Macsyna King and Ian Wishart have been the target of a lot of protest and anger over the past week. Is this the best way we can can expend the energy of our anger about child abuse and the deaths of babies? How much lower can we take Macsyna King?
Dr Will has a record of working successfully on one of our society’s biggest problem – early childhood abuse. He deserves all the support we can give him.
Pete Georgie – Does the Children’s Comissioner Department of Fools actually help abused children? The fact is mate, it’s just another useless government let down for kiwi kids.Dysfunctional and expensive white elephants like this deserve to be eradicated, as that would be in the child’s best interests.Not to mention struggling kiwi taxpayers.
d4jie, have you watched the interview with Dr Wills on Marae Investigates? If not I suggest you do before jumping to conclusions. If he can carry through some of his methods and aims he has already been doing over the past five years in Hawkes Bay then I he can initiate more real progress.
Pete Geo; I am just saying the Children’s Commisioner Office has a method of leaving a dismal track record. I will wait and see whether this blowhard department is worth anything? So far it’s been a total let down for kiwi kids! Just another pathetic department of over paid worthless nitwits. Poor kiwi children can’t afford to eat lamb anymore Mr Gummint scum.
What’s will the moderation girls? FFS why do I bother with this joke blog.
The NActMUs and you will just love the wee sentence he popped in about New Zealanders paying for their own health treatment so that the children can be looked after. What happened to the much better idea of removing the 14billion dollars of tax cuts which Key awarded to himself and backers and using that to help the health of the poor children? Otherwise, we know the outcome; the poor will then pay or not be able to afford to for their own health AND the health care or not be able to afford to of their poor children. The rich will continue corruptly writing off their wealth, hiding it away, using it to buy knighthoods and p.m.’ships. And New Zealand will then become America. How convenient for everyone but New Zealanders.
Why shouldn’t we pay for our own health care, especially routine care?
Labour tries too much blanket assistance (blanket vote attracting?) rather than targeting those who cause most of the problems. Sure, it would be great if everyone had a decent wage, decent housing and decent standard of living, and everyone paid their fair share of tax, and incomes weren’t so disparate.
But with limited resources it’ best to target the biggest problem areas more, the ongoing benefits will be to everyone’s advantage in the long run.
Pete, you need to look up the stats regarding the availability of services and affordability and also the relationship between poverty and achievement. Unless you actually narrow the gap no matter what you do it will fail. There are too many do-gooder programmes – they don’t work. You need to refocus service delivery, build robust public policy (even though having that will upset a lot of people) and build peoples abilities to be self sufficient.
It takes a human being at least a year to be able to walk properly, and without help from other humans, we never ever learn to talk or even understand language.
People are interdependent, not self sufficient.
I suspect that the average Tory farmer understands this more than you do.
Whilst we allow people to live in KFC, McD’s, BK or Pizza Hut, whilst the educational system fails to produce what we need and whilst we have a society that determines a persons worth by the model of car they drive or the cellphone they own we will continue to go backwards. We are just lemmings to commercialism.
determines a persons worth by the model of car they drive or the cellphone they own we will continue to go backwards. We are just lemmings to commercialism.
I reckon give it a few more years Ian, the Hubbert Curve is going to sort all that out.
The biggest problem areas are the write-offs of tax by people best able to afford to pay it fairly.
Take a quick look at the future of New Zealand and its egalitarian society and weep. This outcome is for skids countries like America where people are expected to be very rich or dirt poor. New Zealand once thought better of itself. Shame on New Zealanders who think that selling off all New Zealanders’ assets for the benefit of the rich beneficiaries is a good result when we end up with pondscum at the top of the food chain and the helpless at the bottom.
Next we’ll be expecting the poor who are poor because of NActMU’s DELIBERATELY bad economic management to be tugging their forelocks when they are given their depleted wage packet, depleted because of the taxes used to prop up the rich who don’t pay them.
As for limited resources; crap, Pete George.
The only reason resources are limited in New Zealand and in so many other countries is that the rich and powerful have closed them off.
Remember the food mountains – disgraceful when millions were starving and nothing would have been lost by just giving the food to the poor.
What I want from Wills is for him to be contacted and brought down to earth about where to draw the line. When I email his office I will make a few proposals, I will only mention one here: that the accommodation supplement is increased to not having to pay no more that 25 % of your income in rent.
While most Kiwi’s think that Gadaffi is an audacious terrorist for defending his country perhaps it would be prudent to hear the other side. Here is a one, two part telephone conversation between Webster Tarpley and Alex Jones.
Webster Tarpley was on the Green square in the centre of Tripoli. (Life view provided)
It seems that at least half a million Libyans wanted to tell NATO, Sarkozy, and president Obama who wants to invade Libya with ground troops sometime October this year something: WE WILL DEFEND OUR COUNTRY!!! (Sorry for the screaming Iprent but it makes me so angry how this does not come through in the MSM)
In the second half something remarkable happens. Tarpley gives his phone to a Libyan fan of Alex Jones who invites him to come to Libya so they can share his Kalasnikov to fight together in their struggle against the Fascist/Corporate criminals trying to steal Libyan oil and resources.
Do you get what this means? Libyans listening to Alex Jones by many here considered a conspiracy nutter, right wing red neck and consider him an ally and want him to be their guest to report on what is really going on in Libya.
ummm… I don’t think Gadaffi is a terrorist. I think he is a brutal dictator who is willing to order the murder and rape of his fellow country men and women in order to maintain power. Feel free to explain how this is incorrect?
On the other hand though I fully appreciate the side of the argument that is presented that the Libyan revolutionaries don’t wish to swap the brutality of Gadaffi for the ideological invasion of the West through NATO.
There really needs to be a term developed to specifically describe the strategy of “Western nations assist/instill revolution in unstable resource rich nations in order to install a powerless benevolent democracy that allows pillage by proxy”. ^_^
It seems we are at least partly in agreement. Here are a few links that might change you view (coloured by incomplete information due to the MSM propaganda) of Gaddafi a bit.
Here is what Amnesty International has to say about the rape allegations.
This is what Libyan women have to say about the rape allegations.
Gaddafi shared out hundreds of thousands of guns and other assorted arms out to the population so they can help defend the country and it seems according to Webster Tarpley in the above video links that an inordinate amount of women have weapons and are prepared to use them.
Here is an video which might explain why Libyans stand behind Gadaffi on the whole.
It seems that a few of John Key’s bankster mates got their hands dirty while defrauding the Sovereign wealth fund of Libya for oh, a billion or so and funny enough just before the Libyans could take the scamsters who collaborated with the international banking scum the war started and those who were on the verge of being taken to court became “rebel leaders”.
And last but not least this is what those wonderful freedom fighters seem to have thought was the right course of action with all those nice new weapons from NATO.
Remember; The first casualty of war/kinetic action/humanitarian intervention is the truth!!!
No, I’m not smarty pants but do yourself a favour and ask yourself why it is so easy for you to believe the things said in the MSM about Gaddafi.
Is it because he is a funny man with clowns costumes and a few well chosen smears easy to believe because he is just some one far away believing in different things to you or would you believe the same things if they said them about someone dressed as Goff or Key and a leader of a Western country?
Blair- Bush started two wars against countries which had nothing to do with 9/11. killing more tan a million Iraqis and God knows how many Afghanis and Pakistanis. Polluting all those countries for the next 4.5 billion years with depleted uranium.
Iran hasn’t started a single war in the last 500 years. Neither has Libya.
Obama has perpetuated these wars and started and additional three wars while preparing for at least two more.
Libya’s students get a living wage while studying for free and medical treatment is also free. Which it was in Iraq by the way too. Here students have to go into debt and our hard earned rights and social care are being taken away by the same rich pricks ruling the rest of this planet and you think that the Libyans are the suppressed here.
Here’s another homily for ya: There are none so enslaved as those who think they are free.
urg… just, for the moment, ignoring the specific issue of Gadaffi and Libya that are the basis of this discussion and focusing on the ideological arguments you are fronting. To my perception, your statements represent a form of hypocrisy and that is something I find detestable. I don’t feel the need to trust the MSM or ANY particular outlet of information – hell, there are a lot of Tom MacMasters out there either purporting to be a primary source of information or, like you, a biased secondary or tertiary source filter for the excessive amounts of information available on the internets. The advantage to you being the second type though is that I can read through your comments and links, keeping in mind your bias, and then come to an appropriately weighted conclusion on the issue at hand.
“Now grow up and do your own research” <– if I did this and came back and disagreed with you, what would it take to change your mind? If you were able to answer this question it might be worthwhile engaging in an issue with you.
EDIT: Also, since when was blaming the MSM portrayal of a person an excuse for their war crimes?
Good, read my links and make up your own mind.
You come back with well documented clear arguments of that which you want to convince me and be surprised.
I agree, let’s take Blair, Obama, Sarkozy, and the rest of the warmongering mass murderers together with Bibi Netanyahu, Mubarak and the other dictators in the service of these criminals to the international court in the Hague for long overdue judgement.
Somewhat surprisingly, geonet isn’t showing any aftershocks in Auckland last night. You need to be on guard for the aftershock that is one magnitude less than the main shock. So, watch out for the 1.9.
Its a distraction when our human rights record in NZ is so wanting given the massive bounty this country provides the world. When we get our social justice agenda centre stage only then should we start worrying about human rights cesspools like Belarus. i.e. show the citizens on the streets in Belarus what to do when they do win, don’t let the ‘any profit at any expense’ party take over the parliament and media.
Going far beyond a zero sum policy this seems to be a very risky and extreme position for the Obama administration to take.
Last week, on June 24, six members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Clinton requesting that she “do everything in her power to work with the Israeli government to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens on board.” As of this writing, they have not received a response.
The US citizens aboard “The Audacity of Hope” represent a cross section of mainstream US society. The people who form US opinion.
Ex US military and intelligence officers, commentators and writers, entertainers and professors, sportsmen and women, clergy and politicians.
What on earth can the Obama administration be thinking?
As one commenter remarked:
You know, Alice Walker wrote “The Color Purple”. Where’s Oprah? If anything happens to Alice or any other person on that boat, there will be HELL TO PAY.
As another commentator has said, and going on past experience, this will be seen by the Israelis as a green light, to do just that.
Going far beyond a zero sum policy, this seems to be a very risky and extreme position for the Obama administration to take.
Last week, on June 24, six members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Clinton requesting that she “do everything in her power to work with the Israeli government to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens on board.” As of this writing, they have not received a response.
The US citizens aboard “The Audacity of Hope” represent a cross section of mainstream US society. The people who form US opinion.
Ex military and intelligence officers, commentators and writers, entertainers and professors, sportsmen and women, clergy and politicians.
What on earth can the Obama administration be thinking?
As one commenter remarked:
You know, Alice Walker wrote “The Color Purple”. Where’s Oprah? If anything happens to Alice or any other person on that boat, there will be HELL TO PAY.
As another commentator has said, and going on past experience, this will be seen by the Israelis as a green light, to do just that.
Going far beyond a zero sum policy, this seems to be a very risky and extreme position for the Obama administration to take.
Last week, on June 24, six members of Congress signed a letter to Secretary Clinton requesting that she “do everything in her power to work with the Israeli government to ensure the safety of the U.S. citizens on board.” As of this writing, they have not received a response.
The US citizens aboard “The Audacity of Hope” represent a cross section of mainstream US society. The people who form US opinion.
Ex military and intelligence officers, commentators and writers, entertainers and professors, sportsmen and women, clergy and politicians.
What on earth can the Obama administration be thinking?
As one commenter remarked:
You know, Alice Walker wrote “The Color Purple”. Where’s Oprah? If anything happens to Alice or any other person on that boat, there will be HELL TO PAY.
As another commentator has said, and going on past experience, this will be seen by the Israelis as a green light, to do just that.
“A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.
The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.”
Yep joe. And one way to gloat is to accuse the poor of being envious of the rich. What a worry it would be to be rich! they would be anxious that some would want to tax them or steal from them or be befriended for their money. Poor buggers!
This disparity has far less to do with some inherent difference in character between the Greatest Generation and their grandchildren than it does with a fundamental change that has taken place in the relationship between citizens and the welfare state. Over the past few decades, while many standard social benefits have atrophied in real value, those packaged as “tax expenditures”—the formal name in federal budgeting parlance for subsidies provided through the tax code—have flourished, growing rapidly in value and number. These tax expenditures for individuals and families represented 7.4 percent of GDP in 2008, up from 4.2 percent in 1976. (Tax expenditures for business, such as those for the oil and gas industry, made up another 1 percent.) By way of comparison, Social Security amounted to 4.3 percent of GDP in 2008; Medicare and Medicaid, 4.1 percent.
Invercargill school principal Marlene Campbell has compared the actions of Anne Tolley, the Minster of Education, with the propaganda approach taken by Joseph Goebbels. (see interview Cue TV) Previously she compared Anne Tolley, the Minister of Education, with Hitler for the way she was asserting the adoption National Standards in schools.
“And the MOE attack schools deferring setting targets, that s a constructive response? Excuse me Minister Hitler? Am I in Germany? Is this the end of self managing schools? read Kelvin Smythes latest blog, he is a true hero!” Marlene Campbell face book wall
As I see it Marlene Campbell is not doing her job as required by her employer as well as opposing the implementation of Government policy in schools and speaking out against it. Could someone help me out here:
• As an employee shouldn’t she either comply with the requirements of her employer or face discipline?
• As a public servant how is it that she is getting away with speaking out against Government’s wishes when legions of public servants know that it is not appropriate to speak out against Government policy so they don’t?
• Should Marlene Campbell expect to get away with contesting education policy as a public servant in the education area and not doing her job as her employer directs?
• Isn’t her only choice to do her job (and ideally do it well) or get out?
Have you noticed Lulu, that the only argument in favour of NS is that it is a chance to beat people about obedience and compliance. What a pity there isn’t some way of showing that NS are beneficial. Can you?
Some integrated schools have been threatened with withdrawn funding unless they comply. After all they get taxpayers money.
But wait. Private schools get heaps of taxpayers money too. What’s good for integrated schools should be good for private schools. Yes?
And anyway if NS were so important and so useful, the private schools would be rushing to join up. But they thank their lucky stars that they don’t have to comply with anything.
We should be thankful that people risk their careers to speak out on behalf of our children. Shame on Tolley/Key that neither of them listened to the real experts – the teachers. Even their own resident expert, who was trotted out to put their case, eventually spoke out against it as being flawed. Everyone wanted a trial period with some schools from different areas to show any deficiencies, but neither Tolley nor Key was willing to listen.
We have only to read the personal accounts of this system in America to understand how demeaning and impersonal this factory-fed analysis is.
People did not speak out against Hitler; if anyone had bothered to read his Mein Kampf they would never have allowed him to gain any power. Key is a populist politician (so was Hitler) who knows how uninformed and politically lazy the Kiwi masses are; his popularity even after his lying to us, is evidence of that. His pretence at giving people choices was immediately negated by the way he signed off on Hide to demolish any sense of democratic right to select committee consultation – there was none with the first Auckland bill which removed all our assets to a property CCO which in July 2012 can sell off our assets like Ports of Auckland if people vote this asset-stripping government back in.
National standards pays more attention to educating to pass tests (which under National will be frozen for the masses at factory farming level) than it does to educating people to have a better, rounded future. Science and literature which engages the imagination and stargazing has been shut out by this government. Learning is not compartmental. You teach the basics by involving the senses and the imagination.
Masses or individual plans – you choose. So much for the NActMU government that talks about individual freedom of choice yet practises elitist treatment of moneyed schools and factory farming of other students.
Reach for the stars with Labour/Progressive/Greens or mine the pits with National/Act/Maori/United Future – your choice, Lulu?
As a parent of school age children I am uncomfortable with an individual principal breaking their rules of employment and the protocols of being in the public service. My children are taught to work hard, strive for excellence (within capability), comply with authority, achieve within the framework or industry they choose and reach a point where they can legitimately influence if that is what they want to do with their careers. That is how both of us parents behave and we are both successful in our chosen fields.
There are bodies that are free to legitimately question national standards. In my post I did not question national standards. I questioned the ill disciplined poor example set by Marlene Campbell. Your agreement with her view doesn’t justify her behaviour. If she feels so strongly she should go and join whatever organisation is set up to question government policy. If my child was in her school I would withdraw him/her in response to the poor example MC sets the children in her school.
Both of you ignored my point and both of you failed to address my questions. You are both guilty of the approach Marlene Campbell described as propaganda and associated with Goebbels. Shame on you both. (Unless of course you don’t have school age children in which case you are simply ignorant.)
I answered your post in my first sentence, Key-flunky. “We should be thankful that people risk their careers to speak out on behalf of our children.” Shame on you Lulu for not addressing your own Hitler comment “getting away with speaking out against Government’s wishes when legions of public servants know that it is not appropriate to speak out against Government policy so they don’t?” New Zealand is a free country Lulu, or it was until 9 November 2008. Not speaking out gets you Nazi Germany or another NAct government.
First paragraph ‘My children…fields – ditto, except we differ in that I tell mine to question everything and only comply with authority when it is sensible policy. When you don’t question you end up with Key and Co.
‘Comply with authority’? Complying with authority to me is not driving the wrong way down a one-way street because I know the government is considering my safety and the efficiency of the traffic. That is a good compliance. Having a 21st century public transport system would be even better but I daresay as a Key-flunky you want everyone to drive a car and give Key’s government a lot of money through that system.
The only question I need to ask Lulu is which group do I trust? The teachers that want only the best teaching system for my children or Key and Co that have lied on so many levels and then intend to steal SOE assets that belong to my children’s children, by lying about the fact that partially privatised assets are controlled by private interests; they’re certainly not in all New Zealanders’ interests… I think you know my reply.
I’d back the teachers every time because I know they have principles, AND PRINCIPALS WITH PRINCIPLES. Key has none; he is a liar and intends to sign off on the theft of and sell off of my family’s SOE assets.
We have too many bottom-lickers in this country Lulu but I’ll leave that role with you; you appear to be so well suited to it.
PS I shall send a congratulatory message to Marlene Campbell for ‘doing her job’. With educators like her I believe New Zealand actually still has a chance to be an egalitarian country once again, if we can just get rid of the Kerrs and the Deanes and the Keys and the Fay Richwhites and other bottom feeders. The best support I can be is to support the Marlenes of this country and destroy the more shameful aspects of this bottom-feeding cycle of National/Act. Goodbye Lulu.
“My children are taught to work hard, strive for excellence (within capability), comply with authority, achieve within the framework or industry they choose and reach a point where they can legitimately influence if that is what they want to do with their careers.”
and
“There are bodies that are free to legitimately question national standards.”
Lulu,
The difference between you and me, I think, is that I am bringing my daughter up to live by principles rather than confine her protests to when some social structure or authority tells her that she now has a ‘legitimate‘ right to ‘influence‘ outcomes. I believe and fervently hope, for example, that my daughter will grow up to be the kind of person who is both capable and willing to engage in civil disobedience when an important principle is being over-ridden by some ‘legitimate authority’ (e.g., the British Raj in Gandhi’s time).
Instilling in children the importance of only opening their mouths once they have a right to do so bestowed upon them by a higher authority is not a developmental path I would wish to choose for my child.
BTW, I also encourage my daughter not to be trivial in her ‘rebellions’.
Edit: I see Ianupnorth has made a similar point below.
Fair and interesting point Puddleglum. Do we want our children to be known as effective leaders or known for civil disobedience? I think leaders in their field can achieve more for them and their nation. (absent fundamental causes like the civil rights movement in America.) Having said that I seemd to have stirred up such a hornetss nest I might just have to withdraw gracefully. I haven’t stated a view on NS. I just don’t think Marlene Campbell is noble. I think she is out of control and ineffective comparing Ministers of any ilk with famlous nazis. That is just vacuous smartarse nonsense. Old Jum there would be quick to point that out if it was a “Key-flunky” acting like her. But I suppose the view is pretty clear through one eye.
“ Do we want our children to be known as effective leaders or known for civil disobedience?”
There’s not necessarily a conflict there. It is possible to be an effective leader via (or while using, or after having used) civil disobedience. It’s obviously a matter of judgment as to when it is necessary to disobey and I admit that their are many possible inappropriate motives for such disobedience and even many inappropriate causes (often the two are intertwined). But, in my view, in an imperfect world it is infinitely better that people err on the side of ‘civil disobedience’ than obedience when it is morally questionable. My understanding is that when the contest is between complex social structures (e.g., the education system, the economic system) and leaders who attempt to reform those systems then the system will win, hands down – though it might offer a minor, and reversible, ‘win’ for the leader in the interim.
This is a major dilemma, especially in our modern world. How many of us have found ourselves compromising our principles with the only consolation for our guilty consciences being the thought (or rationalisation) that the consequences of standing on our principles might be worse than the ill we wish to cure?
Personally, I don’t think that what is wrong with the world is principally the result of too many people standing on their principles (rather than being pragmatic and trying to change things – ‘lead’ – from inside the system).
…I would withdraw him/her in response to the poor example MC sets the children in her school…both of you failed to address my questions. You are both guilty of the approach Marlene Campbell described as propaganda and associated with Goebbels. Shame on you both.
Yes lets scold adults like they are children and infantalize them, very good.
I am uncomfortable with an individual principal breaking their rules of employment and the protocols of being in the public service.
This Government is determined to treat the public sector worker as easily expendable like any private sector employee.
So why are you surprised when they no longer follow the rules you think that they should?
Teaching people to comply with authority is the worst thing you can do. Teach people to do what is needed because it is right not because some authority figure says to. Keep following your line and we’ll end up as a dictatorship again.
Jeez Draco T. What would we get if no one complied with authority? Isn’t our whole civilisation based on forming and reforming order?
Hey Draco, answer me a question, have you got a job?
What would we get if no one complied with authority?
Well, if they still did as needed because it was the right thing to do then we’d probably end up being pretty well off. As has been noted before – the most ordered of societies are anarchist.
Isn’t our whole civilisation based on forming and reforming order?
Read what you just wrote.
The reforming of order usually requires that the previous formation of order is superceeded, replaced, or otherwise usurped.
Not complying with the previous formation of authority is necessary in this.
Do we want our children to be known as effective leaders or known for civil disobedience?
You better study the lives of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. You’re revealing significant gaps in your conceptualisation of what being a “leader” is all about.
Hey Draco, answer me a question, have you got a job?
Very revealing.
I’m sure you think that Gandhi and Martin Luther King both should have been doing some productive 9 to 5 job instead of being trouble makers involved in civil disobedience
Aww thank you Colonial Viper,
I though Draco was one of us. If I had realised he was the next Gandhi and Martin Luther King I wouldn’t have asked the question.
I am beginning to wish I hadn’t raised this.
Last thought, A couple of comments have been thoughtful and interesting but I on balance noone has really change my position i.e. that Marlene Campbell is not doing the job I expect of my kids’ principal and she is letting down all of the public servants who do theirs. I think she is an embarrassment to the public service and the teaching profession. I think she will be ineffective and I am not comfortable with her drawing a salary made up from our taxes.
Marlene Campbell is not doing the job I expect of my kids’ principal and she is letting down all of the public servants who do theirs. I think she is an embarrassment to the public service and the teaching profession. I think she will be ineffective and I am not comfortable with her drawing a salary made up from our taxes.
Wow how much personal attack spin can you put in 3 sentences, I’m bloody impressed mate.
It’s fairly clear now that your idea of “leaders” are apparatchiks for the machine.
I am not comfortable with her drawing a salary made up from our taxes.
Lolzwut.
I’m not comfortable with Bill English drawing a ~$300K p.a. in salary (very gd – you avoided the use of the word “earning” a salary, clever professional PR languaging) made up from our taxes to sell off this country to foreigners and in doing so deprive all of our children of years of valuable revenue streams which will end up in foreign hands, but what the hey. Life’s not perfect.
As an employee shouldn’t she either comply with the requirements of her employer or face discipline?
If the evidence clearly informs a practitioner that a specific process is potentially harmful to those receiving should they whistle blow or comply with governments instructions?
I would say they have a right to protect those in question; you would expect a doctor or surgeon to follow best practice, similarly an airline pilot, same for a fireman, officer of the law, etc – why not teachers who know more about education that Anne Tolley
As a public servant how is it that she is getting away with speaking out against Government’s wishes when legions of public servants know that it is not appropriate to speak out against Government policy so they don’t?
I regularly speak out against government policy here, but I do not reveal my name or employer, as I am technically not permitted to do so; maybe she is braver than me!
Should Marlene Campbell expect to get away with contesting education policy as a public servant in the education area and not doing her job as her employer directs?
In my opinion, yes; however, I hope she has a strong union and lots of parental support
Isn’t her only choice to do her job (and ideally do it well) or get out?
I commend her actions, but then again I actually work within that sector and am a parent, so I have read widely on this; my kids also went through this in the UK and I said never again!
Thank you Iamupnorth. You have shown up ianmac and jum and demonstrated my point well. Go well and good luck. As far as Marlene is concerned, she is not braver than you, she is just plain stupid. Those other two are merely the propagandists Marlene complains about – or would do if they weren’t sympathetic to her view. Marlene is such a hypocrite. I hope she gets her butt kicked.
I think I spent my time wisely tonight. Instead of staying involved with the Lulu I watched Sunday Theatre about the National Gallery paintings and a township of people who probably did everything but ‘comply’ – and they were magnificent.
Your reply came through about the same time as I was typing mine; your line
My children are taught to work hard, strive for excellence (within capability), comply with authority, achieve within the framework or industry they choose and reach a point where they can legitimately influence if that is what they want to do with their careers.
Your thoughts/views are probably very, very similar to the majority of parents who want the best for their children. I would challenge you on one specific line
comply with authority
I want my children to have the ability to challenge the status quo, to respect that there is law, but also that sometimes law needs to change because it isn’t fair. Employees should have the right to make a similar stand should they perceive that it will disadvantage specific groups. National standards have been shown to do many things – improving educational outcomes is not one of them.
oh dear…. maybe Dick Quax is one man who does need a taxpayer-funded trip to see some of the compact cities in Europe. I cannot believe that anyone still believes sprawling cities are an ideal form.
It will be no surprise to you that I support a more dispersed urban form than being promoted. The focus on a compact city is flawed and housing unaffordability is just one of the unintended consequences of that flawed model.
It also leads to more congestion and more pollution. It places more pressure on aging infrastructure.
It’s also a socially flawed concept associated with transience, increased crime and a loss of sense of community. It reduces green space and is unfriendly to children.
I wouldn’t mind seeing where he got his ‘facts’ from.
The only problem with each open mike is that we all want to display our current gripes and perfectly good threads get passed by with new threads. Now and again I recopy them under my title but showing copyright. Is there any way to separate out the different subjects because some/many/most posters read only the final post, or simply post theirs?
The fight for Europe’s future is being waged in Athens and other Greek cities to resist financial demands that are the 21st century’s version of an outright military attack. The threat of bank overlordship is not the kind of economy-killing policy that affords opportunities for heroism in armed battle, to be sure. Destructive financial policies are more like an exercise in the banality of evil – in this case, the pro-creditor assumptions of the European Central Bank (ECB), EU and IMF (egged on by the U.S. Treasury).
Further on he points out that the privatisation that is being forced upon Greece is nothing less than the wars for territory of previous centuries. He is, of course, correct. The same applies to the privatisation of our assets here in NZ.
From our Facebook friend ‘Vote for change’ (NB I joined so i could express my comments – so don’t flame me!!)
Vote for Change Press Release
Alex Fogerty
July 3 2011
Vote for Change is investigating allegations made about a member of its organisation. The allegations of Mr Fogerty’s previous membership of a white supremacist group appear to be true and he will be asked to resign his membership immediately, or have his membership revoked if he chooses not to resign.
Many political organisations some members have pasts that are not entirely to their credit, or the credit of the organisation they belong to. In the 2008 election Labour lost high ranking list candidate Stephen Ching and National lost New Plymouth candidate Clem Coxhead, who was replaced by Jonathan Young ten weeks from the election. Both men left their roles with the respective parties because of issues with their past that their parties did not know about.
Vote for Change has found itself in a similar position as both Labour and National did in 2008.
Vote for Change will not be commenting on this unfortunate matter further.
Jordan Williams 021762542
They do have some interesting people supporting their cause!
Rod Oram says we need Corporate Reform more than we need Welfare Reform, and that John Key does not get it
If anything, things have got worse. “I first started talking to John Key when he was chosen to be opposition finance spokesperson, and I always found he knew surprisingly little about the economy, and it was very superficial…he just doesn’t get it. He thinks that if you just increase the irrigated land in Canterbury by 40% then that this is economic growth. Even though the Cabinet papers have shown an internal rate of return [from irrigation] of 6.4% . That’s a lousy investment. They just don’t get it. The government is solely focussed on the incremental growth of existing business.”
Jum, as soon as you start being positive, you will shine.
Somehow framing me, it just isn’t going to work, and by the time you break the case, you and I are going to be in harmony.
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Priestley Habru, PhD candidate, public diplomacy, University of Adelaide Former foreign minister Jeremiah Manele has been elected the next prime minister of Solomon Islands, defeating the opposition leader, Matthew Wale, in a vote in parliament. The result is a mixed bag for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shaun Eaves, Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Jamey Stutz, CC BY-SA How often do mountains collapse, volcanoes erupt or ice sheets melt? For Earth scientists, these are important questions as we try ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Flood, Professor of Sociology, Queensland University of Technology Shutterstock Most young adult men in Australia reject traditional ideas of masculinity that endorse aggression, stoicism and homophobia. Nonetheless, the ongoing influence of those ideas continues to harm men and the people ...
The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
Renters and realtors are upset with a government decision to scrap a bill meant to regulate property managers over concerns about unethical and unlawful behaviours. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cassy Dittman, Senior Lecturer/Head of Course (Undergraduate Psychology), Research Fellow, Manna Institute, CQUniversity Australia With winter sports swinging into action, adults around the country have volunteered or been volunteered by others (humorously known as being “volun-told”) to coach junior sports teams. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University richardernestyap/Shutterstock Parents are often advised to burp their babies after feeding them. Some people think burping after feeding is important to reduce or prevent discomfort crying, or to ...
Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
The Labour Party is demanding Peters be stood down, saying "he's embarrassed the country" with a "totally unacceptable" attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. ...
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Police in Solomon Islands are on high alert ahead of the election of the prime minister today. The two candidates for the top job are former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele at the head of the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation, which is ...
He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Macsyna King and Ian Wishart have been the target of a lot of protest and anger over the past week. Is this the best way we can can expend the energy of our anger about child abuse and the deaths of babies? How much lower can we take Macsyna King?
What to do Macsyna King?
I think it’s time to: Back the new Children’s Commissioner.
Dr Will has a record of working successfully on one of our society’s biggest problem – early childhood abuse. He deserves all the support we can give him.
I am heartened by what I hear from the new Children’s Commissioner on his proposals to ensure the safety and improved out comes for children.
Pete Georgie – Does the Children’s Comissioner Department of Fools actually help abused children? The fact is mate, it’s just another useless government let down for kiwi kids.Dysfunctional and expensive white elephants like this deserve to be eradicated, as that would be in the child’s best interests.Not to mention struggling kiwi taxpayers.
d4jie, have you watched the interview with Dr Wills on Marae Investigates? If not I suggest you do before jumping to conclusions. If he can carry through some of his methods and aims he has already been doing over the past five years in Hawkes Bay then I he can initiate more real progress.
Pete Geo; I am just saying the Children’s Commisioner Office has a method of leaving a dismal track record. I will wait and see whether this blowhard department is worth anything? So far it’s been a total let down for kiwi kids! Just another pathetic department of over paid worthless nitwits. Poor kiwi children can’t afford to eat lamb anymore Mr Gummint scum.
What’s will the moderation girls? FFS why do I bother with this joke blog.
Pete George,
The NActMUs and you will just love the wee sentence he popped in about New Zealanders paying for their own health treatment so that the children can be looked after. What happened to the much better idea of removing the 14billion dollars of tax cuts which Key awarded to himself and backers and using that to help the health of the poor children? Otherwise, we know the outcome; the poor will then pay or not be able to afford to for their own health AND the health care or not be able to afford to of their poor children. The rich will continue corruptly writing off their wealth, hiding it away, using it to buy knighthoods and p.m.’ships. And New Zealand will then become America. How convenient for everyone but New Zealanders.
Why shouldn’t we pay for our own health care, especially routine care?
Labour tries too much blanket assistance (blanket vote attracting?) rather than targeting those who cause most of the problems. Sure, it would be great if everyone had a decent wage, decent housing and decent standard of living, and everyone paid their fair share of tax, and incomes weren’t so disparate.
But with limited resources it’ best to target the biggest problem areas more, the ongoing benefits will be to everyone’s advantage in the long run.
Pete, you need to look up the stats regarding the availability of services and affordability and also the relationship between poverty and achievement. Unless you actually narrow the gap no matter what you do it will fail. There are too many do-gooder programmes – they don’t work. You need to refocus service delivery, build robust public policy (even though having that will upset a lot of people) and build peoples abilities to be self sufficient.
I generally agree Ian. People aren’t encouraged to become self sufficient if the government promise to give them everything they need.
People aren’t self sufficient.
It takes a human being at least a year to be able to walk properly, and without help from other humans, we never ever learn to talk or even understand language.
People are interdependent, not self sufficient.
I suspect that the average Tory farmer understands this more than you do.
Hence my line
Whilst we allow people to live in KFC, McD’s, BK or Pizza Hut, whilst the educational system fails to produce what we need and whilst we have a society that determines a persons worth by the model of car they drive or the cellphone they own we will continue to go backwards. We are just lemmings to commercialism.
I reckon give it a few more years Ian, the Hubbert Curve is going to sort all that out.
Pete George
The biggest problem areas are the write-offs of tax by people best able to afford to pay it fairly.
Take a quick look at the future of New Zealand and its egalitarian society and weep. This outcome is for skids countries like America where people are expected to be very rich or dirt poor. New Zealand once thought better of itself. Shame on New Zealanders who think that selling off all New Zealanders’ assets for the benefit of the rich beneficiaries is a good result when we end up with pondscum at the top of the food chain and the helpless at the bottom.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1107/S00032/hungry-and-homeless-families-set-to-benefit.htm
Next we’ll be expecting the poor who are poor because of NActMU’s DELIBERATELY bad economic management to be tugging their forelocks when they are given their depleted wage packet, depleted because of the taxes used to prop up the rich who don’t pay them.
As for limited resources; crap, Pete George.
The only reason resources are limited in New Zealand and in so many other countries is that the rich and powerful have closed them off.
Remember the food mountains – disgraceful when millions were starving and nothing would have been lost by just giving the food to the poor.
Because a quick google shows that in the US the for profit health system costs an average family $13,375 (2009) p/a in insurance premiums.
Yep, some things are much better done as a large community, not as individuals. Funding health services is one of them.
What I want from Wills is for him to be contacted and brought down to earth about where to draw the line. When I email his office I will make a few proposals, I will only mention one here: that the accommodation supplement is increased to not having to pay no more that 25 % of your income in rent.
While most Kiwi’s think that Gadaffi is an audacious terrorist for defending his country perhaps it would be prudent to hear the other side. Here is a one, two part telephone conversation between Webster Tarpley and Alex Jones.
Webster Tarpley was on the Green square in the centre of Tripoli. (Life view provided)
It seems that at least half a million Libyans wanted to tell NATO, Sarkozy, and president Obama who wants to invade Libya with ground troops sometime October this year something: WE WILL DEFEND OUR COUNTRY!!! (Sorry for the screaming Iprent but it makes me so angry how this does not come through in the MSM)
In the second half something remarkable happens. Tarpley gives his phone to a Libyan fan of Alex Jones who invites him to come to Libya so they can share his Kalasnikov to fight together in their struggle against the Fascist/Corporate criminals trying to steal Libyan oil and resources.
Do you get what this means? Libyans listening to Alex Jones by many here considered a conspiracy nutter, right wing red neck and consider him an ally and want him to be their guest to report on what is really going on in Libya.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
ummm… I don’t think Gadaffi is a terrorist. I think he is a brutal dictator who is willing to order the murder and rape of his fellow country men and women in order to maintain power. Feel free to explain how this is incorrect?
On the other hand though I fully appreciate the side of the argument that is presented that the Libyan revolutionaries don’t wish to swap the brutality of Gadaffi for the ideological invasion of the West through NATO.
There really needs to be a term developed to specifically describe the strategy of “Western nations assist/instill revolution in unstable resource rich nations in order to install a powerless benevolent democracy that allows pillage by proxy”. ^_^
It seems we are at least partly in agreement. Here are a few links that might change you view (coloured by incomplete information due to the MSM propaganda) of Gaddafi a bit.
Here is what Amnesty International has to say about the rape allegations.
This is what Libyan women have to say about the rape allegations.
Gaddafi shared out hundreds of thousands of guns and other assorted arms out to the population so they can help defend the country and it seems according to Webster Tarpley in the above video links that an inordinate amount of women have weapons and are prepared to use them.
Here is an video which might explain why Libyans stand behind Gadaffi on the whole.
It seems that a few of John Key’s bankster mates got their hands dirty while defrauding the Sovereign wealth fund of Libya for oh, a billion or so and funny enough just before the Libyans could take the scamsters who collaborated with the international banking scum the war started and those who were on the verge of being taken to court became “rebel leaders”.
And last but not least this is what those wonderful freedom fighters seem to have thought was the right course of action with all those nice new weapons from NATO.
Remember; The first casualty of war/kinetic action/humanitarian intervention is the truth!!!
And you are the source of the truth? Sounds like the job to have…
No, I’m not smarty pants but do yourself a favour and ask yourself why it is so easy for you to believe the things said in the MSM about Gaddafi.
Is it because he is a funny man with clowns costumes and a few well chosen smears easy to believe because he is just some one far away believing in different things to you or would you believe the same things if they said them about someone dressed as Goff or Key and a leader of a Western country?
Blair- Bush started two wars against countries which had nothing to do with 9/11. killing more tan a million Iraqis and God knows how many Afghanis and Pakistanis. Polluting all those countries for the next 4.5 billion years with depleted uranium.
Iran hasn’t started a single war in the last 500 years. Neither has Libya.
Obama has perpetuated these wars and started and additional three wars while preparing for at least two more.
Libya’s students get a living wage while studying for free and medical treatment is also free. Which it was in Iraq by the way too. Here students have to go into debt and our hard earned rights and social care are being taken away by the same rich pricks ruling the rest of this planet and you think that the Libyans are the suppressed here.
Here’s another homily for ya: There are none so enslaved as those who think they are free.
Now grow up and do your own research.
urg… just, for the moment, ignoring the specific issue of Gadaffi and Libya that are the basis of this discussion and focusing on the ideological arguments you are fronting. To my perception, your statements represent a form of hypocrisy and that is something I find detestable. I don’t feel the need to trust the MSM or ANY particular outlet of information – hell, there are a lot of Tom MacMasters out there either purporting to be a primary source of information or, like you, a biased secondary or tertiary source filter for the excessive amounts of information available on the internets. The advantage to you being the second type though is that I can read through your comments and links, keeping in mind your bias, and then come to an appropriately weighted conclusion on the issue at hand.
“Now grow up and do your own research” <– if I did this and came back and disagreed with you, what would it take to change your mind? If you were able to answer this question it might be worthwhile engaging in an issue with you.
EDIT: Also, since when was blaming the MSM portrayal of a person an excuse for their war crimes?
Good, read my links and make up your own mind.
You come back with well documented clear arguments of that which you want to convince me and be surprised.
I agree, let’s take Blair, Obama, Sarkozy, and the rest of the warmongering mass murderers together with Bibi Netanyahu, Mubarak and the other dictators in the service of these criminals to the international court in the Hague for long overdue judgement.
Somewhat surprisingly, geonet isn’t showing any aftershocks in Auckland last night. You need to be on guard for the aftershock that is one magnitude less than the main shock. So, watch out for the 1.9.
Geonet generally doesn’t show quakes of 2.5 or lower, and often doesn’t show anything under 3.0.
It wouldn’t even be noticeable! 😀
The European summer of discontent continues with protests in Belarus against an authoritarian regime with a poor human rights record .
#Belarus Protest and images.
Its a distraction when our human rights record in NZ is so wanting given the massive bounty this country provides the world. When we get our social justice agenda centre stage only then should we start worrying about human rights cesspools like Belarus. i.e. show the citizens on the streets in Belarus what to do when they do win, don’t let the ‘any profit at any expense’ party take over the parliament and media.
Gaddafi and Lukashenko, BFF.
.
Washington OKs Attack on Unarmed US Ship
Going far beyond a zero sum policy this seems to be a very risky and extreme position for the Obama administration to take.
The US citizens aboard “The Audacity of Hope” represent a cross section of mainstream US society. The people who form US opinion.
Ex US military and intelligence officers, commentators and writers, entertainers and professors, sportsmen and women, clergy and politicians.
What on earth can the Obama administration be thinking?
As one commenter remarked:
As another commentator has said, and going on past experience, this will be seen by the Israelis as a green light, to do just that.
.
Washington OKs Attack on Unarmed US Ship
Going far beyond a zero sum policy, this seems to be a very risky and extreme position for the Obama administration to take.
The US citizens aboard “The Audacity of Hope” represent a cross section of mainstream US society. The people who form US opinion.
Ex military and intelligence officers, commentators and writers, entertainers and professors, sportsmen and women, clergy and politicians.
What on earth can the Obama administration be thinking?
As one commenter remarked:
As another commentator has said, and going on past experience, this will be seen by the Israelis as a green light, to do just that.
‘
Washington OKs Attack on Unarmed US Ship
Going far beyond a zero sum policy, this seems to be a very risky and extreme position for the Obama administration to take.
The US citizens aboard “The Audacity of Hope” represent a cross section of mainstream US society. The people who form US opinion.
Ex military and intelligence officers, commentators and writers, entertainers and professors, sportsmen and women, clergy and politicians.
What on earth can the Obama administration be thinking?
As one commenter remarked:
As another commentator has said, and going on past experience, this will be seen by the Israelis as a green light, to do just that.
“A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.
The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8321967.stm
Sort of what the younger Morgan was getting at but certainly not supported by the rich J Key.
Gary Trudeau’s Doonesbury has been following the rich.
Yep joe. And one way to gloat is to accuse the poor of being envious of the rich. What a worry it would be to be rich! they would be anxious that some would want to tax them or steal from them or be befriended for their money. Poor buggers!
20,000 Leagues Under the State.
This disparity has far less to do with some inherent difference in character between the Greatest Generation and their grandchildren than it does with a fundamental change that has taken place in the relationship between citizens and the welfare state. Over the past few decades, while many standard social benefits have atrophied in real value, those packaged as “tax expenditures”—the formal name in federal budgeting parlance for subsidies provided through the tax code—have flourished, growing rapidly in value and number. These tax expenditures for individuals and families represented 7.4 percent of GDP in 2008, up from 4.2 percent in 1976. (Tax expenditures for business, such as those for the oil and gas industry, made up another 1 percent.) By way of comparison, Social Security amounted to 4.3 percent of GDP in 2008; Medicare and Medicaid, 4.1 percent.
Invercargill school principal Marlene Campbell has compared the actions of Anne Tolley, the Minster of Education, with the propaganda approach taken by Joseph Goebbels. (see interview Cue TV) Previously she compared Anne Tolley, the Minister of Education, with Hitler for the way she was asserting the adoption National Standards in schools.
“And the MOE attack schools deferring setting targets, that s a constructive response? Excuse me Minister Hitler? Am I in Germany? Is this the end of self managing schools? read Kelvin Smythes latest blog, he is a true hero!” Marlene Campbell face book wall
As I see it Marlene Campbell is not doing her job as required by her employer as well as opposing the implementation of Government policy in schools and speaking out against it. Could someone help me out here:
• As an employee shouldn’t she either comply with the requirements of her employer or face discipline?
• As a public servant how is it that she is getting away with speaking out against Government’s wishes when legions of public servants know that it is not appropriate to speak out against Government policy so they don’t?
• Should Marlene Campbell expect to get away with contesting education policy as a public servant in the education area and not doing her job as her employer directs?
• Isn’t her only choice to do her job (and ideally do it well) or get out?
Have you noticed Lulu, that the only argument in favour of NS is that it is a chance to beat people about obedience and compliance. What a pity there isn’t some way of showing that NS are beneficial. Can you?
Some integrated schools have been threatened with withdrawn funding unless they comply. After all they get taxpayers money.
But wait. Private schools get heaps of taxpayers money too. What’s good for integrated schools should be good for private schools. Yes?
And anyway if NS were so important and so useful, the private schools would be rushing to join up. But they thank their lucky stars that they don’t have to comply with anything.
Lulu,
We should be thankful that people risk their careers to speak out on behalf of our children. Shame on Tolley/Key that neither of them listened to the real experts – the teachers. Even their own resident expert, who was trotted out to put their case, eventually spoke out against it as being flawed. Everyone wanted a trial period with some schools from different areas to show any deficiencies, but neither Tolley nor Key was willing to listen.
We have only to read the personal accounts of this system in America to understand how demeaning and impersonal this factory-fed analysis is.
People did not speak out against Hitler; if anyone had bothered to read his Mein Kampf they would never have allowed him to gain any power. Key is a populist politician (so was Hitler) who knows how uninformed and politically lazy the Kiwi masses are; his popularity even after his lying to us, is evidence of that. His pretence at giving people choices was immediately negated by the way he signed off on Hide to demolish any sense of democratic right to select committee consultation – there was none with the first Auckland bill which removed all our assets to a property CCO which in July 2012 can sell off our assets like Ports of Auckland if people vote this asset-stripping government back in.
National standards pays more attention to educating to pass tests (which under National will be frozen for the masses at factory farming level) than it does to educating people to have a better, rounded future. Science and literature which engages the imagination and stargazing has been shut out by this government. Learning is not compartmental. You teach the basics by involving the senses and the imagination.
Masses or individual plans – you choose. So much for the NActMU government that talks about individual freedom of choice yet practises elitist treatment of moneyed schools and factory farming of other students.
Reach for the stars with Labour/Progressive/Greens or mine the pits with National/Act/Maori/United Future – your choice, Lulu?
As a parent of school age children I am uncomfortable with an individual principal breaking their rules of employment and the protocols of being in the public service. My children are taught to work hard, strive for excellence (within capability), comply with authority, achieve within the framework or industry they choose and reach a point where they can legitimately influence if that is what they want to do with their careers. That is how both of us parents behave and we are both successful in our chosen fields.
There are bodies that are free to legitimately question national standards. In my post I did not question national standards. I questioned the ill disciplined poor example set by Marlene Campbell. Your agreement with her view doesn’t justify her behaviour. If she feels so strongly she should go and join whatever organisation is set up to question government policy. If my child was in her school I would withdraw him/her in response to the poor example MC sets the children in her school.
Both of you ignored my point and both of you failed to address my questions. You are both guilty of the approach Marlene Campbell described as propaganda and associated with Goebbels. Shame on you both. (Unless of course you don’t have school age children in which case you are simply ignorant.)
I answered your post in my first sentence, Key-flunky. “We should be thankful that people risk their careers to speak out on behalf of our children.” Shame on you Lulu for not addressing your own Hitler comment “getting away with speaking out against Government’s wishes when legions of public servants know that it is not appropriate to speak out against Government policy so they don’t?” New Zealand is a free country Lulu, or it was until 9 November 2008. Not speaking out gets you Nazi Germany or another NAct government.
First paragraph ‘My children…fields – ditto, except we differ in that I tell mine to question everything and only comply with authority when it is sensible policy. When you don’t question you end up with Key and Co.
‘Comply with authority’? Complying with authority to me is not driving the wrong way down a one-way street because I know the government is considering my safety and the efficiency of the traffic. That is a good compliance. Having a 21st century public transport system would be even better but I daresay as a Key-flunky you want everyone to drive a car and give Key’s government a lot of money through that system.
The only question I need to ask Lulu is which group do I trust? The teachers that want only the best teaching system for my children or Key and Co that have lied on so many levels and then intend to steal SOE assets that belong to my children’s children, by lying about the fact that partially privatised assets are controlled by private interests; they’re certainly not in all New Zealanders’ interests… I think you know my reply.
I’d back the teachers every time because I know they have principles, AND PRINCIPALS WITH PRINCIPLES. Key has none; he is a liar and intends to sign off on the theft of and sell off of my family’s SOE assets.
We have too many bottom-lickers in this country Lulu but I’ll leave that role with you; you appear to be so well suited to it.
PS I shall send a congratulatory message to Marlene Campbell for ‘doing her job’. With educators like her I believe New Zealand actually still has a chance to be an egalitarian country once again, if we can just get rid of the Kerrs and the Deanes and the Keys and the Fay Richwhites and other bottom feeders. The best support I can be is to support the Marlenes of this country and destroy the more shameful aspects of this bottom-feeding cycle of National/Act. Goodbye Lulu.
Hi Jum,
I didn’t mention Key. Or Clark. Or any other PM or any ideology. And I didn’t use capital letters. I think you need to have a little lie down.
“My children are taught to work hard, strive for excellence (within capability), comply with authority, achieve within the framework or industry they choose and reach a point where they can legitimately influence if that is what they want to do with their careers.”
and
“There are bodies that are free to legitimately question national standards.”
Lulu,
The difference between you and me, I think, is that I am bringing my daughter up to live by principles rather than confine her protests to when some social structure or authority tells her that she now has a ‘legitimate‘ right to ‘influence‘ outcomes. I believe and fervently hope, for example, that my daughter will grow up to be the kind of person who is both capable and willing to engage in civil disobedience when an important principle is being over-ridden by some ‘legitimate authority’ (e.g., the British Raj in Gandhi’s time).
Instilling in children the importance of only opening their mouths once they have a right to do so bestowed upon them by a higher authority is not a developmental path I would wish to choose for my child.
BTW, I also encourage my daughter not to be trivial in her ‘rebellions’.
Edit: I see Ianupnorth has made a similar point below.
Fair and interesting point Puddleglum. Do we want our children to be known as effective leaders or known for civil disobedience? I think leaders in their field can achieve more for them and their nation. (absent fundamental causes like the civil rights movement in America.) Having said that I seemd to have stirred up such a hornetss nest I might just have to withdraw gracefully. I haven’t stated a view on NS. I just don’t think Marlene Campbell is noble. I think she is out of control and ineffective comparing Ministers of any ilk with famlous nazis. That is just vacuous smartarse nonsense. Old Jum there would be quick to point that out if it was a “Key-flunky” acting like her. But I suppose the view is pretty clear through one eye.
“ Do we want our children to be known as effective leaders or known for civil disobedience?”
There’s not necessarily a conflict there. It is possible to be an effective leader via (or while using, or after having used) civil disobedience. It’s obviously a matter of judgment as to when it is necessary to disobey and I admit that their are many possible inappropriate motives for such disobedience and even many inappropriate causes (often the two are intertwined). But, in my view, in an imperfect world it is infinitely better that people err on the side of ‘civil disobedience’ than obedience when it is morally questionable. My understanding is that when the contest is between complex social structures (e.g., the education system, the economic system) and leaders who attempt to reform those systems then the system will win, hands down – though it might offer a minor, and reversible, ‘win’ for the leader in the interim.
This is a major dilemma, especially in our modern world. How many of us have found ourselves compromising our principles with the only consolation for our guilty consciences being the thought (or rationalisation) that the consequences of standing on our principles might be worse than the ill we wish to cure?
Personally, I don’t think that what is wrong with the world is principally the result of too many people standing on their principles (rather than being pragmatic and trying to change things – ‘lead’ – from inside the system).
Yes lets scold adults like they are children and infantalize them, very good.
This Government is determined to treat the public sector worker as easily expendable like any private sector employee.
So why are you surprised when they no longer follow the rules you think that they should?
Teaching people to comply with authority is the worst thing you can do. Teach people to do what is needed because it is right not because some authority figure says to. Keep following your line and we’ll end up as a dictatorship again.
Jeez Draco T. What would we get if no one complied with authority? Isn’t our whole civilisation based on forming and reforming order?
Hey Draco, answer me a question, have you got a job?
Well, if they still did as needed because it was the right thing to do then we’d probably end up being pretty well off. As has been noted before – the most ordered of societies are anarchist.
An important distinction Draco – well said.
Read what you just wrote.
The reforming of order usually requires that the previous formation of order is superceeded, replaced, or otherwise usurped.
Not complying with the previous formation of authority is necessary in this.
You better study the lives of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. You’re revealing significant gaps in your conceptualisation of what being a “leader” is all about.
Very revealing.
I’m sure you think that Gandhi and Martin Luther King both should have been doing some productive 9 to 5 job instead of being trouble makers involved in civil disobedience
Aww thank you Colonial Viper,
I though Draco was one of us. If I had realised he was the next Gandhi and Martin Luther King I wouldn’t have asked the question.
I am beginning to wish I hadn’t raised this.
Last thought, A couple of comments have been thoughtful and interesting but I on balance noone has really change my position i.e. that Marlene Campbell is not doing the job I expect of my kids’ principal and she is letting down all of the public servants who do theirs. I think she is an embarrassment to the public service and the teaching profession. I think she will be ineffective and I am not comfortable with her drawing a salary made up from our taxes.
Wow how much personal attack spin can you put in 3 sentences, I’m bloody impressed mate.
It’s fairly clear now that your idea of “leaders” are apparatchiks for the machine.
Lolzwut.
I’m not comfortable with Bill English drawing a ~$300K p.a. in salary (very gd – you avoided the use of the word “earning” a salary, clever professional PR languaging) made up from our taxes to sell off this country to foreigners and in doing so deprive all of our children of years of valuable revenue streams which will end up in foreign hands, but what the hey. Life’s not perfect.
You’re part of the Tory Right Wing spin machine.
Please continue.
If the evidence clearly informs a practitioner that a specific process is potentially harmful to those receiving should they whistle blow or comply with governments instructions?
I would say they have a right to protect those in question; you would expect a doctor or surgeon to follow best practice, similarly an airline pilot, same for a fireman, officer of the law, etc – why not teachers who know more about education that Anne Tolley
I regularly speak out against government policy here, but I do not reveal my name or employer, as I am technically not permitted to do so; maybe she is braver than me!
In my opinion, yes; however, I hope she has a strong union and lots of parental support
I commend her actions, but then again I actually work within that sector and am a parent, so I have read widely on this; my kids also went through this in the UK and I said never again!
Thank you Iamupnorth. You have shown up ianmac and jum and demonstrated my point well. Go well and good luck. As far as Marlene is concerned, she is not braver than you, she is just plain stupid. Those other two are merely the propagandists Marlene complains about – or would do if they weren’t sympathetic to her view. Marlene is such a hypocrite. I hope she gets her butt kicked.
I think I spent my time wisely tonight. Instead of staying involved with the Lulu I watched Sunday Theatre about the National Gallery paintings and a township of people who probably did everything but ‘comply’ – and they were magnificent.
Best laughs and tears I’ve had in ages.
Your reply came through about the same time as I was typing mine; your line
Your thoughts/views are probably very, very similar to the majority of parents who want the best for their children. I would challenge you on one specific line
I want my children to have the ability to challenge the status quo, to respect that there is law, but also that sometimes law needs to change because it isn’t fair. Employees should have the right to make a similar stand should they perceive that it will disadvantage specific groups. National standards have been shown to do many things – improving educational outcomes is not one of them.
Stop being stubborn- you are re-birthing as we speak and guess who is your new Mother?
And your name is- ARES!
Dick Quax – yet another flawed model of greed for the developers and reducing our environmental life and sanity saving greenspace.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1107/S00042/dick-quax-maiden-speech-to-auckland-council.htm
Run for your life, people.
oh dear…. maybe Dick Quax is one man who does need a taxpayer-funded trip to see some of the compact cities in Europe. I cannot believe that anyone still believes sprawling cities are an ideal form.
I wouldn’t mind seeing where he got his ‘facts’ from.
Well rosy he used to be an ACT supporter and as far as I know he still is…
LPrent,
The only problem with each open mike is that we all want to display our current gripes and perfectly good threads get passed by with new threads. Now and again I recopy them under my title but showing copyright. Is there any way to separate out the different subjects because some/many/most posters read only the final post, or simply post theirs?
Greece: No Deal without a National Referendum
Further on he points out that the privatisation that is being forced upon Greece is nothing less than the wars for territory of previous centuries. He is, of course, correct. The same applies to the privatisation of our assets here in NZ.
Ian what I do know is- you are not going to die in an earthquake, either will I!
You will solve the case, and you and I are safe.
This information I HAVE RIGHT!
I am not ignorant, the above information IS CORRECT!
From our Facebook friend ‘Vote for change’
(NB I joined so i could express my comments – so don’t flame me!!)
They do have some interesting people supporting their cause!
His greatest hits here and here.
Apparently, he’s now been asked to resign.
Rod Oram says we need Corporate Reform more than we need Welfare Reform, and that John Key does not get it
HI CV, is there a link for this?
http://werewolf.co.nz/2011/06/the-case-for-corporate-reform/
Thanks mate, I meant to put it up – absent minded on a Sunday evening 🙂
Thanks for that! An interesting read. (No problems CV)
The week that was 26 June – 3 July
Jum, as soon as you start being positive, you will shine.
Somehow framing me, it just isn’t going to work, and by the time you break the case, you and I are going to be in harmony.