A little quote from Dr Jim McAloon from Vic in June 2015:
“Labour’s interest will not be served by simply waiting for the wheels to fall off the Key government (which may or may not happen in 2017—Labour underestimates John Key at its peril). To fulfil its purpose, Labour has to lift its share of the vote well above 35 per cent.
Non-voters are one target. Parts of National’s ‘soft’ vote are another.
Rather than the sometimes facile suggestions that Labour’s current troubles are the consequence of being either excessively or insufficiently Left-wing, increasing the vote means convincing enough people that the party’s fundamental values are meaningful to them today and in the future.”
Halfcrown
If only we could harness the winding up provided by all these trolls and RW afficionados we could power a wind farm which in turn would power our slightly brighter future, that we must achieve of back to the future of a new Dark Age.
Hilarious – National are full of unrealistic promises e.g. their predator free by 2050 policy. It means they can suck eggs now and let someone else deal with and pay for it later, if they can. In 30 or so years they’ll be dead or too senile to care that they stuffed around so much that a ton of species died because they would rather give tax cuts then fund the Conservation Department properly.
And I can even write Bill English and. Trustworthy in the same sentence. And if you disagree go and relive last week again.
Can Labour make 35% this time? – of course they can. Look at Corbyn massive turn around in weeks.
But it is ultimately votes who decide. So if voters want the change of government the voters need to make it happen with unconditional support. Yep, Labour and Greens are not perfect, BUT National is a very scary party and getting worse with their unbridled level of power.
Now we have Thiel a Trump supporter (yep pro wall, anti women and muslims) and anti democracy billionaire being wooed by the National party and given citizenship here, even though he doesn’t want to live here!
We have migrants that have worked hard to get citizenship here, people who live here 365 days of the year paying taxes, people in poverty, people being poisoned by Meth that has become a thriving industry since The National Party took over and residents who can not afford to rent or buy here anymore with the increasing prices foreign ownership and National party policy it is driving. Now our state houses are even been sold off cheap to Banks and finance people who set up charities as ‘fronts’. It’s obscene. National don’t even care what people think anymore.
Every vote against National counts. Because even if Labour does not win, then voters against them dilute their power to do the massive damage to our country.
Although as an outspoken ‘anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner / investigative activist /whistle- blower’ I usually face significant mainstream NZ media ‘censorship’ – internationally it seems that my work has not gone unnoticed.
(For the last three years I have participated in the World Justice Project ‘Rule of Law Index’ as an NZ ‘expert’, and I have attended 6 International Anti-Corruption Conferences.)
This is a HUGE chance to tell fellow ‘Rule of Law experts’ from potentially 130 countries – the TRUTH about how undeserved is NZ’s ‘perceived’ status as ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ according to the 2016 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’.
This World Justice Forum
(10 – 13 July 2017) is NOT funded.
It is my intention to fly out 6 July and return 16 July.
The approximate costs are:
Registration $200(donated)
Accommodation at Student ‘hostel’
NZ $63 per night.
(X 8 $504
Air travel (return)
Auckland – Amsterdam
Amsterdam – Rotterdam
Rotterdam – The Hague
Ball park $4000
(The sooner I can book my air fares – the cheaper it will be).
How much do I need?
$5000 should do it.
That’s 500 X $10
250 X $20
100 X $50
50 X $100
I have over 3,300 Facebook friends.
This is NOT a big ask?
For those of you who have helped me in the past – THANK YOU! (Again 🙂
As you know I choose to work full time on a self-funded basis (flat mate income), no benefit or funding from any source apart from occasional donations when I’m stuck and need a hand and I have done this since 2000 (17 years).
So!
To get to The Hague I do need a hand.
If you choose to help and are able – please send me a personal message on Facebook / Messenger and I will send you my bank account details.
You are looking at English BM. He lied by omission, covered up for Barclay, cut him loose when it got difficult, didn’t support a person who had worked for him for years.
NOT P.M. material at all.
One of the many successes of the shonky/dirty politics era is to lower the bar for every govt minister.
Its to the point that blinglish’s behaviour is predictably of a low standard and most reasonable people arent surprised by this level of leadership from national.
Looking at Wikipedia on the Grenfell fire, seems a good overview.
Residents expressed significant safety concerns prior to the fire, with criticism levelled against the council for fire safety and building maintenance failures.[32] They had also said repeatedly that in the event of a fire, their escape path was limited to a single staircase.[16]
Exposed gas pipes were another concern raised by the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders’ Association in the months before the fire; while a fire safety expert had ordered them to be covered by fire-retardant boxing, two-thirds remained exposed at the time of the fire.[33]
There is concern that cuts to Legal aid prevented tenants and tenants’ groups taking legal action over their safety concerns. Robert Bourns of The Law Society said, “There have been reports that tenants of Grenfell Tower were unable to access legal aid to challenge safety concerns because of the cuts. If that is the case then we may have a very stark example of what limiting legal aid can mean.”[34]…
ITV business editor Joel Hills stated that he had been told that the installation of sprinklers had not even been discussed.[20] In a 2012 report, the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association said that sprinklers could be retrofitted in Grenfell Tower for an average cost of £1,150 per flat, which would have added up to a total cost of £138,000 for the whole block….[38]
Plans for the renovation were publicised in 2012.[18] Overseen by Studio E Architects,[19] the £8.7 million refurbishment,[20] undertaken by Rydon Ltd…
…new aluminium composite rainscreen cladding, in part to improve the appearance of the building.[24] Two types were used: Arconic’s Reynobond, which consists of two, coil-coated, aluminium sheets that are fusion bonded to both sides of a polyethylene core; and Reynolux aluminium sheets. Beneath these, and fixed to the outside of the walls of the flats, was Celotex RS5000 PIR thermal insulation.[25][26][27][28] The work was carried out by Harley Facades of Crowborough, East Sussex, at a cost of £2.6 million. (The project cost included new windows and:
The renovation included a water-based heating system for individual flats.)
My question – If water was being piped to heaters, it would seem to have been cost-effective and efficient if extended to sprinkler systems?
The UK government is accused of having ignored warnings about fire safety in tower blocks.[39] A former chief fire officer and secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on fire safety, Ronnie King, said ministers stonewalled requests for meetings and efforts to tighten rules….
[After] the 2009 Lakanal House fire, the coroner made a series of safety recommendations for the government to consider, and the Department for Communities and Local Government agreed to hold a review in 2013. In March 2014, the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group sent a letter to then–Minister for Communities Stephen Williams, which said in part:
“Surely … when you already have credible evidence to justify updating … the guidance … which will lead to saving of lives, you don’t need to wait another three years in addition to the two already spent since the research findings were updated, in order to take action?
“As there are estimated to be another 4,000 older tower blocks in the UK, without automatic sprinkler protection, can we really afford to wait for another tragedy to occur before we amend this weakness?”[41]…
A residents’ organisation, Grenfell Action Group (GAG), published a blog in which it highlighted major safety problems. In 2013, the group published a 2012 fire risk assessment done by a TMO Health and Safety Officer which recorded safety concerns. Firefighting equipment at the tower had not been checked for up to four years; on-site fire extinguishers had expired, and some had the word “condemned” written on them because they were so old. GAG documented its attempts to contact KCTMO management; they also alerted the council Cabinet Member for Housing and Property but said they never received a reply from him or his deputy.[43][44]
The casualty statistics:
On 28 June, the authorities stated that there were known survivors from 106 of the tower’s 129 flats; eighteen people among the occupants of these flats were reported as dead or missing presumed dead, whereas most of those killed were said to have been in the remaining 23 flats between the 11th and 23rd floors….
A total of 151 homes were destroyed in the tower and surrounding area. The incident ranks as the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the start of the 20th century, when detailed records began
Note: Other buildings and deaths were involved in the “surrounding area” which I hadn’t heard much about.
It’s the “deadliest structural fire” etc. illustrates how over the years responsible safety laws and measures get watered down, ignored, fudged and those supposedly responsible get complacent because nothing has ever happened, and the preventative idea becomes a nice-to-have. Keeping vigilant over all of our sensible thoughtful laws and systems is obviously a grassroots basic bit of life education we need to absorb through our pores, and connect to the brain.
The tragedy is a wake-up call to everyone who thought that creeping cuts didn’t really affect people. The fact is, as this shows, cuts to random areas multiply hazards. Everything from cladding change, to fire suppression, to fire service, even to legal aid, all of it worked together to create this tragedy, each cut being viewed individually.
+1 McFlock – all the ‘small’ changes add up. That is why piecemeal policy is not effective and even the current ‘process’ way of making decisions. Yep, it might work in a box factory having everybody doing a little task without knowing what the result might be as a sum, but it’s the big picture that counts and results in real life.
With tragic results.
We have had our Grenfell with Pike river and the CTV building, and it is people who must hold the government to account for the Pike river deaths AND their lack of interest in them or any justice to them and question our justice system over CTV building deaths.
Just got back from London drove on westway past grenfell. Just horrible if ever there was a monument to Tory governments and there attitudes to poor People . There it is. We need to fight really hard where ever we are to make our society fair and safe for all. Look at that tower, and get motivated for this September’s fight.
Yes this proves that the free market model is a failure and money corrupts politics. A fully funded state housing agency independent of political interference would not let this happen
Scroll to replies below Sinyangwe’s initial thread.
First day in Barbados and we drove past this monument three times. I've never seen anything like it. (1/x) pic.twitter.com/ZwJ3GKAprz— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) July 2, 2017
First day in Barbados and we drove past this monument three times. I've never seen anything like it. (1/x) pic.twitter.com/ZwJ3GKAprz
Actually I neither heard nor saw any mention of the residents of Barbados during the Americas Cup. They invested $100million in the Infrastructure but what about the locals? Good fun for them was it?
Eddication, edification, elucidation – something….
The government thinks that we have a suficiently satisfactory education system to keep us in our place, which is competing with the rest of the world for the job placements going which are at present good payers. And lining up with the hundreds for advertised jobs at supermarket: literacy and numeracy a must!
Actually the status of turmoil that the world and the use of competitive technology
puts us in, requires better understanding and wider education than ever before not simplified spam handed out letter by letter and screen by screen by a machine responding to the requests for information that it itself produces so limiting thinking, self-enquiry and self-discovery.
So help the educators hold onto what we have now otherwise they will be swamped and end up on a little promontory with their main skills being needed to keep themselves alive and to jump nimbly from one precarious situation to another.
http://www.together.org.nz/keep_it_public
Keep it Public!
Public tertiary education gives all New Zealanders the opportunity to develop skills, learn trades, and create knowledge which helps our families, communities and economy.
But Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for Tertiary Education, is trying to change the law to take public funds away from our universities, polytechs and wānanga and hand them to private companies who are more concerned with profit than providing quality education.
Together, let’s make sure tertiary education stays public, local and focused on learning.
They want a minimum of 4,000 signatures. Please support. See link above.
This would be the single biggest change to tertiary education funding in a generation. If enough of us speak out, then together we can stop it happening.
By pledging to support public tertiary education you will be adding your voice to the many others that want to keep tertiary education public, local, and focused on learning, not profit.
Tertiary education belongs to all of us. Now is the time to tell Paul Goldsmith you want it to stay that way.
Keep it Public!
Don’t leave our educators all alone, stranded, and our good education being decimated by private business. Need you
Well I would encourage him to put his energies into more positive like things like the above tweet and possibly making a similar video for Slate.com for publishing stupid stuff like Trump is now inciting violence against reporters by doing this.
True too form, it seems the pumpkin pinochet has climbed into bed with the very worst so he can fuck over ordinary folk.
.
Now a Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump, as he was closing in on his political rivals, was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about presidential conflicts of interest.
“The project is going to be a huge one, a mega project.” Landowner
In Bali, plans are under way to Trumpify one of the most iconic and sacred sites in Bali – Tanah Lot. But curiously, for a tourist destination usually keen to talk up what the island paradise has to offer, government officials are not keen to talk about the proposed Trump Tower development.
“I can’t talk about this. I cannot talk about this.” Balinese government official.
In a second development on Java, the deal to build a massive gaudy theme park and resort development has been inked, leaving local farmers frightened of what the future holds.
“When the financial power of Trump comes here, we the original people who live here are powerless. Their enormous wealth buys enormous influence.”
Four Corners investigates how these deals were done through an unholy alliance formed between Donald Trump and controversial business and political figures in Indonesia.
Trump’s business partners have a troubling history with ties to the corrupt Suharto regime.
While at home in the United States, President Trump rails against Islamic extremism. In Indonesia, he has formed political alliances with politicians aligned with Islamist forces.
“He is dealing with the worst of Indonesia’s past, and he is going to deal with the worst of Indonesia’s future, the Islamists. I think Donald Trump is going to get his businesses messier and also Indonesia messier.” Human rights investigator.
If you and yours aren’t vaccinated and have no medical reason why you can’t be vaccinated and haven’t had mumps before can you please pop down to your GP and have a shot.
Yes can we have some bravery about this – the odds that anything bad will happen because of the mumps vaccination is small. Only if you are already sick, ask your GPs opinion.
I really hope that Pora is awarded the adjusted inflation compensation approx $500,000. It is way overdue that the huge injustice done to him is settled as much as it can be.
I do not want to see anymore of his life wasted on holding those to account for what he has been put through. Those who hold the power to give closure MUST not misuse their power.
To often the forgotten are expected to forgive their persecutor and somehow get over it. E.g. those who were abused in statecare or sexually assaulted in childhood.
An inquiry is necesssary because an inquiry is what maybe the only thing which gives as much healing that can be given.
I have thought about Alison (story seen on the Nation last Saturday) who was committed into psychiatric care from 1950 – 1990 when aged 11, she was sexually assaulted, shock treated, put into isolation…. Alison had a brain injury from contracting chicken pocks when she was a toddler, she was never mentally disordered. I am troubled by how she was treated by the standards of the years 1950 – 1990; not much has changed.
I would like to see a comprehensive inquiry into how her life was turned inside out and upside down. Alison is now 75 and she is in the last part of her life. She is a courageous woman. I really hope that she gets all her questions answered. Even though she has had some compensation in 1990, this would have been minimal compared to what she deserves.
40 years is a life time for some, life is priceless. Least I tell my kids I wouldn’t swap them for all the riches on the planet, with that in mind, both Teina and Alison deserve the world.
That story disturbed me as well Treetop, the most vulnerable exploited, it’s a disgusting abuse of justice.
Haley Holt, you are an incredibly brave woman. Your story will resonate with many women, THANK YOU, you are enormously courageous by making it so public
When I watched Sunday last night, your story is near on identical to a dear friend of mine, a dear friend but I just can’t stand to be around when she is drinking, in fact her behaviour has turned me off booze. Will share with her, it may just change her life.
Hayley you are even more amazing for your honesty. MASSIVE RESPECT.
I’m sure it will be investigated by someone to prove it were true or not. After all the allegations are serious and although historic a crime is a crime.
Although they may have limited the sharing I bet there are lots of screen shots still in existence.
In any case what happens if this guy Farrell swears an affidavit? Does the fact that he is making the claims against a minister mean it is just ignored without trial?
He’d need to lay a complaint with the police in order for it to be investigated. Unless the media pick it up and it becomes a public interest issue that the govt can’t make go away. Which I would guess is why he’s approaching it this way. I expect Bennett will go hard out with the lawyers though.
[Firefox gives me a security warning on that site, so I’m not going to look at it. But please don’t post to sites that are publishing the allegations. Putting you into moderation until I see an acknowledgement of this. – weka]
Hi,I wanted to thank everyone who responded to A New Day, a New Cease & Desistover the last five days or so. So many readers have brushed up against MLMs — and they’re something I want to push further into. Did I hear from good old Jonathan Callinan, the ...
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A year ago this week we saw the headline “Mask-wearing 17-year-old egged by aggressive convoy protesters”. As the protestors settled in for their long campout in opposition to vaccination requirements they demonstrated their commitment to standing up for the rights of the individual by verbally abusing, and throwing eggs at, ...
Chris Hipkins has become New Zealand’s 41st prime minister following Ardern’s unexpected resignation—perhaps the bold and unpredictable move Labour needed to improve its election chances. Just six days into his premiership and Labour had its first lead over National in thirteen weeks. National has had a largely uninterrupted run of ...
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The politics of Waitangi and the Treaty evident over the weekend have moved into a new space. The politics of Waitangi and the Treaty evident over the weekend have moved into a new space. There is a new wave of Maori activism, which sees the Treaty as a living ...
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by Don Franks While on holiday,I stayed a few days in Scotland with a friend who showed me one of the country’s great working-class achievements. It was a few miles out of central Edinburgh, a huge cantilever bridge across the river Forth. The Forth Bridge was the first major structure ...
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Hi,At 4.43pm yesterday it arrived — a cease and desist letter from the guy I mentioned in my last newsletter. I’d written an article about “WEWE”, a global multi-level marketing scam making in-roads into New Zealand. MLMs are terrible for many of the same reasons megachurches are terrible, and I ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic ...
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In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
A new Prime Minister, a revitalised Cabinet, and possibly revised priorities – but is the political and, importantly, economic landscape much different? Certainly some within the news media were excited by the changes which Chris Hipkins announced yesterday or – before the announcement – by the prospect of changes in ...
Currently the government's strategy for reducing transport emissions hinges on boosting vehicle fuel-efficiency, via the clean car standard and clean car discount, and some improvements to public transport. The former has been hugely successful, and has clearly set us on the right path, but its also not enough, and will ...
Buzz from the Beehive Before he announced his Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced he would be flying to Australia next week to meet that country’s Prime Minister. And before Kieran McAnulty had time to say “Three Waters” after his promotion to the Local Government portfolio, he was dishing ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
Another night of heavy rain, flooding, damage to homes, and people worried about where the hell all this water is going to go as we enter day twenty two of rain this year.Honestly if the government can’t sell Three Waters on the back of what has happened with storm water ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Hi,It’s weird to me that in 2023 we still have people falling for multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs for short). There are Netflix documentaries about them, countless articles, and last year we did an Armchaired and Dangerous episode on them.Then you check a ticketing website like EventBrite and see this shit ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Shortly, the absolute state of Wayne Brown. But before that, something I wrote four years ago for the council’s own media machine. It was a day-in-the-life profile of their many and varied and quite possibly unnoticed vital services. We went all over Auckland in 48 hours for the story, the ...
Kia ora e te whānau. Today, we mark the anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi - and our commitment to working in partnership with Māori to deliver better outcomes and tackle the big issues, together. ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today held their first bilateral meeting in Canberra. It was Chris Hipkins’ first overseas visit since he took office, reflecting the close relationship between New Zealand and Australia. “New Zealand has no closer partner than Australia. I was pleased to ...
New Zealand will immediately provide humanitarian support to those affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation caused by these earthquakes. Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones affected,” ...
An historic Northland pā site with links to Ngāpuhi chief Hongi Hika is to be handed back to iwi, after collaboration by government, private landowners and local hapū. “It is fitting that the ceremony for the return of the Pākinga Pā site is during Waitangi weekend,” said Regional Development Minister ...
The Government is investing in a suite of initiatives to unlock Māori and Pacific resources, talent and knowledge across the science and research sector, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Two new funds – He tipu ka hua and He aka ka toro – set to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for India tomorrow as she continues to reconnect Aotearoa New Zealand to the world. The visit will begin in New Delhi where the Foreign Minister will meet with the Vice President Hon Jagdeep Dhankar and her Indian Government counterparts, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
The Government is supporting one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant historic sites, the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, as it continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. “The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are a taonga that we should protect and look after. This additional support will mean people can continue to ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The death toll for the quake that hit Turkey and Northern Syria may reach 20,000. For Syrians, the quake has struck a population already overwhelmed by the impacts of war, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University The United States’ shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina over the weekend points to international security affairs being on a knife edge. It follows ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Liknaitzky, Head of Clinical Psychedelic Research, Monash University Collaborative care teams will need to be established for safe treatment.Author provided A few days ago, the Australian drug regulator – the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) – surprised experts around the world ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kimberley Crofts, Doctoral Student, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock The decline of the coal industry means 17 mines in the New South Wales Hunter Valley will close over the next two decades. More than 130,000 hectares of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Jefferson, Senior Lecturer in Education, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock The first signs were the half-eaten lunches coming home from high school. This was in stark contrast to the primary school years, where the box looked as if a demolition ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Sparkes, Senior Lecturer (Media Studies and Production), University of Southern Queensland Disney When it was released 25 years ago, James Cameron’s Titanic was enormous. It made stars of its two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Reviews overwhelmingly heaped ...
AI writing tools are free, easy to use and already everywhere. But is it cheating to use them to help write an essay? Shanti Mathias spoke to New Zealand academics about AI’s place in education.When California company Open AI released its ChatGPT tool to the public last November, social ...
Chris Hipkins’ first overseas trip as prime minister heralded few surprises. But, as Stewart Sowman-Lund reports from Canberra, that’s exactly what he will have wanted. It’s been just two weeks since Chris Hipkins was sworn in as prime minister, a fortnight that has seen him deal with devastating flooding, formalise ...
The Green Party wants the government to double the maximum amount it is paying out to flood-affected Aucklanders, through the Civil Defence payments. ...
Meg Parsons and Iresh Jayawardena explain why managing climate risk is a complex social justice issue Commentary and coverage of the floods in Auckland has so far focused on the severity of the flood, loss of life and injuries, damage to buildings, homes, roads and other infrastructure, on the number of people ...
A successful Minister for Auckland could foreshadow a substantially revised Cities and Regions government focusOpinion: There’s little doubt Auckland is in need of substantial ministering. It’s not just the biblical-scale deluge and resulting significant damage the region has experienced. It’s the historical sins of omission and some of commission ...
Chris Hipkins’ first offshore trip as leader went without a hitch, albeit with a low bar to clear. The challenge now is ensuring that Australian rhetoric around expat rights becomes reality, while Hipkins himself needs to figure out his own foreign policy agenda. Sam Sachdeva reports, in Canberra. Given the ...
Felicity Goodyear-Smith looks back at just how political the issue of abortion was in New Zealand On Wednesday March 25, 2020 New Zealand moved to nationwide self-isolation in response to the Covid 19 pandemic. Unless essential, there were to be no face-to-face primary care consultations. I work full-time as a professor of general ...
From purging possums and saving kiwi, to leading the Tui and turning out for the Blues, rugby record breaker Krysten Cottrell has a fascinating combination of careers, Suzanne McFadden discovers. Krysten Cottrell spends her week deep in the bush of the Kaweka Range, searching for dead rats and possums - and then ...
The money the health system has to fight Covid-19 in the first half of 2023 is less than half of what it had in the second half of 2022, Marc Daalder reports Staff on the Covid-19 response have been terminated or quietly reassigned to other health issues as funding to ...
Bow and arrow hunting There was a certain time of year I really used to live for: camping over the Christmas break. I was 15 in the Christmas of 1976 and up to that point I'd shot a heap of goats and smaller game, but the thought of maybe getting ...
International education used to be a massive earner for New Zealand. With the borders finally open, are foreign students returning? Macleans College in East Auckland used to have more international students than any other school in the country. Then, the pandemic hit and turned it upside down. Principal Steve Hargreaves doesn't ...
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By Ian Chute in Suva Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) board chairman Ajay Bhai Amrit says he has receipts to prove former FBC chief executive officer Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum received an annual package of $387,790 including benefits and entitlements. He said this worked out to $32,315 a month and that the board ...
PNG Post-Courier PNG Defence Force Commander Major-General Mark Goina says “appropriate force” will be dealt to the gunmen who ambushed and wounded two soldiers in Saugurap, Enga Province, last week. In a statement Major-General Goina said: “A section from the PNGDF contingent deployed in Enga Province were on routine duty, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra As well as her interviews with politicians and experts, Politics with Michelle Grattan includes “Word from The Hill”, where she discusses the news with members of The Conversation’s politics team. In this podcast Michelle and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe.Lukas Coch/AAP Australia’s cash rate has hit 3.35%, after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates for the ninth time in a row – and signalled ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Della Bosca, PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney Shutterstock While the days of overt climate denial are mostly over, there’s a distinct form of denial emerging in its stead. You may have experienced ...
A potential cyclone that could bring more severe wet weather to the upper North Island is now forecast to form a day earlier, Stuff reports. Due to ideal cyclone-formation conditions over the Coral Sea, a low south of the Solomon Islands has a high chance of turning into a cyclone ...
Author I.S. Belle reveals the top five influences on her debut LGBT horror/paranormal YA novel, Zombabe.Zombabe is a LGBT found family horror/paranormal YA about a group of friends putting down an ancient evil inextricably linked to their sleepy town of Bulldeen, Maine. Does all of that bring anything to ...
New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese are holding a joint press conference in Canberra. Watch live here. ...
The New Zealand government is providing $1.5 million in humanitarian support to those affected by destructive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last night, foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta has announced. The contribution of $1m to Turkey and $500,000 to Syria will be made via the International Federation of Red Cross and ...
In a state-of-the-nation-style lunchtime speech in Auckland today, the leader of the Act Party has taken aim at both major party leaders. “Throughout this speech,” David Seymour told supporters at the Maritime Museum, “I will do my best to differentiate between the Chrisses, but it may not be easy.” Seymour ...
In Canberra Chris Hipkins has met with Australia’s Anthony Albanese in Canberra, exchanging a few brief words to gathered reporters before heading inside for a closed doors meeting. Hipkins was driven into the courtyard of Parliament House, where he was greeted by Albanese in person. “Welcome prime minister,” said Albanese. A beaming ...
The acclaimed fashion designer has been crowned the ‘undisputed king of the frock’ – but with identical dresses widely available on fast fashion outlets, questions are being asked about his design practices.This story was first published on Stuff. He has been described as the “knight of New Zealand fashion”, his ...
In Canberra New Zealand’s media pack has arrived at Australia’s parliament ahead of this afternoon’s visit from prime minister Chris Hipkins. The PM will be met by his counterpart Anthony Albanese in the courtyard of parliament house, before heading inside for a closed doors meeting. Following the 45 minute meeting, ...
Two new funding initiatives, totalling $22 million, have been approved by Cabinet today to help ensure the cultural sector has the “certainty and support to thrive”, announced Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. $10 million of Covid-19 recovery funding will support established arts, cultural and diversity festivals, while $12 ...
New Zealand Politics Daily is a collation of the most prominent issues being discussed in New Zealand. It is edited by Dr Bryce Edwards of The Democracy Project. Items of interest and importance todayWAITANGI, CO-GOVERNANCE, THREE WATERS Thomas Cranmer: Waitangi Day and the quiet revolution Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Waitangi in 2023: Plenty ...
ACT leader David Seymour has delivered a speech painting National and Labour as two sides of the same coin, and calling co-governance a "culture war". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Quigley, Associate Professor of Earthquake Science, The University of Melbourne Mustafa Karali / AP A pair of huge earthquakes have struck in Turkey, leaving more than 3,000 people dead and unknown numbers injured or displaced. The first quake, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kalinda Griffiths, Scientia lecturer, UNSW Sydney Getty/Marianne Purdie Cancer figures provide stark evidence of the gap between the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-Indigenous people in Australia. The difference is confronting – and it’s increasing over ...
NZ Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have used a joint media conference to affirm the nations' relationship is that of "family". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Alcohol bans are being reimposed on Northern Territory Indigenous communities, as the federal and territory governments grapple with intractable problems in Alice Springs and elsewhere in the NT. The situation in Alice Springs and the ...
I was told to avoid gluten. I was told it was all in my head. When 10% of women experience endometriosis, why does it take so long for its classic symptoms to be recognised? It was 2011 when I had my first period. It felt like a very exciting moment ...
In Canberra Chris Hipkins has touched down in Australia’s capital – his first overseas visit since becoming prime minister just three weeks ago. After disembarking from the Airforce Boeing, Hipkins was greeted by his former caucus colleague and current high commissioner to Australia, Dame Annette King. The pair hugged on ...
The rise of TikTok-inspired ‘algospeak’ is making online communication even more of a nightmare, writes SYSCA‘s Lucy Blakiston.This is an excerpt from the Shit You Should Care About daily newsletter – sign up here.Content warning: sexual assault The other day I was chatting with a friend about algospeak – ...
School, finally, is back this week in the nation’s largest city to howls of relief from many parents and (one hopes) some students also. Yet the resumption of normal service shouldn’t obscure a curious inconsistency. The past few weeks have shown ...
MediaRoom column: On the eve of a Cabinet decision on the fate of the proposed public broadcasting merger, questions emerge over the engagement by the TVNZ chief executive of two former National government aides to change the narrative and push TVNZ's view on the Government's plan Within weeks of taking over ...
Olivia Sisson performs a good old-fashioned cost comparison – and it might change the way you buy your veges.The price of food in New Zealand is shocking. So, how to cope? The recommendations are starting to feel like the avo-toast-flat-white trope. Cut those items out and there it is, ...
An early morning fire at an egg-laying farm in Orini, Waikato yesterday has claimed the lives of at least 50,000 hens. The farm is operated by New Zealand’s largest egg producer Zeagold, the country’s biggest egg producer, whose eggs are sold under ...
The Natural and Built Environment Bill and Spatial Planning Bill will make resource management issues worse and should be withdrawn, Federated Farmers has told the Environment Select Committee. "Farmers agree the costly, slow and unpredictable processes ...
New police minister Stuart Nash has met with new health minister Ayesha Verrall to talk about the issue with the aim of preventing ram raids. Nash wants to speed up the scheduled reduction of dairies that can sell cigarettes. Nash made the comments at a police graduation ceremony in Porirua last ...
It’s Tuesday, February 7 and welcome to a special edition of The Spinoff’s live updates. Stewart Sowman-Lund will be on the ground in Canberra today as PM Chris Hipkins meets with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese. What you need to know Chris Hipkins will meet Australian PM ...
Politicking by politicians was less overt but whether there was less politics probably depends on your definition of the word and what lay beneath the optics, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Why is it becoming harder to achieve debt-free status? Money Sweetspot is a new company that uses compassion and incentives to help people pay off their debts. Co-founder Sasha Lockley talks to Simon about using gamification to increase financial literacy, breaking the cycle of poverty, and how she intends to ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins is heading to Australia today for his first face-to-face meeting with an international leader. He’ll be meeting with Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese during his single-day visit to Canberra. The Spinoff live updates will be on the ground in Australia as the meeting takes place and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney Pexels/Uriel Mont The question of whether and to what extent face masks work to prevent respiratory infections such as COVID and influenza ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Mackinnon, Professor and Director, Centre for Clean Energy Technologies and Practices, Queensland University of Technology Superconducting cables transmit electicity without lossesShutterstock For most of us, transmitting power is an invisible part of modern life. You flick the switch and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Munro, Professor, Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University Shutterstock Many students are returning to school this year face a renewed focus on grammar. Just before Christmas, the NSW curriculum was overhauled to include the “explicit teaching of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debra Dudek, Associate professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan University Universal Life is full of surprises – some pleasant and some painful – but there can be no surprises without expectations. We expect the sun to come up ...
News stories have honed in on the fact Wayne Brown and his staff were left off a ‘vital’ email distribution list on the night of the Auckland floods. But internal emails from the mayor’s chief of staff show he was getting regular briefings from officials.Internal council emails obtained by ...
In a reality shaped by climate crisis, how do you think and feel about the changed present – and the changing future – without spiralling into despair?In the midst of a flood there’s not much time to think about the future. But when the water recedes, the reality of ...
06 Feb The news today of the death of 75,000 chickens at an egg farm in Waikato is yet another outrageous and avoidable tragedy. “The fact that so many hens died in this fire in the Waikato is a testament to the systemic neglect and disregard ...
Lawmakers are being urged to bridge the legal and scientific divide over braided rivers. David Williams reports What is a river? More particularly, what is a braided river? An expert group known as The Land The Law Forgot is urging politicians considering the Natural and Built Environment Bill – one ...
As Auckland copes with unprecedented flooding, Mairi Jay points to lessons from extreme weather events in British Columbia that could be vitally important for policy-makers and administrators here “Expect extreme weather events” the climate scientists tell us. But sometimes the extreme is beyond our imagining. On Thursday January 26, New Zealand’s Met Service predicted ...
UK and US deals for NZ novels Three of the best New Zealand novels of recent years are about to be published in the UK and the US. All three books – She's a Killer by Kirsten McDougall, Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K Reilly, and The New Animals ...
Confidence from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell kept markets buoyant. But mortgage payments and job losses could dampen consumer spending in NZ ...
Someone left the Swift out in the rain - insurance agents are overloaded with calls about flood-damaged vehicles It’s been a big week for testing the submarining abilities of the family station wagon. Thousands of cars around the upper North Island have been written off following the devastating floods of ...
The first of the air force's new Poseidon aircraft has landed in New Zealand. But is this the sort of workhorse the military needs? Our old heroes of the Air Force, the P-3 Orions, have retired after 56 years of service - and the first of the flash new Poseidon ...
Chris Hipkins’ first overseas trip as Prime Minister comes on relatively friendly territory. But while there have been marked improvements in the trans-Tasman relationship since a change in Canberra, there is still plenty to discuss, as Sam Sachdeva writes In many ways, it is fitting Chris Hipkins should make Australia the ...
A little quote from Dr Jim McAloon from Vic in June 2015:
“Labour’s interest will not be served by simply waiting for the wheels to fall off the Key government (which may or may not happen in 2017—Labour underestimates John Key at its peril). To fulfil its purpose, Labour has to lift its share of the vote well above 35 per cent.
Non-voters are one target. Parts of National’s ‘soft’ vote are another.
Rather than the sometimes facile suggestions that Labour’s current troubles are the consequence of being either excessively or insufficiently Left-wing, increasing the vote means convincing enough people that the party’s fundamental values are meaningful to them today and in the future.”
Can Labour make 35% this time?
No.
Andrew Little
Untrustworthy
No policy detail
Unrealistic “promises”
Contradictory statements/announcements/actions
MOU with the Greens
Yes.
Andrew Little
trustworthy
policy detail
realistic “promises”
Not Contradictory statements/announcements/actions
MOU with the Greens
Don’t bite Nick BM is only fishing or winding up.
Halfcrown
If only we could harness the winding up provided by all these trolls and RW afficionados we could power a wind farm which in turn would power our slightly brighter future, that we must achieve of back to the future of a new Dark Age.
I go along with that.
Hilarious – National are full of unrealistic promises e.g. their predator free by 2050 policy. It means they can suck eggs now and let someone else deal with and pay for it later, if they can. In 30 or so years they’ll be dead or too senile to care that they stuffed around so much that a ton of species died because they would rather give tax cuts then fund the Conservation Department properly.
And I can even write Bill English and. Trustworthy in the same sentence. And if you disagree go and relive last week again.
BM pictures himself as a spanner in the works where he’s really no more than an engineer’s used tissue, chewed to shreds by the cogs’ teeth.
Can Labour make 35% this time? – of course they can. Look at Corbyn massive turn around in weeks.
But it is ultimately votes who decide. So if voters want the change of government the voters need to make it happen with unconditional support. Yep, Labour and Greens are not perfect, BUT National is a very scary party and getting worse with their unbridled level of power.
Now we have Thiel a Trump supporter (yep pro wall, anti women and muslims) and anti democracy billionaire being wooed by the National party and given citizenship here, even though he doesn’t want to live here!
We have migrants that have worked hard to get citizenship here, people who live here 365 days of the year paying taxes, people in poverty, people being poisoned by Meth that has become a thriving industry since The National Party took over and residents who can not afford to rent or buy here anymore with the increasing prices foreign ownership and National party policy it is driving. Now our state houses are even been sold off cheap to Banks and finance people who set up charities as ‘fronts’. It’s obscene. National don’t even care what people think anymore.
Every vote against National counts. Because even if Labour does not win, then voters against them dilute their power to do the massive damage to our country.
(Turbo-charge in the broomstick over-heated and now it’s buggered 🙁
I need a hand.
HELP SEND ‘HER WARSHIP’
TO THE HAGUE!
I’ve been given the great honour of being invited to attend the 2017 World Justice Project ‘Rule of Law’ Forum at The Hague, 10 – 13 July 2017.
https://worldjusticeproject.org/our-work/engagement/events/world-justice-forum
Although as an outspoken ‘anti-privatisation / anti-corruption campaigner / investigative activist /whistle- blower’ I usually face significant mainstream NZ media ‘censorship’ – internationally it seems that my work has not gone unnoticed.
(For the last three years I have participated in the World Justice Project ‘Rule of Law Index’ as an NZ ‘expert’, and I have attended 6 International Anti-Corruption Conferences.)
This is a HUGE chance to tell fellow ‘Rule of Law experts’ from potentially 130 countries – the TRUTH about how undeserved is NZ’s ‘perceived’ status as ‘the least corrupt country in the world’ according to the 2016 Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’.
https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016#table
I’m not scared to speak out.
Need to ‘seize the moment!’
This World Justice Forum
(10 – 13 July 2017) is NOT funded.
It is my intention to fly out 6 July and return 16 July.
The approximate costs are:
Registration $200(donated)
Accommodation at Student ‘hostel’
NZ $63 per night.
(X 8 $504
Air travel (return)
Auckland – Amsterdam
Amsterdam – Rotterdam
Rotterdam – The Hague
Ball park $4000
(The sooner I can book my air fares – the cheaper it will be).
How much do I need?
$5000 should do it.
That’s 500 X $10
250 X $20
100 X $50
50 X $100
I have over 3,300 Facebook friends.
This is NOT a big ask?
For those of you who have helped me in the past – THANK YOU! (Again 🙂
As you know I choose to work full time on a self-funded basis (flat mate income), no benefit or funding from any source apart from occasional donations when I’m stuck and need a hand and I have done this since 2000 (17 years).
So!
To get to The Hague I do need a hand.
If you choose to help and are able – please send me a personal message on Facebook / Messenger and I will send you my bank account details.
Let’s DO IT!
Help send ‘Her Warship’ to The Hague!
Kind regards
Penny Bright
How do sponsors/donors get money to you Penny?
Comedy gold
You are looking at English BM. He lied by omission, covered up for Barclay, cut him loose when it got difficult, didn’t support a person who had worked for him for years.
NOT P.M. material at all.
One of the many successes of the shonky/dirty politics era is to lower the bar for every govt minister.
Its to the point that blinglish’s behaviour is predictably of a low standard and most reasonable people arent surprised by this level of leadership from national.
Looking at Wikipedia on the Grenfell fire, seems a good overview.
Residents expressed significant safety concerns prior to the fire, with criticism levelled against the council for fire safety and building maintenance failures.[32] They had also said repeatedly that in the event of a fire, their escape path was limited to a single staircase.[16]
Exposed gas pipes were another concern raised by the Grenfell Tower Leaseholders’ Association in the months before the fire; while a fire safety expert had ordered them to be covered by fire-retardant boxing, two-thirds remained exposed at the time of the fire.[33]
There is concern that cuts to Legal aid prevented tenants and tenants’ groups taking legal action over their safety concerns. Robert Bourns of The Law Society said, “There have been reports that tenants of Grenfell Tower were unable to access legal aid to challenge safety concerns because of the cuts. If that is the case then we may have a very stark example of what limiting legal aid can mean.”[34]…
ITV business editor Joel Hills stated that he had been told that the installation of sprinklers had not even been discussed.[20] In a 2012 report, the British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association said that sprinklers could be retrofitted in Grenfell Tower for an average cost of £1,150 per flat, which would have added up to a total cost of £138,000 for the whole block….[38]
Plans for the renovation were publicised in 2012.[18] Overseen by Studio E Architects,[19] the £8.7 million refurbishment,[20] undertaken by Rydon Ltd…
…new aluminium composite rainscreen cladding, in part to improve the appearance of the building.[24] Two types were used: Arconic’s Reynobond, which consists of two, coil-coated, aluminium sheets that are fusion bonded to both sides of a polyethylene core; and Reynolux aluminium sheets. Beneath these, and fixed to the outside of the walls of the flats, was Celotex RS5000 PIR thermal insulation.[25][26][27][28] The work was carried out by Harley Facades of Crowborough, East Sussex, at a cost of £2.6 million. (The project cost included new windows and:
The renovation included a water-based heating system for individual flats.)
My question – If water was being piped to heaters, it would seem to have been cost-effective and efficient if extended to sprinkler systems?
The UK government is accused of having ignored warnings about fire safety in tower blocks.[39] A former chief fire officer and secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on fire safety, Ronnie King, said ministers stonewalled requests for meetings and efforts to tighten rules….
[After] the 2009 Lakanal House fire, the coroner made a series of safety recommendations for the government to consider, and the Department for Communities and Local Government agreed to hold a review in 2013. In March 2014, the All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety & Rescue Group sent a letter to then–Minister for Communities Stephen Williams, which said in part:
“Surely … when you already have credible evidence to justify updating … the guidance … which will lead to saving of lives, you don’t need to wait another three years in addition to the two already spent since the research findings were updated, in order to take action?
“As there are estimated to be another 4,000 older tower blocks in the UK, without automatic sprinkler protection, can we really afford to wait for another tragedy to occur before we amend this weakness?”[41]…
A residents’ organisation, Grenfell Action Group (GAG), published a blog in which it highlighted major safety problems. In 2013, the group published a 2012 fire risk assessment done by a TMO Health and Safety Officer which recorded safety concerns. Firefighting equipment at the tower had not been checked for up to four years; on-site fire extinguishers had expired, and some had the word “condemned” written on them because they were so old. GAG documented its attempts to contact KCTMO management; they also alerted the council Cabinet Member for Housing and Property but said they never received a reply from him or his deputy.[43][44]
The casualty statistics:
On 28 June, the authorities stated that there were known survivors from 106 of the tower’s 129 flats; eighteen people among the occupants of these flats were reported as dead or missing presumed dead, whereas most of those killed were said to have been in the remaining 23 flats between the 11th and 23rd floors….
A total of 151 homes were destroyed in the tower and surrounding area. The incident ranks as the deadliest structural fire in the United Kingdom since the start of the 20th century, when detailed records began
Note: Other buildings and deaths were involved in the “surrounding area” which I hadn’t heard much about.
It’s the “deadliest structural fire” etc. illustrates how over the years responsible safety laws and measures get watered down, ignored, fudged and those supposedly responsible get complacent because nothing has ever happened, and the preventative idea becomes a nice-to-have. Keeping vigilant over all of our sensible thoughtful laws and systems is obviously a grassroots basic bit of life education we need to absorb through our pores, and connect to the brain.
The tragedy is a wake-up call to everyone who thought that creeping cuts didn’t really affect people. The fact is, as this shows, cuts to random areas multiply hazards. Everything from cladding change, to fire suppression, to fire service, even to legal aid, all of it worked together to create this tragedy, each cut being viewed individually.
+1 McFlock – all the ‘small’ changes add up. That is why piecemeal policy is not effective and even the current ‘process’ way of making decisions. Yep, it might work in a box factory having everybody doing a little task without knowing what the result might be as a sum, but it’s the big picture that counts and results in real life.
With tragic results.
We have had our Grenfell with Pike river and the CTV building, and it is people who must hold the government to account for the Pike river deaths AND their lack of interest in them or any justice to them and question our justice system over CTV building deaths.
Just got back from London drove on westway past grenfell. Just horrible if ever there was a monument to Tory governments and there attitudes to poor People . There it is. We need to fight really hard where ever we are to make our society fair and safe for all. Look at that tower, and get motivated for this September’s fight.
Start with get councils out of running housing
Start with making councils contract-in for construction. Stops cost-cutting by subbies of the lowest bidder.
That’s what they did in Grenfell, Red.
National are determined to replicate the conditions of Grenfell here in NZ.
Yes this proves that the free market model is a failure and money corrupts politics. A fully funded state housing agency independent of political interference would not let this happen
Good idea. Get the real red colour about running housing, not that shocking pink diseased Labour look seen till recently.
Scroll to replies below Sinyangwe’s initial thread.
Actually I neither heard nor saw any mention of the residents of Barbados during the Americas Cup. They invested $100million in the Infrastructure but what about the locals? Good fun for them was it?
geography a second language?
Moan moan moan and fkn moan, enjoy it for what it was and will be in AKl 😀
Eddication, edification, elucidation – something….
The government thinks that we have a suficiently satisfactory education system to keep us in our place, which is competing with the rest of the world for the job placements going which are at present good payers. And lining up with the hundreds for advertised jobs at supermarket: literacy and numeracy a must!
Actually the status of turmoil that the world and the use of competitive technology
puts us in, requires better understanding and wider education than ever before not simplified spam handed out letter by letter and screen by screen by a machine responding to the requests for information that it itself produces so limiting thinking, self-enquiry and self-discovery.
So help the educators hold onto what we have now otherwise they will be swamped and end up on a little promontory with their main skills being needed to keep themselves alive and to jump nimbly from one precarious situation to another.
http://www.together.org.nz/keep_it_public
Keep it Public!
Public tertiary education gives all New Zealanders the opportunity to develop skills, learn trades, and create knowledge which helps our families, communities and economy.
But Paul Goldsmith, the Minister for Tertiary Education, is trying to change the law to take public funds away from our universities, polytechs and wānanga and hand them to private companies who are more concerned with profit than providing quality education.
Together, let’s make sure tertiary education stays public, local and focused on learning.
They want a minimum of 4,000 signatures. Please support. See link above.
This would be the single biggest change to tertiary education funding in a generation. If enough of us speak out, then together we can stop it happening.
By pledging to support public tertiary education you will be adding your voice to the many others that want to keep tertiary education public, local, and focused on learning, not profit.
Tertiary education belongs to all of us. Now is the time to tell Paul Goldsmith you want it to stay that way.
Keep it Public!
Don’t leave our educators all alone, stranded, and our good education being decimated by private business.
Need you
Have your say on the Scoop Hivemind discussion on housing.
Add your own statements to the discussion as well.
anybody else find this
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/personal-finance/news/article.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=11883468
disturbing.
Trumps best tweet so far #FraudNewsCNN
I guess you think the creator of the video’s other memes are marvelous, too.
//
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/07/02/trump_s_cnn_tweet_appears_to_have_originated_from_hanassholesolo_a_racist.html
Well I would encourage him to put his energies into more positive like things like the above tweet and possibly making a similar video for Slate.com for publishing stupid stuff like Trump is now inciting violence against reporters by doing this.
True too form, it seems the pumpkin pinochet has climbed into bed with the very worst so he can fuck over ordinary folk.
.
Now a Four Corners investigation will reveal how Donald Trump, as he was closing in on his political rivals, was negotiating luxury resort deals in Bali and Java, raising serious questions about presidential conflicts of interest.
“The project is going to be a huge one, a mega project.” Landowner
In Bali, plans are under way to Trumpify one of the most iconic and sacred sites in Bali – Tanah Lot. But curiously, for a tourist destination usually keen to talk up what the island paradise has to offer, government officials are not keen to talk about the proposed Trump Tower development.
“I can’t talk about this. I cannot talk about this.” Balinese government official.
In a second development on Java, the deal to build a massive gaudy theme park and resort development has been inked, leaving local farmers frightened of what the future holds.
“When the financial power of Trump comes here, we the original people who live here are powerless. Their enormous wealth buys enormous influence.”
Four Corners investigates how these deals were done through an unholy alliance formed between Donald Trump and controversial business and political figures in Indonesia.
Trump’s business partners have a troubling history with ties to the corrupt Suharto regime.
While at home in the United States, President Trump rails against Islamic extremism. In Indonesia, he has formed political alliances with politicians aligned with Islamist forces.
“He is dealing with the worst of Indonesia’s past, and he is going to deal with the worst of Indonesia’s future, the Islamists. I think Donald Trump is going to get his businesses messier and also Indonesia messier.” Human rights investigator.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2017/06/29/4693993.htm
edit: trailer from Four Corners FB page.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/94324299/a-public-health-warning
If you and yours aren’t vaccinated and have no medical reason why you can’t be vaccinated and haven’t had mumps before can you please pop down to your GP and have a shot.
Yes can we have some bravery about this – the odds that anything bad will happen because of the mumps vaccination is small. Only if you are already sick, ask your GPs opinion.
I really hope that Pora is awarded the adjusted inflation compensation approx $500,000. It is way overdue that the huge injustice done to him is settled as much as it can be.
I do not want to see anymore of his life wasted on holding those to account for what he has been put through. Those who hold the power to give closure MUST not misuse their power.
To often the forgotten are expected to forgive their persecutor and somehow get over it. E.g. those who were abused in statecare or sexually assaulted in childhood.
An inquiry is necesssary because an inquiry is what maybe the only thing which gives as much healing that can be given.
I have thought about Alison (story seen on the Nation last Saturday) who was committed into psychiatric care from 1950 – 1990 when aged 11, she was sexually assaulted, shock treated, put into isolation…. Alison had a brain injury from contracting chicken pocks when she was a toddler, she was never mentally disordered. I am troubled by how she was treated by the standards of the years 1950 – 1990; not much has changed.
I would like to see a comprehensive inquiry into how her life was turned inside out and upside down. Alison is now 75 and she is in the last part of her life. She is a courageous woman. I really hope that she gets all her questions answered. Even though she has had some compensation in 1990, this would have been minimal compared to what she deserves.
How much is 40 years being imprisoned worth?
“How much is 40 years being imprisoned worth?”
40 years is a life time for some, life is priceless. Least I tell my kids I wouldn’t swap them for all the riches on the planet, with that in mind, both Teina and Alison deserve the world.
That story disturbed me as well Treetop, the most vulnerable exploited, it’s a disgusting abuse of justice.
Haley Holt, you are an incredibly brave woman. Your story will resonate with many women, THANK YOU, you are enormously courageous by making it so public
When I watched Sunday last night, your story is near on identical to a dear friend of mine, a dear friend but I just can’t stand to be around when she is drinking, in fact her behaviour has turned me off booze. Will share with her, it may just change her life.
Hayley you are even more amazing for your honesty. MASSIVE RESPECT.
Streisand effect
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2017/07/viral-paula-bennett-letter-defamation-and-harassment-lawyers.html
Took me two minutes to google up the content!
Too true Xanthe. Vaguely read something about the issue a few days ago but glossed over it but now…..
I thought it was gone but I read it too.
I’m sure it will be investigated by someone to prove it were true or not. After all the allegations are serious and although historic a crime is a crime.
Although they may have limited the sharing I bet there are lots of screen shots still in existence.
In any case what happens if this guy Farrell swears an affidavit? Does the fact that he is making the claims against a minister mean it is just ignored without trial?
He’d need to lay a complaint with the police in order for it to be investigated. Unless the media pick it up and it becomes a public interest issue that the govt can’t make go away. Which I would guess is why he’s approaching it this way. I expect Bennett will go hard out with the lawyers though.
Hmmm. I thought only MSD could lay charges.
In any case his mistake (if you can call it that) was to share it with MSM.
I see what you mean. I don’t know about that, especially as it’s an historic case.
why was that a mistake?
There’s always trouble at mill, and elsewhere. Big employers are refusing to employ subbies/ employees if they have been involved in disputes. That’s interesting, they don’t want to take on all the work themselves, contract it out, and then take the power out of the contractors hands.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/michael-clifford/blacklisted-workers-run-up-against-a-brick-wall-440273.html
[deleted]
[Firefox gives me a security warning on that site, so I’m not going to look at it. But please don’t post to sites that are publishing the allegations. Putting you into moderation until I see an acknowledgement of this. – weka]