficult to protect partners from men like him. Not sure what the answer is – protection orders won’t work with people who are intent on killing and then taking their own life. If we had effective mental health services it might help but in the absence of effective therapy for potential killers, the only way to be reasonably sure of protecting women is to relocate them – maybe with new identities.
Yes, it is so tragic because her death could have quite possibly been prevented if effective mental health intervention was available to Singh combined with or at least greater safety options being provided by the state to victims of domestic violence, as you suggest.
Socially, I wondering why her neighbours didn’t keep an eye out for her and why weren’t they there for her? Why didn’t they call 111 when given the nature of the tight cluster of thinned walled homes they would have clearly heard what was going on?
Rosie
I suggest that the reason why neighbours didn’t come forward was just because they are so tightly packed and with thin walls. The only way you can have privacy, personal space and peace of living in that case, is to ignore the constant noises and talking around you.
It is a defence mechanism necessary for everyone who would otherwise be vicariously living in other people’s ups and downs. Usually if becoming involved they would end up being soundly cursed by both or all participants who they will be continuing to live beside, and need to be on equable terms with.
There is a big strain on people who are really strangers trying to live in badly designed housing in close confines..
Rosie
This would have been a good point that remained in archived under domestic violence if you had put it in the thread about williamson and domestic violence. Comments like this with links are useful for later reference.
We’ve been taught, over generations, that other peoples business isn’t our business. The last thirty years of neo-liberalism has pretty much cemented that home.
The John Key-led National Ltd™ government’s blitzkrieg against the New Zealand environment is beginning to pay off for at least one mining company with close connections to it.
The so-called Environmental Protection Authority has just given the go ahead to foreign-owned Trans Pacific Resources to commence the first stage of a massive sea-bed mining operation right smack in the middle of a Maui dolphin habitat and migatory route for blue whales. Of the 4850 submissions to the EPA on the application, 4842 were opposed including those from local Iwi, environmenal groups, and fishing companies. In effect, the EPA rules governing the application for the mining consent prevent adequate input and usurp democracy while also ensuring that scientific evidence, tangata whenua concerns, and public opinion are secondary considerations to spreadsheet fantasies cooked up by unaccountable corporates.
Having made the rules to support their corporate masters, National Ltd™ further tilted the field in favour of Trans Tasman Resources when Environment Minister Amy Adams denied legal aid to small, volunteer organisations with a stake in the outcome. At the same time, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment handed the mining compnay a $25 million “innovation” grant.
The current consent, also granted by MoBIE, covers some 22 to 36 kilometres off the coast of Patea, in the Exclusive Economic Zone. It is the first stage of a much larger operation being planned by Trans Tasman Resources which is seeking to mine an additional 66 kilometres in the area. The larger application is currently going through a marine consent process being handled by a Board of Inquiry appointed by the EPA. The public notice of the application had to be re-issued because the original notice – surprise surprise – did not have all the required documentation. This delay has squeezed all the timelines for consideration of the application but – suprise surprise – Trans Tasman Resources’ timetable for commencing the raising of capital is still set for June 2014.
While it touts itself as a “New Zealand Company”, Trans Tasman Resources’ Board of Directors is the usual gaggle of international industrial henchmen one might expect, but there is a New Zealander there: none other than former National Ltd™ Prime Minister Jenny Shipley.
The New Zealand companies office record of shareholders shows that 58 percent of Trans Tasman Resources is owned by two Dutch investment companies. The largest New Zealand shareholders appear to be Benjamin Clarke Langdon and Gregor John Barclay who, between them, hold 4.88% – but not in their own names. Their Trans Tasman Resources shares are held by Minvest Securities (New Zealand) Limited which, in turn, is owned by Claymore Trustees Ltd which, in turn, is owned by Sheet Investments Ltd in which Langdon and Barclay hold 50% each. Seems legit . . . doesn’t it? Fuck knows what corporate veils have been pulled over the other Trans Tasman Resources’ shareholding entities in order to protect investors for any form or any accountability should it be required.
Jenny Shipley
You can read a lot into her dealings since 2005.
From wiki
“In 2007, Shipley joined the financial services firm Source Sentinel.
Shipley also has business interests in China and is currently on the board of the China Construction Bank.
According to Companies Office records, Jack Chen, Jenny Shipley and another investor founded a business together in 2004 called New Zealand Pure & Natural. Mr Chen quit as a director a year later but only quit his shareholding in 2010. Mr Chen was instrumental in promoting the ‘Chinese Business Roundtable Council’ in NZ, and set up a new political party in NZ, before being forced to resign due to fraud and corruption charges being laid in Hong Kong.
In 2010 the China Construction Bank agreed to help finance a proposal by May Wang [also known as Hao May] and Jack Chen [also known as Chen Keen] to invest in the New Zealand dairy industry by taking over the Crafar Farms.
Since 2009, Shipley has chaired the Genesis Energy Limited board.
In December 2012 Shipley resigned from the board of directors of Mainzeal Property & Construction which later went into receivership on 6 February 2013. At mid-day on 5 February 2013 she was one of four independent directors who resigned from the board of Mainzeal Group Limited. Both Mainzeal Property & Construction (MPCL), and Mainzeal Group Limited are part of the Richina group, controlled and majority owned by Yan Ci Lang (Richard Yan). “
In effect, the EPA rules governing the application for the mining consent prevent adequate input and usurp democracy…
Which, of course, is what the function of the EPA always was. Its name is the exact opposite of its purpose and that purpose is to fast track business.
While it touts itself as a “New Zealand Company”, Trans Tasman Resources’ Board of Directors is the usual gaggle of international industrial henchmen one might expect, but there is a New Zealander there: none other than former National Ltd™ Prime Minister Jenny Shipley.
Cronyism runs deep in National.
Their Trans Tasman Resources shares are held by Minvest Securities (New Zealand) Limited which, in turn, is owned by Claymore Trustees Ltd which, in turn, is owned by Sheet Investments Ltd in which Langdon and Barclay hold 50% each. Seems legit . . . doesn’t it?
It’s probably many things. First it would hide and protect the owners and, most likely, it’s also a tax dodge.
What mechanism are you suggesting is employed as a “tax dodge”.
Just a hunch. We keep hearing about these people who have lots of nested companies which seem to pay very little tax. And I’m sure you’ve heard of the Loss Attributing Qualifying Company – A company specifically set up to run at a loss that can be written off against other income.
What is not sensible about that?
Sounds good but they don’t seem to be protecting the environment.
MBIE’s New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals have just given Trans Tasman Resources a twenty year permit to extract ironsand off the coast of Patea. This is before the EPA hearings have even concluded, which just goes to show how much they don’t care about the consultation process. That’s how assured of a pro-industry decision from the EPA they are as well. New Zealands EPA is pretty much copied from the United States’ EPA, which is well known for making many decisions which have had a negative impact on the environment and people’s health.
Is there any way that long-term and irreversible damage to the seabed, and the consequences of turbidity pollution from ironsand dredging can be made as visible to the NZ public as say the breach of a toxic tailings dam or marine oil spill?
Am I wrong to have a gut feeling that this is sanctioning of environmental vandalism?
I think you’re right. Kiwis Against Seabed Mining has some good resources on their webpages. It’s a high volume, low value operation that shifts a lot of sand, but where it can’t be seen. There are studies showing that dunes, beaches, waves, and river mouths near the mining areas can be drastically changed. None of this seems to matter to NAct at all, as long as someone makes a buck.
While all facts are facts, it is sometimes useful to know exactly what they are. It can be easier to build a local movement to protect a beach if you can point to something slightly more detailed than “organised death and destruction”. When I learned how to give lectures and seminars, I was advised to spend the first five or ten minutes telling the audience stuff they were familiar with. The conclusion comes at the end.
You know what really boggles my mind?
“What’s that?”
Well I’ll tell you.
The amount of posters at places like Kiwiblog who call The Greens “Luddites” for being anti deep-sea drilling and the like. It boggles the mind because developing new technologies for energy is the complete opposite of being a Luddite whereas the continued embrace of old world technology is pure Ludditism.
Er, actually I think the point is that while the Greens may be in favour of new forms of energy, they are also very much in favour of reducing energy consumption as a whole, which can be classed as ludditism.
A safe renewable low cost energy source will see energy use skyrocket Lanthanide, that is the end goal of any alternative to fossil fuels and their derivations.
Just another indication of the different planet on which National operates. This from the DomPost today:
“Post-Budget speech requires big budget
It might be called the Budget, but there is nothing budget about the price of tickets to Prime Minister John Key’s May 16 post-Budget speech at Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre.
A seat at the event, organised by the Trans-Tasman Business Circle together with AUT University, QBE Insurance and Westpac, will require a looser fiscal policy than Finance Minister Bill English is planning.
They cost a taxing $375+GST for members, and $550+GST for non-members.”
When I saw that today I looked for information of a dollar destination nature, but found nothing.
Does any one know where the ticket returns, actually go ?
It’s not like the PM gets an appearance fee or anything.
It’s unlikely SkyCity would be charging much for the room.
In this day and age, does any one know why these post-budget speeches are not broadcast to a national audience?
Very good questions. SkyCity for a post-budget speech at a fairly high cost? More of the infiltration of business, especially big money, into government.
That is fucking bullshit – Michael Cullen always gave post budget speeches to a business audience in each of the main centres, and sometimes in Sydney or Melbourne – do you think they were free?
yes shitlands, they were either free or had only some minimal charge, after all Finance Ministers/DPMs already get very well paid to explain their Budgets to the public.
As for getting a grip, you need to stop gripping yours.
As you obviously have no answers to some very simple and fair questions, you choose to throw around irrelevancies. Is that all you have for your contributions?
Karol’s comment is clearly not making mention of any party, neither is mine. Both are general observations of the reality at hand. Some people are actually capable of isolating their political allegiances from their due consideration of the long term situation and how it relates to the ever changing society we inhabit.
I accept that you struggle with that concept.
And if you read what I wrote srylands, there is no judgement made or opinion given other than an interest in where a sizeable bundle of topical cash ends up, and maybe it is time speeches like this were streamed to the people who pay the PM’s salary. In a post budget environment, especially in an election year, many people would like to see what the Prime Minister says if his performance is worth 500 bucks a ticket.
$375 for an event like this is bog standard. You pay $500 to send one of your staff to any kind of half-day professional seminar. A two day conference at sky city (or any conference centre in wellington or auckland is typically $3,000 + GST.
Why do you think the price is high? If there is any profit it will simply cross subsidise the other TTBC events.
To paraphrase Helen Clark – I am amazed that you are amazed.
$500 for any kind of half day professional seminar?
Not for lots of stuff in the health sector.
Not for lots of stuff in IT.
Not for lots of foreign policy/IR stuff.
Have heard some really good stories about NetHui sessions. Can you imagine srylands trying to wrap his head around the dialogues on collaborative thinking that are generated at NetHui ?
even this single line from their promotional material is probably enough to fry his cerebellum
” It’s a collaborative, multistakeholder gathering where we all set the agenda.”
$500 clams for a seat at a government speech? Sounds like normal business to me…but then I heard from right wing peeps that govts shouldn’t be in the business of doing business.
Yet this govt seems to do a lot of “business”, especially behind closed doors.
Blogger and political consultant ‘Bomber’ Bradbury denies exclusion of pro-marijuana party from poll was his call.
A blogger and political consultant to Mana and the Internet Party has warned he will not support closer ties with the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
This comes after ALCP leaders questioned Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury’s editing of The Daily Blog platform, and his links to the legal highs organisation the Star Trust.
Campaigners for legalisation of natural marijuana believe they have been getting a bad deal.
Bradbury is a longtime supporter of real cannabis, but lately has written several posts sympathetic to the synthetic highs industry.
Other liberal campaigners and blogs such as Public Address have supported a legal foundation for the legal highs industry, and lamented the decision to amend the Psychoactive Substances Act that will force 41 legal high products off the market, pending safety tests. But Bradbury is different because as well as having a high media profile, where he promotes himself as champion of the common man, other media have revealed he is also a political consultant to both the Mana Party and the Internet Party.
The danger is the commercial roles might become enmeshed.
Dak v dak
ALCP deputy leader Abe Gray – a botany lecturer at Otago University – says Bradbury has cut comment in The Daily Blog and excluded the party from a poll on the site.
Bradbury acknowledges bad vibes between himself and the ALCP, but says its exclusion from the Daily Blog poll was not decided by him.
Friction with the left wing blogger appears to reflect a rift between the natural cannabis people and the well-resourced legal highs industry.
………………………..
‘Dirty, filthy’
Star Trust director Grant Hall confirms Bradbury’s comment that he does not have a commercial relationship with the trust. “The reason you may have heard this rumour is because he interviewed some of the guest speakers [at a Star Trust conference in March], researched the questions for the political debate and hosted the political panel on the day.
“Beyond that he has no role with the trust and does no work for us currently.”
Bradbury was unhappy when asked about his ties to the legal highs industry, and sent a terse letter to ALCP leader Julian Crawford for talking to the Herald.
He said: “I worked for the Star Trust as the convener of their recent conference, my association with them has nothing whatsoever to do with your none [sic] inclusion in the poll. We only have parties on that poll with a chance of entering Parliament. The ALCP has no chance of entering Parliament.
“This type of deceitful smearing has helped make up my mind in terms of any advice to the IP and Mana in terms of broadening their alliance to include ALCP,” he said. Bradbury criticised Crawford for “dirty, filthy tactics”.
……………………
Wonder how much ‘Star Trust’ paid Martyn Bradbury to ‘convene’ their recent conference?
Did Martyn Bradbury ever do any (paid) work for Star Trust?
I’d ask Bradbury directly these questions on HIS ‘Daily Blog’ – but he blocked me – when I refused to back down as an Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Beware folks!
Follow the dollar…..?
In my considered opinion there are a lot of PHONIES out there …..
Paula Bennett says the problems faced by Writehanded.org blogger Sarah Wilson are an “isolated incident” and there is no need to change the policies or procedures at Work and Income (WINZ).
She goes on to suggest that Sarah Wilson has a “distorted perception of reality” ie Sarah Wilson and others who complain have a mental illness that makes her delusional due to the stress of her situation. (FYI minister assuming someone has a disability is a little known form of discrimination but it still fits the criteria of human rights abuse – check the handy HRC website).
“We work with some people that are at the most challenging and distressing times in their lives and their perception of how they’re dealt with can sometimes be not perhaps the reality if they were in a different frame of mind.”
With 295,000 people on welfare, she had much more to think about than Wilson, she said, and she saw no need to make changes as a result of what Wilson had said. ”
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Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, 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. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
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This article shows up a few interesting and pertinent points.
NZ is sadly pimping for Obama’s TPP.
What was promised at Hawaiian golf game?
Funny John Campbell wasn’t taken to the holiday house Key actually goes to each summer.
So this is what happens to Reserve Bank Governors? They work for the globalist agenda.
The TPP, despite the upbeat headline, isn’t going to happen.
Japan and Australia are ensuring this is not occurring, while we play lapdog to US corporate interests.
“A sticking point has been Japanese reluctance to open market access in the “sacred” agricultural sectors — rice, wheat, beef, pork, sugar and dairy products. The recent visit to Japan by US President Barack Obama failed to deliver a major breakthrough on that front..”
“It is possible a Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal will be thrashed out by the end of the month, says Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) executive director Alan Bollard.” The key word here is possible. Not probable or likely.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11248586
Just as a sidebar, it depresses me to see what neo-liberal zealots we have become in the world.
how can we not be seen as ‘the bad guys’..?
..given as we help america spy on the rest of the world..
..and are eager spear-carriers/suppliers of mercenaries.. for their forays into third world countries..
..their extended program of ‘regime-change’…
..of course we will eagerly offer to sell out all our interests/sovereignty to the americans..
..our political leaders are whores…
..(and it may be timely to repeat the warnings of/from former tory prime minister of australia..malcom fraser..
..who has urged his country to break all those implicating-ties with america..)
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38031.htm
Paul, can you quote the part that shows we’re pimping for the US TPP?
“A sticking point…” Not the only sticking point.
The docs available at Wikileaks tell a different story. Unless I’m missing something.
the fact that we are among the group for an ‘ambitious, high quality agreement.’ In other words a totally open global market for corporate predators to maximise their profits in.
“Bollard said another question was whether, if the TPP negotiations arrived at a “mediocre” outcome, New Zealand and some other TPP partners keen on an ambitious, high quality agreement would sign up to it anyway. “I wouldn’t know.”
Well I suppose it depends what the manifestations of ambition and high quality are, but the fact is (cf: Wikileaks) NZ’s negotiating stance has not been aligned with that of the US. Far from it.
Flatly opposed would be a better description.
In which case why does Obama delegate leadership of the TPP to Key when he couldn’t make it?
Because neither of them are on their respective negotiating teams? Our negotiating team was established and briefed by the fifth Labour cabinet, by the way.
Not a party political point on my behalf.
Merely think that signing the TPP would impact badly in the country’s sovereignty as NAFTA did to Mexico, Canada and the US.
Depends what the final version looks like. I don’t see any value in going all Chicken Little over something we haven’t seen.
Yes and the whole deal will not be see till it’s signed.
So, no thanks. I prefer not to sign deals over which I have no oversight. Surely this allies to country’s citizens as well.
Or do you implicitly trust that our leaders have ordinary NZ citizens best interests at the top of their list?
The events of the 1984 – 1993 would suggest we would be wise not to trust that.
Um, the whole deal will not be seen until Parliament is required to ratify it.
That’s a consequence of the fact that it’s negotiated behind closed doors. Many people who don’t like that seem oblivious to the reason for it, namely that if we debate it in the open all the other parties will know what our bottom lines are, giving them an advantage over us.
As for free trade deals, Closer Economic Relations with Australia seems to be a good one. They say NAFTA is bad for Mexico, but they also say it’s good for Canada, and I think Mexico’s economy might be suffering more because of the, y’know, death squads than the free trade deals. I understand our FTA with China is helping cushion us from the GFC.
Nonetheless, I will be implacably opposed to any agreement that weakens Pharmac and I’ll be looking very cynically at anything that impacts internet freedom, such as it is.
The TPPA was on my list of things to do until Wikileaks proved that our negotiating team are trustworthy.
I think in matters involving other countries and matters that have of such long term consequences to people of the the country and agreements that cannot be easily stopped at will, a simple majority in parliament should not be enough. There should be at least a 67% (2/3) approval of MPs, in my opinion.
That sort of % should also apply for constitutional and other very important issues such as change of flag, legalising of cannabis,
becoming a republic etc for example.
Please remind me – which Minister is the NZ negotiating team directed by? What has led you to place so much of your trust in this National Government Minister?
are you seriously advocating a ‘let’s wait to see what it contains’..?
..given this tory govt wd ram it thru under urgency faster that you can say ‘ye sir!’..?
..are you serious..?
oh..!..hang on..!..that’s the labour policy..eh..?
..to wait and see..
..so i guess you must be following that line..?
Nope. Not following anyone’s “line” – I just thought about it for a while. I’ve outlayed some of my reasoning above.
i read yr ‘reasons’..
..gonna save yr/any regrets for post-deal..eh..?
No, for pre-ratification. Is that even a word?
If parliament were significantly split over it I can’t see it surviving an election.
Both Labour and National MPs will vote for it.
In your response to your comment saying NAFTA has benefited Canada.
“Canada has become a noticeably more unequal society in the free trade era. Real incomes declined for the large majority of Canadians in the 1990s; they increased only for the top fifth. Employment became more insecure and the social safety net frayed.
While productivity has grown—rapidly in some sectors—wages have not, a trend mirroring the de-linking that has taken place in the U.S. But the overall productivity gap with the U.S. has not narrowed as free trade proponents predicted; rather, it has widened recently.
Successive waves of corporate restructuring—bankruptcies, mergers, takeovers, and downsizing—have been accompanied by public sector restructuring—downsizing, deregulation, privatization, and offloading of state responsibilities. Public sector spending and employment have declined sharply, and publicly owned enterprises in strategic sectors such as energy and transportation have been transferred en masse to the private sector.”
“NAFTA has also been used to weaken Canada’s sovereignty and promote its economic assimilation by the United States. It has led to greater pressure on Canada and Mexico to conform to U.S. foreign policy objectives.”
“The experience of Canadian farmers clearly demonstrates that more trade does not necessarily translate into more prosperity. The National Farmers Union points out that, since 1988, agricultural exports have almost tripled, but net farm income (adjusted for inflation) has fallen by 24%. ”
http://www.ratical.org/co-globalize/NAFTA@7/ca.html
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/lessons_from_nafta.pdf
Sounds horribly familiar, doesn’t it?
NAFTA has benefited the Canadian elite. FIFY
+1
‘flatly opposed’..?
..in words/posturing only..
..but ready and willing to bend like a reed in the wind..
..and to sell us all down the river..
Well that’s the fear, isn’t it. Just that when we got a look at the secret papers they showed that our team is on our side.
bullshit..!..oan..
words/postures are cheap/easy to strike..
..when push comes to shove..
..they’ll fold like an origami-class..
(can i ask..are you involved in the labour party..?..
..you are so pushing the official party line..
..it begs the question..)
I already answered that – I’m telling you what I think, Phil. This notion of yours that they’ll fold…what’s stopping them already?
It’s right there in plain(ish) English at Wikileaks – the USA vs. everybody else at the table including NZ.
The people who have serious skin in this game are importers and exporters. If anyone loses big it will be them. Farmers, for example.
The National Party’s support base, in other words.
Let’s look at this another way. If trade terms with the USA are shit then I can go hawk my wares in China instead. There’s absolutely no purpose in anyone selling anyone else out: it’s Underpants Gnomes stuff
Sell out.
???
Profit!
Perhaps you think the officials involved will all take a nice fat bribe? Shares in Oravida?
no..it’s ideological..
..that neolib/rand-ite free-trade bullshit…
..that they believe in so fervently..key..and all of them..
..rewarding those who ‘deserve’ it..ie..rich/corporates..
..those who have ‘skin in the game’…
..national barriers/priorities don’t matter to these pricks..
..just rewarding the ‘deserving’..and punishing/taking away from the ‘undeserving/the parasites’..
..just business as usual for these pricks..
..but anyway..
..the upcoming environmental/climate-change shitstorm will flush all of that away..
..and tho i cd say if u don’t want a tpp..vote this govt out..
..but the official labour line is pretty much in sync with what you argue..eh..?
..so little/not much hope to be had from that quarter..?
..and i am/yr answer was unclear…did you confirm that you are not part of the labour party..?
I’m not a member of any party. My views align mostly with Labour. And Mana. And The Greens. Depends which policy.
And Phil, yes as I said I share your concerns and yet the secret documents tend to allay rather than support them.
It comes down to one simple fact that nobody seems to understand – we don’t need the agreement. We don’t even need the FTAs and WTO that we’re presently signed up with. Not for trade.
Of course, as has been said time and time again – this really isn’t a FTA, it’s a free capitalism agreement. More about the easy movement of money across borders, the easy purchasing of land by anybody and the implementation of IP laws that will restrict innovation and prevent competition.
So, the fact that the IP proposals, like most of the other clauses, have two or more separate versions that differ markedly on the details is irrelevant?
Do you think Helen Clark sent our negotiating team in there with no bottom lines? Or do you think National have shifted our bottom lines?
Do you think that the CER with Australia is a bad idea too?
Genuine questions.
CER was a free trade agreement. The TPPA is not. It is a US corporate rights agreement.
The TPPA isn’t a single coherent document yet so pronouncements about what it is or isn’t are premature.
So you think that the TPPA is primarily a free trade agreement in the same vein as CER, then? I use that example because you brought it up.
I presume you are soft-backing the TPPA because you think that Labour will eventually vote for it.
No, I’m not planning for some future scenario. I just think expecting our negotiators to betray us is the sort of behaviour that deserves betrayal, and I still want to read the eventual agreement they present to us to sign up to before I make my mind up about it.
And that’s the point. 600 corporates have had more oversight of the proposals than our elected representatives. The US government is controlled by corporate lobbyists ( sadly this pattern is beginning to emerge here…Collins, Williamson, Key)
The TPP not democratic and I can’t believe any progressive party would ever support it. If Labour support it, then they are still follow the neoliberal cult of unrestrained capitalism.
Clearly people should vote Mana or Green to ensure this does not happen.
I believe that IP law needs significant overhaul and shouldn’t be entrenched before that overhaul happens and the TPPA will entrench them.
I’d say that National have changed the bottom lines – that’s generally what happens when a government is changed. That said, I don’t think that Labour should have started the negotiations either.
Yes. All we need to do is to set up our own rules of trade and make sure that they are about trade. This free movement of money that we’ve got is destroying us but doing wonders for the already rich.
Gonna digest that for a while 🙂
There’s a real manipulation of the Bollard quote by the NZ Herald article.
Headline:
Highlighted quote in big print in the middle of the article:
Full quote, including an omitted part, in the article is much more ambivalent:
Yes the Herald has turned the whole story round with the heading.
About 4 key factors mentioned in the detail of the story that will prevent it…US congress, China, Australia, Japan
Good to see the Japanese actually care about their citizens to protect key industries, so much so they see them as ‘sacred.’
Pity we don’t share the same attitude.
Dreadful newspaper.
You missed another factor: NZ’s opposition to among other things, US demands around patents and copyright.
Oh, and I don’t know about protecting industries – isn’t that the problem with Oravida – but we’re not offering to dismantle Pharmac any time soon.
Ask Mexico’s farmers about ‘free trade’ agreements.
… or the Mexican government about their dealings with Metalclad.
Yeah, and for god’s sake don’t mention the cartels. People get murdered for less.
One of the reason that organised crime has taken such massive hold in some areas of Mexico is the unemployment and economic destruction of many farming and provincial areas resulting from NAFTA. Tens or hundreds of thousands of small and medium scale family type farms closed down or were bankrupted as subsidised big corporate US agricultural products flooded into Mexico.
It meant that there was a major vacuum which criminal organisations moved in and filled. Economic abandonment made it hard to resource law enforcement properly and made it easy for corruption of public servants and officials to take hold.
But you would have to know some historical context to understand that, which is not necessary if all you want to do is flip a quick, meaningless quip.
I’ll save the next quick quip for when I have a better understanding of the context, CV, but from your description it looks like the Mexicans got shafted.
As for the TPPA, if we ever see a document put up for ratification, I’ll be surprised and on the look-out for fishhooks. Although I am looking forward to DtB’s response too.
Well, the parts of it which need legislative chances will be put up under urgency as a fait accompli with no negotiable clauses, and the rest of it which doesn’t need to go through parliament (eg just requires regulatory changes) will have already been signed up to and be a done deal.
No, that’s not the problem with Oravida. The problem there is that Collins used her government position to improve her own family’s financial position.
Just my little joke: the party of the free market selling favours to individual companies.
the organisers of some british music festivals have banded together to warn young people about the dangers of legal-highs…
“..Experts from the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths said that in 2012 there were 68 deaths relating to legal highs..”
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/02/music-festivals-website-blackout-highlight-risks-legal-high-drugs
..end the danse macabre…just decriminalise/regulate/tax the safest intoxicant of all..eh..?
..(and the misleading/lies about pot continue unabated..even a supposed ‘serious’ website like slate has published bullshit claiming you have ‘to smoke at least 15 grams’ to die from a cannabis overdose..(!?)
..bloody hell..!..that’s only a half an oz…!
..and were that true..myself (and many others) should be dead many times over..
..to become the first ever to die from smoking cannabis..
..and guess which corporate/access-media outlet has jumped to reprint this tripe..?
..yep..!..long that bastion of clear/accurate information on the cannabis-issue..
..the nz herald..
(no real surprises there..eh..?..)
It’s clearly destroyed the syntax, grammar, and linguistic structural parts of your brain forever.
nah..!..university did that..
..cured me of my slavery to your model of ‘syntax, grammar, and linguistic structural’ etc..etc..
..universities will do that..
..not ‘destroyed’ there..ad..just different..
..eh..?
..(and..hic..!..what’s yr poison..?..
..i’ll betcha my drug causes less brain-damage than yr drug..eh..?..)
..and after decades of smoking more than you can poke a stick at..
..i went to university..and got a masters degree..with hons..
..now..had i spent decades drinking more booze than you can poke a stick at..
..i’d be kinda drooling about now..
..so..y’know..!
..yr talking absolute shite..eh..?
That’s just the drugs talking.
what’s yr favourite drug..there..ad..?
..is it a ‘legal-high’..?
..old skool..?..or nu skool..?
The problem with using different language to everyone else, as has been pointed out to you, is that no one else understands you.
no..i am actually using the same language..
..and if the absence of capital letters/commas/paragraphs renders english into a foreign language for you..
.you clearly have some comprehension-issues going on..
..did you understand that..?
Capitals, commas and paragraphs are part of the language. By leaving them out you change the language.
Agreed.
no they aren’t..they are punctuation/formatting..
..they change the language not a jot..
..you had may as well say a hubcap is a car..
Masters degree, with honours? Yawn. Who hasn’t?
[Big Bang Theory – one of the best lines]
Joyce?
[Monty Python – One of the best spinners]
“..Conservatives – Evil – and Psychopathy: Science Makes the Link!
You knew it was true.
Now research proves it!..”
http://www.alternet.org/conservatives-evil-and-psychopathy-science-makes-link
Unpublished conference papers are many things, and “proof” isn’t one of them.
We don’t need science to tell us that right wing authoritarian and social dominance philosophies are evil though.
slightly ‘bendy’ of you there..
..you sneer at ‘the paper’ as being the only evidence produced..which it is not..
..and as for the findings of that ‘paper’..
..what do you disagree with here..?
“..“The core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change – and justification of inequality
and is motivated by needs that vary situationally and dispositionally to manage uncertainty and threat” –
Jost and his co-authors wrote in the abstract.
These are not merely American phenomena, –
-nor is there any reason to think they’re particularly modern. .”
..what is there to sneer at in that..?
..what is the reason/logic behind yr plaint..?
Not sneering. I read the article. The answers to your questions are in my comment at 3.1
Want to know what a major Wellington employer has done to a friend of mine?
This is second hand, so some minor details may be incorrect, but…
They are highly qualified, including having a relevant PhD in their area and has good performance reviews for seven years, but the employer has decided that casualising the workforce suits them in retaining “flexibility”. Consequently, this friend has had to reapply for their job every four months, sometimes not knowing if they have any until three days before work starts.
Several years ago they suffered bullying at another workplace which the employer realised was indefensible and decided not to contest, instead giving a large out-of court settlement on condition of anonymity.
Naturally this person has been diagnosed with stress-induced anxiety and is prone to triggering.
Early this year, they noticed tremors. Then they had a severe episode of illness, taking two days off work for the first time in seven years.
Then a few personal tragedies occurred – a sibling’s cancer returned and a close friend died suddenly. Then they were hit by a car while on a pedestrian crossing and concussed. The employer was informed of this, the anxiety and the triggering.
The employer decided that this was an excellent time for a performance review and so surveyed this person while they were still impaired by the effects of their concussion.
They also demanded meetings for Mondays on Friday afternoons, refusing to reveal the agenda, allowing my friend to stew over the weekend.
Eventually my friend’s Union extracted partial information, but the employer refused to reveal any true detail of some supposed “complaints” or the alleged complainants.
Not long after, my friend’s tremors became convulsions and they were hospitalised and spent a week being treated under sedation. They were warned that the convulsions could have become seizures in which they might have suffered harm or even death.
After leaving hospital and facing months of medication still to come, the employer informed them that they needn’t apply for any more work.
Also, they’re not the only one to have a generally similar experience with this employer.
This is a profession is stereotyped as one of the most progressive. It isn’t.
THAT is what it means to be in the precariat.
What profession?
Computer programming I’d guess, the industry is sadly rife with dudebro’s, libertarians of the non-civil type and other such fun that causes issues if you have disabilities, are female or anything else the founder/owner/etc can’t understand or doesn’t like.
Not IT.
I’m being deliberately obscure bearing in mind lprent’s care about attracting the beady eyes of lawyers.
In any case, the exact profession or workplace is less important than the effects and abuse of casualisation. My friend’s exact experience may be unique, but the general quality of it is not.
That friend sounds like he needs a whole lot of love and care and rest.
🙂 +1
+1
Hi rhinocrates.
I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s experiences and subsequent illness. How are they doing now, and where are they at ?- no need to answer if you don’t want to.
I am hoping that their Union, if taking a personal grievance against the employer will use the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002, which requires the employer to take all practicable steps to prevent illness arising from stress and to reduce harm from stressors. This is my botched wording and not the wording from the Act. I’ve done a super quick google and can’t find the appropriate phrasing relevant to your friend’s case, only the epic length Act itself and I don’t have time to do a proper search right now, sorry. I might be able to come back to it later
Also I wonder did the employer offer your friend access to EAP: Employee Assistance Programmes? I’m guessing they didn’t but they should have.. Several large corporate employers do provide this service. There’s a couple of organisations in Wellington providing this service.
This is one of them:
http://www.vitae.co.nz/Vitae-employee-assistance-programme-home/
I once did an essay on the impact of of work on the well being of NZ workers. From my learnings I found that we are not as proactive as other comparable countries in preventing stress related illness. Sadly this seems to reflected in example after example of work stress related illness in real life (including my own when I had a breakdown in 2010 due to my work situation and ended up on meds to cope and help me recover).
All the best for your friend’s recovery. I hope they can find justice – they should never been put at such risk, especially as they had others stressors to cope with in their personal life.
Thank you Rosie, I’ll pass that on.
However, my – and their – point that they want made known is just how bad casualisation has become and how cynically it is abused by employers. It affects older, qualified professionals as much as the 90-day rule affects younger, unqualified people.
My friend suspects that a standard regime change is happening – a new senior person has been appointed and a number of new faces are replacing familiar ones. Apparently it’s a move by him to get his own team, no matter how inexperienced, to take over.
The casualisation of the labour force is poisonous, insidious and being taken up all around the globe.
Just a local example, also Wellington, is of a not for profit organisation who I a short contract with last year. None of the positions are permanent, they are all fixed term. At the end of your term the job is re advertised and you re apply for it. They were also users of the 90 day Act. Quite amazing really, the hypocrisy, given their “social values” mission and presence in the community, and the otherwise good work they do.
As for the company your friend worked for, their short sighted approach may lead to a drop in standards of their service, (what ever their industry is) that they are delivering to their client. The would be manager may find the loss of skilled experienced staff will lead to the loss of quality work and to unhappy clients. I hope she or he see’s the errors in the end, but most likely won’t, those self advancing types usually don’t.
I would hope though, that your friend’s Union would be willing to pursue a personal grievance. Sounds to me like they have good grounds to.
And people wonder why NZ managers are some of the worst in the world.
@ Rhino
This sounds like a rerun of something that happened to a friend of mine in the tertiary education sector about 4 years ago … and in retrospect “it’s a move by him to get his own team, no matter how inexperienced, to take over” is exactly what it was all about – as well as enabling the ‘Joyce-ing’ of the entire sector.
Real partisan control-freak stuff!
Workplace bullying: what it is, how to recognise it, myths, facts, costs, and why me?
http://www.bullyonline.org/
Your friend could wall paper a wall at work with the info on this link. Very empowering and every type of bullying is discussed.
An excellent link. Tim Field (who passed away some years ago) was a real pioneer in this area.
And he was very approachable. I had reason to have an email exchange and he was most helpful. His material is authentic and accurate.
Further evidence how how poor the NZ Herald is at framing a story.
The headline is ‘Cheaper power bills this winter., accompanied by a happy punter smiling by an electrical heater.
Given the breezy and cheerful headline, you might think that this was because the electrical companies haven’t stopped rotting NZers and declared a price freeze. You know something of be for to NZ citizens.
However, the detail in the story tells of something else.
Cheaper prices are down to climate change, not that you’d catch a paper that promotes Chris de Freitas ever using that term.
To quote the Herald rag…
“The cheerful outlook has been put down to sea surface temperatures being warmer for 16 consecutive months.”
Climate change …warming sea temperatures…cheerful
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11248655
Sigh, NZ Herald. Thanks for the banner story of a wealthy family having a squabble, but can we get it decently edited please.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11248684
The editor of the Herald thinks it’s more important than the events in the Ukraine.
Embarrassing.
Apparently dozens of pro-Russian militia and pro-Russian civilians who had taken over a government building in Odessa died due to fire and smoke inhalation when Ukrainian forces attacked the offices.
Odessa is critical to Ukraine now as I understand that it is their last remaining major sea port.
The IMF has told the unelected Ukrainian “government” that their multi-billion dollar bail out deal will be reviewed if they lose control of the eastern side of the country = if you want your money, move your military in, now.
Consultants believe that major military action may cause Russia to cut off some or all oil exports to the EU, leading to a major oil price spike = global recession.
A NATO deputy head is quoted as saying that Russia is no longer acting as a partner of NATO and will have to now be treated more like an adversary.
To me it seems like the oligarchs in the west are deliberately poking away at a hornet’s nest.
Odessa is also quite to the west of Ukraine. Close to Moldovan border.
+1
They want a war to distract from irritating things like this.
cuckoo
If you don’t believe wars are used by governments to distract people from serious domestic issues, you really do need to read up on a bit of history.
Actually, I think that’s El nino. Of course, it’s possible that it’s been exaggerated by Climate Change.
Some people call me Maurice
Love that. Although it will never be the same again…
lolololol
A comment by Sanctuary made over at Dimpost that is very funny and deserves to be repeated.
““…Let me qualify that. It’s an impossible task this time around. Short of a miracle nothing Labour can do can win them this election…”
And yo, the Lord spake. And across kingdom of Maurice of Pakuranga a big, gay rainbow of corruption did shine. Thus the Lord looked at the raiments of corruption and smiled, for they were juicy and entangled the PM. And across the land the left did rejoice, and raise hosannas of praise to lord for his miracle of Maurice, and small things with raffia detail were put to one side, all the better to spread on the blogsphere the miraculous works of the Lord.”
Lets hope that big gay rainbow of nact corruption illiminates the sheeple.
Granny and the rest will continue to spin faster then one of those turbines they flogged to their backers.
Maurice, john, judith, pansy, blinky, richard, dullards like jamie lee and slimy bridges as the next generation.
Focus in execution and keeping it simple should see these puppetts turfed off the teasury benches.
gold!
the nation has done an excellent piece on the need to tackle obesity..
..starting with a tax on sugary-drinks…
..let’s hope this becomes an election-issue here…
..(mana is shown to have the strongest anti-sugar policies..
..national and act oppose them..
..labour is sitting on the fence..)
and phillip mills is hanging this govt out to dry..
..over their climate-change denial/inaction..
(sigh..!..but he is a dairy-pimp..)
..and lisa owen gets political-question of the week..
..when she asks mills just how green/different from national..
..labour are..
..(given labour are for drilling/mining/fracking..etc..etc..)
one quarter of all nzers will have diabetes in 15 yrs..
..(with the rise in just the last ten yrs kinda mindboggling..)
..(with the rates much higher amongst maori/p.i…)
..and of course..one of the first things nact/dunne/maori party did when coming to power..
..was to open the floodgates for junk/unhealthy-food/sugar-laden drinks to be sold from school tuckshops..
..something to do with ‘freedom/individual choice’..as i seem to remember them arguing it..
..at the time..
(and i should repeat..this is an excellent piece of journalism from the nation..
..no ‘face’ fronting it..just a tight voiced-over mini-doco..laying out all the facts..
..they should enter it in the annual media awards..it is that good..)
Joyce blocks answers on corporate welfare
Matthew Hooton | WEEKEND REVIEW
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/joyce-blocks-answers-corporate-welfare-bd-155317
“…The questions caused extraordinary contretemps within the department. To their shame, no one – Labour, the Greens or the media – had ever asked such questions before. The poor officials had to start from scratch. …”
Some of us have asked questions about ‘corporate welfare’ before – missed this Mathew?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1111/S00095/wheres-nationals-corporate-welfare-reform.htm
‘Where’s National’s ‘corporate welfare’ reform?
Thursday, 3 November 2011, 5:28 pm
Press Release: Penny Bright
PRESS RELEASE: Independent Candidate for Epsom Penny Bright:
“How many billion$ of public monies could be saved by ‘CUTTING OUT THE CONTRACTORS’?
3 November 2011
Where’s National’s ‘corporate welfare’ reform?
Which of the maor political parties are pushing for ‘corporate welfare’ reform and shrinking the long-term dependency of the private sector on our public monies?
Where is the ‘devilish detail’ at both local and central government level – which shows EXACTLY where our public rates and taxes are being spent on private sector consultants and contractors?
Why aren’t the names of the consultant(s)/ contrators(s) – the scope, term and value of these contracts, published in Council or central government Annual Reports – so this information on the spending of OUR public monies is available for public scrutiny?
Where are the publicly-available ‘Registers of Interests’ for those local government elected representatives, and staff responsible for property and procurement, in order to help guard against possible ‘conflicts of interest’ between those who ‘give’ the contracts and those who ‘get’ the contracts?
Where’s the ‘transparency’?
……”
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
Penny – markets will determine whether consultants give value for money. Also it is a bit rich you complaining about value from rates.
Why is that?
I am a CITIZEN not a SLAVE.
When Auckland Council is not upholding the LAW (Public Records Act 2005 and Local Government Act 2002) and telling residents and ratepayer exactly where our public monies are being spent on consultants and private contractors, and when statutory ‘third party Public Watchdogs’ are NOT doing their jobs and holding them to account – what is a CITIZEN to do?
Meekly tug one’s forelock and become a mindless, compliant ‘ca$h cow’ ?
Sorry – WRONG woman.
I’m making a stand which is upholding YOUR lawful rights to ‘open, transparent and democratically-accountable’ local government.
One day – you’ll get it.
Hopefully sooner rather than later?
Actually rates revolts are not unheard of in the Auckland region.
Have some of you had an effective frontal lobotomy and forgotten the 2003 rates revolt against the ARC, which thousands of Aucklanders joined?
Maybe these ‘brain fades’ which are currently very fashionable at the highest levels of government are contagious?
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Yeah well maybe you have made your point, and it is time to fold. Just saying. But it is your call.
Penny, on Planet SSLands, everyone is a slave to the markets!
Ignore him and keep up the good work 🙂
It really is so sad that you still believe this delusion.
This market cult you belong to fascinates me, SSLands. Has it ever made a mistake?
What you remind me of more than anything is a young member of a Moscow aligned Communist Party, many years ago. A member of a more Beijing aligned Communist Party asked him what were the procedures if the leaders headed off down the wrong path and made some revisionist deviation or other. He was unable to accept that this could actually ever happen.
I much preferred him to you. Subjectively at least, he stood against privilege, poverty, corruption, and racism. He was human.
A human with independent thought; not a careerist cult member.
Yes srylands belongs to a ciult alright and unlike those utopian ones ..it appears not to care not one jot about anyone else but the individual.
Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ offers a grim vision when put along the ideas of Rosa Luxembourg.
Debt: The first 5000 years by David Graeber
So, yeah, it is a utopian view just one that’s rather nasty and removes all human contact.
Draco, you’re as bad as the free marketeers in ignoring Smiths other famous book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) in which the philosopher explicitly sets out the individual’s responsibilities to their community.
The problem with that critique is that modern society isn’t based around Smith’s previous work. In fact, we seem to have a tendency to ignore philosophers unless they allow the sociopaths to accumulate wealth and to rule.
And yes, I’m also quite aware that srylands and redbaiter would be calling Smith a dirty stinking commy for his attitude towards the poor despite the fact that their attitude is based upon his work.
Curiously enough, only those economic and philosophical ideas which are helpful to the goals of the 0.1% power elite get any airtime and sponsorship.
One question….Why has Matthew Hooton attacked Steven Joyce?
Is Matthew in the Judith Collins faction?
Matthew speaks on behalf of whomever pays for his services.
Is that why he has been so silent on the Williamson story?
“Liu hired consultancy group Exceltium, run by political consultant Matthew Hooton, to lobby the Government over the business immigration rules.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11224055
I think that is really cynical. He always strikes me as balanced, fair commentator. The media could do with more like him.
“.. He always strikes me as balanced, fair commentator..”
go on..!..yr having a laff..!..eh..?
..you joker..!
“.. He always strikes me as balanced, fair commentator..”
Bahahaha PMSL you’re so funny
Well I guess the person who wrote this must be reeeaaalllly cynical:
No fair Felix, bringing facts into it. Now S Rylands will have to go and read The Fountainhead again.
Says a lot.
Somebody is getting the pink slips ready for the National party at this very moment.
If the RW trials are going to be so prevalent with their predictably self-centred, self-advancing views then time can be better spent on reading people who do attempt thought rather than different way of parrotting I’m OK – You’re Not OK and you and your opinion and your needs and wants are of no importance.
Joe 90 and others are great at giving links.
This is one that was supplied here. Chris Trotter on David Parker’s newly announced economic ideas. These will be game changers for us having untold advantages as Chris puts it. http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/
Bryan Gould on our economy and Reserve Bank.
Bryan Gould: Reserve Bank fiddling as exchange rate burns exporters
9:30 AM Friday Apr 4, 2014
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bryan-gould/news/article.cfm?a_id=804&objectid=11231702
And Brian Easton on Distribution and poor people struggling and sliding down the plughole,
and on data stats in Been Counter. Seeing that many journalists don’t understand the figures they very artfully quote, perhaps the rest of us who haven’t studied stats etc. should bring our knowledge up to speed to bridge the ignorance gap.
http://www.eastonbh.ac.nz/2014/03/been-counters/
thanks greyw
Thank you Tracey your regular comments are informative.
I think that Bryan Gould makes some important points about the difficulties our exporters have and these should be repeated here.
Exporting successfully is an expensive business. Unless margins are good enough to make possible the spending needed to cover all the additional costs, such as freight and commissions, to develop the overseas market through promotion and after-sales service, and to provide the re-investment needed for product development so as to keep pace with foreign competition, it is not worth the effort.
No wonder so many of our potential exporters don’t try or give up quickly.
Even our most successful exporters pay a price for the dollar’s overvaluation – ask our dairy farmers. Export profits are lower than they would be if the dollar was at a more competitive level. Even our best firms – let alone those who are struggling at the margin – are therefore less able in the long run to keep pace with foreign competitors who don’t have to face the same currency headwind.
Quoting Bryan Gould:
Glad to see that getting an airing in the MSM.
And from Brian Easton:
Yep, three decades of neo-liberalism has left us worse off.
It’s not all bad news. After all if you are in the top 5% to 10% you are noticeably better off, and if you are in the elite top 0.1%, you are winning the world with tens of millions of gains. The peasants, well, they can eat cake and buy their PS3s on hire purchase.
Looks like Judith Collins is cruising for a political BRUISING when Parliament sits again Tuesday 6 May 2014?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1405/S00039/emerging-evidence-has-justice-minister-in-deeper-mire.htm
Emerging Evidence Has Justice Minister in Deeper Mire
Friday, 2 May 2014, 5:05 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1405/S00034/judith-collins-briefing-request-the-final-straw.htm
Judith Collins briefing request the final straw
Friday, 2 May 2014, 3:12 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1405/S00012/serious-questions-over-money-and-influence-in-national.htm
Serious questions over money and influence in National
Thursday, 1 May 2014, 2:12 pm
Press Release: Green Party
In my considered opinion, as an ‘Anti-corruption Public Watchdog’ – Minister of Justice Judith Collins is CORRUPT – has misled both the House and the NZ public over her role in promoting the interests of her friends’ and husband’s private company Oravida, and must be stood down as a Minister – FORTHWITH.
I predict that this may happen on Monday 5 May 2014 – if not before ………..
Penny Bright
I would love to be a fly on the wall of the National Auckland Regional Convention which is taking place in Auckland this weekend. No doubt Williamson – and Collins – will be hot topics for discussion …..
Was thinking that too veutoviper and was wondering if there would be a piece on the 6pm news, “Collins resigns!”. She really is holding on by her fingernails, super strong glossily painted shellac fingernails.
Even if Collins gets the boot, she will only get her job back after the election. Just like Williamson will…
Last night I saw TV3’s ‘on the street’ piece and maybe it was just the editing, but it looked decidedly like many in his electorate were turning away from Williamson now, regardless of how well they thought he had done in the past.
If I was running National Williamson would be convinced (bribed if need be) to stand down and Craig would be gifted Pakuranga
Not that I agree with what Craig says but as a junior partner he can easily be ignored
If National had any ethical standards Williamson would have been stood down and charges laid.
An article supporting something you said the other day phillip, along the lines of animal testing on synthetics only being part of a very large problem, just in NZ alone. On the front page of the Dom Post today:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/10004053/87-000-animals-die-in-one-year-as-part-of-scientific-testing
aye rosie..
..an interesting/grotesque aspect of all that..
..is that the spca sign-off on/’approve’ all that animal torture/killing..
..and i dunno if they still do..
..but the spca used to supply/sell(?) animals to the vivisection-‘labs’/torture-centres..
..the animal gulag..
..knowing these facts/realities means the sight of cuddly’ ol’ bob kerridge ‘cuddling’ his ‘cuddly’ puppies..for the fawning-media..
..actually makes my skin fucken crawl…
..his fingers are dripping with the blood/suffering of all of those tortured then killed animals..
..his fingers signed off on all that..
..and over the years his fingers held the torture/death-pen…millions of them..
..how does he fucken sleep at nite..?
..don’t their screams keep him awake..?
Yes, I recall you mentioned something about that once phillip, the SPCA’s involvement in supply of animals to labs. That information, is that inside information or is there documented evidence of it happening or having once happened?
And a question I had the other day to you, that you may not have seen, was regarding Massey University’s (Palmy) animal testing. I had heard somewhere that they were the largest animal testing facility in NZ, testing commercial domestic products such as cleaners and cosmetics as well as medical research as they might be expected to undertake. Is this your understanding, that they are the largest?
rosie..
..i dunno if massey is the largest or not..but it will be up there..
..and re spca supply of animals to labs..?
..i know that used to happen..’cos i once liberated a dog from a courier van..
..and i liberated it because it was on it’s way from the spca to auckland rail station..
..destination..vivisectors in wellington..
..and i said ‘no fucken way!’..and tucked her under my arm..and hoofed it..
..so instead of a shortened/tortured life..followed by death..
..she was much loved..
..and lived to be 14 yrs old..
..so..’cos of that.. i know that they did..
..i don’t know if they still do..
Onya for rescuing the diggety phillip and just too shocking for words that the SPCA were involved in such a trade…..Really troubling in many ways.
+1 way to go Phil.
Labs who do any significant experimental or chemical trial work on animals usually need several, to several dozen, of the exact same species and age of animal.
So no, I’d say that the SPCA would not be where they go for their test subjects (in the main).
The murder of Sarwen Lata occurred on 25th November 2013, a street away from where I live. The story of her relationship with her husband is very sad and even sadder because she is one of many women who have been killed by partners or ex partners who they protection orders against. Sarwen was killed the day after white ribbon day.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/10004052/Stalker-husband-defied-protection-orders
The one thing that has stayed in my mind that is particularly upsetting was that in the last hours of her life no body helped her. The one call to 111 came from her. Although neighbours heard screaming, the only call that was made came from the victim:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/9442238/Screams-heard-before-body-found
You can see in the video above that Sarwen’s house is very close to other houses, all around. Her particular house is plaster clad, as all the houses around her are too, they were all built at the same time. The walls are thin and none of those houses are double glazed in that part of the development. Why on earth did no one pick up the phone? When Singh broke the ranch slider glass surely that would have woken people and they should have been on to 111 straight away. For the record this is the most unfriendly neighbourhood I have lived in but surely the instinct to help when someone’s life is in danger would take over any social indifference? What the fuck is wrong with people?
Tragic. He was a classic high risk for murder-suicide and it’s very difficult to protect partners from men like him. Not sure what the answer is – protection orders won’t work with people who are intent on killing and then taking their own life. If we had effective mental health services it might help but in the absence of effective therapy for potential killers, the only way to be reasonably sure of protecting women is to relocate them – maybe with new identities.
Yes, it is so tragic because her death could have quite possibly been prevented if effective mental health intervention was available to Singh combined with or at least greater safety options being provided by the state to victims of domestic violence, as you suggest.
Socially, I wondering why her neighbours didn’t keep an eye out for her and why weren’t they there for her? Why didn’t they call 111 when given the nature of the tight cluster of thinned walled homes they would have clearly heard what was going on?
Rosie
I suggest that the reason why neighbours didn’t come forward was just because they are so tightly packed and with thin walls. The only way you can have privacy, personal space and peace of living in that case, is to ignore the constant noises and talking around you.
It is a defence mechanism necessary for everyone who would otherwise be vicariously living in other people’s ups and downs. Usually if becoming involved they would end up being soundly cursed by both or all participants who they will be continuing to live beside, and need to be on equable terms with.
There is a big strain on people who are really strangers trying to live in badly designed housing in close confines..
Rosie
This would have been a good point that remained in archived under domestic violence if you had put it in the thread about williamson and domestic violence. Comments like this with links are useful for later reference.
Thanks Warbs. I might do that later. Haven’t had a chance to read that post yet.
We’ve been taught, over generations, that other peoples business isn’t our business. The last thirty years of neo-liberalism has pretty much cemented that home.
‘
The John Key-led National Ltd™ government’s blitzkrieg against the New Zealand environment is beginning to pay off for at least one mining company with close connections to it.
The so-called Environmental Protection Authority has just given the go ahead to foreign-owned Trans Pacific Resources to commence the first stage of a massive sea-bed mining operation right smack in the middle of a Maui dolphin habitat and migatory route for blue whales. Of the 4850 submissions to the EPA on the application, 4842 were opposed including those from local Iwi, environmenal groups, and fishing companies. In effect, the EPA rules governing the application for the mining consent prevent adequate input and usurp democracy while also ensuring that scientific evidence, tangata whenua concerns, and public opinion are secondary considerations to spreadsheet fantasies cooked up by unaccountable corporates.
Having made the rules to support their corporate masters, National Ltd™ further tilted the field in favour of Trans Tasman Resources when Environment Minister Amy Adams denied legal aid to small, volunteer organisations with a stake in the outcome. At the same time, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment handed the mining compnay a $25 million “innovation” grant.
The current consent, also granted by MoBIE, covers some 22 to 36 kilometres off the coast of Patea, in the Exclusive Economic Zone. It is the first stage of a much larger operation being planned by Trans Tasman Resources which is seeking to mine an additional 66 kilometres in the area. The larger application is currently going through a marine consent process being handled by a Board of Inquiry appointed by the EPA. The public notice of the application had to be re-issued because the original notice – surprise surprise – did not have all the required documentation. This delay has squeezed all the timelines for consideration of the application but – suprise surprise – Trans Tasman Resources’ timetable for commencing the raising of capital is still set for June 2014.
While it touts itself as a “New Zealand Company”, Trans Tasman Resources’ Board of Directors is the usual gaggle of international industrial henchmen one might expect, but there is a New Zealander there: none other than former National Ltd™ Prime Minister Jenny Shipley.
The New Zealand companies office record of shareholders shows that 58 percent of Trans Tasman Resources is owned by two Dutch investment companies. The largest New Zealand shareholders appear to be Benjamin Clarke Langdon and Gregor John Barclay who, between them, hold 4.88% – but not in their own names. Their Trans Tasman Resources shares are held by Minvest Securities (New Zealand) Limited which, in turn, is owned by Claymore Trustees Ltd which, in turn, is owned by Sheet Investments Ltd in which Langdon and Barclay hold 50% each. Seems legit . . . doesn’t it? Fuck knows what corporate veils have been pulled over the other Trans Tasman Resources’ shareholding entities in order to protect investors for any form or any accountability should it be required.
Welcome to John Key’s brighter future, everyone.
There are not many in NZ called Gregor John Barclay
in fact, only one who links back to any of the companies listed.
His lawyer bio says he was admitted to the bar at CHCH, which suggests a South Island connection in his younger days.
Relative of Todd perhaps?
Jenny Shipley
You can read a lot into her dealings since 2005.
From wiki
“In 2007, Shipley joined the financial services firm Source Sentinel.
Shipley also has business interests in China and is currently on the board of the China Construction Bank.
According to Companies Office records, Jack Chen, Jenny Shipley and another investor founded a business together in 2004 called New Zealand Pure & Natural. Mr Chen quit as a director a year later but only quit his shareholding in 2010. Mr Chen was instrumental in promoting the ‘Chinese Business Roundtable Council’ in NZ, and set up a new political party in NZ, before being forced to resign due to fraud and corruption charges being laid in Hong Kong.
In 2010 the China Construction Bank agreed to help finance a proposal by May Wang [also known as Hao May] and Jack Chen [also known as Chen Keen] to invest in the New Zealand dairy industry by taking over the Crafar Farms.
Since 2009, Shipley has chaired the Genesis Energy Limited board.
In December 2012 Shipley resigned from the board of directors of Mainzeal Property & Construction which later went into receivership on 6 February 2013. At mid-day on 5 February 2013 she was one of four independent directors who resigned from the board of Mainzeal Group Limited. Both Mainzeal Property & Construction (MPCL), and Mainzeal Group Limited are part of the Richina group, controlled and majority owned by Yan Ci Lang (Richard Yan). “
Which, of course, is what the function of the EPA always was. Its name is the exact opposite of its purpose and that purpose is to fast track business.
Cronyism runs deep in National.
It’s probably many things. First it would hide and protect the owners and, most likely, it’s also a tax dodge.
What mechanism are you suggesting is employed as a “tax dodge”. I mean precisely? Or are you simply making shit up? Again.
Also the mission of the EPA is clear:
“Streamlined and strengthened national environmental regulation that protects the environment while enabling economic progress and growth.”
What is not sensible about that?
http://www.epa.govt.nz/Publications/EPA%20SOI%202012.pdf
Just a hunch. We keep hearing about these people who have lots of nested companies which seem to pay very little tax. And I’m sure you’ve heard of the Loss Attributing Qualifying Company – A company specifically set up to run at a loss that can be written off against other income.
Sounds good but they don’t seem to be protecting the environment.
I STRONGLY recommend folks have another read of whistleblower Dr Jacob Cohen’s ‘Murder at Pike River Mine?’ – Chapter 10:
SECRET REASON BEHIND THE REPEAL OF THE FORESHORE AND SEABED ACT: TO EXPLOIT NZ’s VAST MINERAL WEALTH:
http://mistymountain.info/sites/default/files/users/Dan/pdf/Murder%20at%20Pike%20River%20Mine.pdf
Check out the role of Trans Tasman Resources ….
Penny Bright
MBIE’s New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals have just given Trans Tasman Resources a twenty year permit to extract ironsand off the coast of Patea. This is before the EPA hearings have even concluded, which just goes to show how much they don’t care about the consultation process. That’s how assured of a pro-industry decision from the EPA they are as well. New Zealands EPA is pretty much copied from the United States’ EPA, which is well known for making many decisions which have had a negative impact on the environment and people’s health.
Is there any way that long-term and irreversible damage to the seabed, and the consequences of turbidity pollution from ironsand dredging can be made as visible to the NZ public as say the breach of a toxic tailings dam or marine oil spill?
Am I wrong to have a gut feeling that this is sanctioning of environmental vandalism?
I think you’re right. Kiwis Against Seabed Mining has some good resources on their webpages. It’s a high volume, low value operation that shifts a lot of sand, but where it can’t be seen. There are studies showing that dunes, beaches, waves, and river mouths near the mining areas can be drastically changed. None of this seems to matter to NAct at all, as long as someone makes a buck.
http://kasm.org.nz/
Corporate systems of exploitation are systems of organised death and destruction. Facts are facts.
While all facts are facts, it is sometimes useful to know exactly what they are. It can be easier to build a local movement to protect a beach if you can point to something slightly more detailed than “organised death and destruction”. When I learned how to give lectures and seminars, I was advised to spend the first five or ten minutes telling the audience stuff they were familiar with. The conclusion comes at the end.
Yes, that works well.
So is it because the left are pining their hopes on WinstonFirst that no ones mentioning this:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9999622/NZ-First-travel-claims-queried
Maybe people are just waiting till Parliamentary Services return with their answers?
You know, allowing the proper authorities to do their job?
or you could just jump in with hype lines as is your normal routine
You know what really boggles my mind?
“What’s that?”
Well I’ll tell you.
The amount of posters at places like Kiwiblog who call The Greens “Luddites” for being anti deep-sea drilling and the like. It boggles the mind because developing new technologies for energy is the complete opposite of being a Luddite whereas the continued embrace of old world technology is pure Ludditism.
Pure cognitive dissonance right there. Thoughts?
nicely said TC and welcome back
my main thought would be
There is no barrier more dangerous to constructive discussion than cognitive dissonance,
They’re not Luddites, they’re religious extremists.
Evangelical,Muslim,Greens, they’re all cut from the same cloth.
Just for fun, could you please describe the similarities between the three groups as you see them?
Neoliberals, neocons and the pro-feudal power elite should be on any list of deluded self belief.
Not sure you understand the difference between religious belief and ideological belief there chap
Er, actually I think the point is that while the Greens may be in favour of new forms of energy, they are also very much in favour of reducing energy consumption as a whole, which can be classed as ludditism.
The Luddites main point was along the lines of:
‘We must stick with the old inefficient way because jobs’,
innit?
A safe renewable low cost energy source will see energy use skyrocket Lanthanide, that is the end goal of any alternative to fossil fuels and their derivations.
Luddite is not a fair or even relevant label.
Just another indication of the different planet on which National operates. This from the DomPost today:
“Post-Budget speech requires big budget
It might be called the Budget, but there is nothing budget about the price of tickets to Prime Minister John Key’s May 16 post-Budget speech at Auckland’s SkyCity Convention Centre.
A seat at the event, organised by the Trans-Tasman Business Circle together with AUT University, QBE Insurance and Westpac, will require a looser fiscal policy than Finance Minister Bill English is planning.
They cost a taxing $375+GST for members, and $550+GST for non-members.”
When I saw that today I looked for information of a dollar destination nature, but found nothing.
Does any one know where the ticket returns, actually go ?
It’s not like the PM gets an appearance fee or anything.
It’s unlikely SkyCity would be charging much for the room.
In this day and age, does any one know why these post-budget speeches are not broadcast to a national audience?
Very good questions. SkyCity for a post-budget speech at a fairly high cost? More of the infiltration of business, especially big money, into government.
That is fucking bullshit – Michael Cullen always gave post budget speeches to a business audience in each of the main centres, and sometimes in Sydney or Melbourne – do you think they were free?
Get a grip.
yes shitlands, they were either free or had only some minimal charge, after all Finance Ministers/DPMs already get very well paid to explain their Budgets to the public.
As for getting a grip, you need to stop gripping yours.
As you obviously have no answers to some very simple and fair questions, you choose to throw around irrelevancies. Is that all you have for your contributions?
Karol’s comment is clearly not making mention of any party, neither is mine. Both are general observations of the reality at hand. Some people are actually capable of isolating their political allegiances from their due consideration of the long term situation and how it relates to the ever changing society we inhabit.
I accept that you struggle with that concept.
And if you read what I wrote srylands, there is no judgement made or opinion given other than an interest in where a sizeable bundle of topical cash ends up, and maybe it is time speeches like this were streamed to the people who pay the PM’s salary. In a post budget environment, especially in an election year, many people would like to see what the Prime Minister says if his performance is worth 500 bucks a ticket.
So, you are of course going to provide evidence that he charged.
$375 for an event like this is bog standard. You pay $500 to send one of your staff to any kind of half-day professional seminar. A two day conference at sky city (or any conference centre in wellington or auckland is typically $3,000 + GST.
Why do you think the price is high? If there is any profit it will simply cross subsidise the other TTBC events.
To paraphrase Helen Clark – I am amazed that you are amazed.
lol
true believers are easy to fleece.
$500 for any kind of half day professional seminar?
Not for lots of stuff in the health sector.
Not for lots of stuff in IT.
Not for lots of foreign policy/IR stuff.
I guess randian superheroes are just gullible.
shitlands would say that John Key’s $5000 per head dinner tickets were absolutely “bog standard” – to the 0.1%, that is.
NetHui, a 3 day IT conference, costs $40 to attend. That’s for all 3 days, not per day.
So yeah?
Have heard some really good stories about NetHui sessions. Can you imagine srylands trying to wrap his head around the dialogues on collaborative thinking that are generated at NetHui ?
even this single line from their promotional material is probably enough to fry his cerebellum
” It’s a collaborative, multistakeholder gathering where we all set the agenda.”
$500 clams for a seat at a government speech? Sounds like normal business to me…but then I heard from right wing peeps that govts shouldn’t be in the business of doing business.
Yet this govt seems to do a lot of “business”, especially behind closed doors.
FYI – seen this?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11247865
John Drinnan: Making a stand on dope
9:30 AM Friday May 2, 2014
Blogger and political consultant ‘Bomber’ Bradbury denies exclusion of pro-marijuana party from poll was his call.
A blogger and political consultant to Mana and the Internet Party has warned he will not support closer ties with the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party.
This comes after ALCP leaders questioned Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury’s editing of The Daily Blog platform, and his links to the legal highs organisation the Star Trust.
Campaigners for legalisation of natural marijuana believe they have been getting a bad deal.
Bradbury is a longtime supporter of real cannabis, but lately has written several posts sympathetic to the synthetic highs industry.
Other liberal campaigners and blogs such as Public Address have supported a legal foundation for the legal highs industry, and lamented the decision to amend the Psychoactive Substances Act that will force 41 legal high products off the market, pending safety tests. But Bradbury is different because as well as having a high media profile, where he promotes himself as champion of the common man, other media have revealed he is also a political consultant to both the Mana Party and the Internet Party.
The danger is the commercial roles might become enmeshed.
Dak v dak
ALCP deputy leader Abe Gray – a botany lecturer at Otago University – says Bradbury has cut comment in The Daily Blog and excluded the party from a poll on the site.
Bradbury acknowledges bad vibes between himself and the ALCP, but says its exclusion from the Daily Blog poll was not decided by him.
Friction with the left wing blogger appears to reflect a rift between the natural cannabis people and the well-resourced legal highs industry.
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‘Dirty, filthy’
Star Trust director Grant Hall confirms Bradbury’s comment that he does not have a commercial relationship with the trust. “The reason you may have heard this rumour is because he interviewed some of the guest speakers [at a Star Trust conference in March], researched the questions for the political debate and hosted the political panel on the day.
“Beyond that he has no role with the trust and does no work for us currently.”
Bradbury was unhappy when asked about his ties to the legal highs industry, and sent a terse letter to ALCP leader Julian Crawford for talking to the Herald.
He said: “I worked for the Star Trust as the convener of their recent conference, my association with them has nothing whatsoever to do with your none [sic] inclusion in the poll. We only have parties on that poll with a chance of entering Parliament. The ALCP has no chance of entering Parliament.
“This type of deceitful smearing has helped make up my mind in terms of any advice to the IP and Mana in terms of broadening their alliance to include ALCP,” he said. Bradbury criticised Crawford for “dirty, filthy tactics”.
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Wonder how much ‘Star Trust’ paid Martyn Bradbury to ‘convene’ their recent conference?
Did Martyn Bradbury ever do any (paid) work for Star Trust?
I’d ask Bradbury directly these questions on HIS ‘Daily Blog’ – but he blocked me – when I refused to back down as an Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Beware folks!
Follow the dollar…..?
In my considered opinion there are a lot of PHONIES out there …..
Penny Bright
MUST READ OF THE DAY
Paula Bennett says the problems faced by Writehanded.org blogger Sarah Wilson are an “isolated incident” and there is no need to change the policies or procedures at Work and Income (WINZ).
She goes on to suggest that Sarah Wilson has a “distorted perception of reality” ie Sarah Wilson and others who complain have a mental illness that makes her delusional due to the stress of her situation. (FYI minister assuming someone has a disability is a little known form of discrimination but it still fits the criteria of human rights abuse – check the handy HRC website).
“We work with some people that are at the most challenging and distressing times in their lives and their perception of how they’re dealt with can sometimes be not perhaps the reality if they were in a different frame of mind.”
With 295,000 people on welfare, she had much more to think about than Wilson, she said, and she saw no need to make changes as a result of what Wilson had said. ”
http://www.writehanded.org/blog/2014/05/02/a-bee-in-her-bonnet/