National is not responsible for what is happening in Gaza. Demanding they do something is not going to achieve anything.
And expelling the Israeli diplomat? How would we then express our disgust at the innocent murder of women and children the next time it happens?
mickysavage
Most people would reject the murder of innocent women and children on the first instance.
Come on Greg you can be better than this.
Stand up to the extreme Right pressure in your own party.
Do what ever it takes. Demand in the strongest terms possible (either privately or publicly), that your party leader David Cunliffe make a statement promising to cut diplomatic relations with Israel.
Gee Jenny I was expressing a personal view, not succumbing to right wing pressure.
My personal view is that diplomatic channels if at all possible should be left open. So I disagree with calls to send the Israeli ambassador home. And I do reject the murder of innocent women and children. Have a read of what I have written on the subject if you want proof.
My personal view is that diplomatic channels if at all possible should be left open. So I disagree with calls to send the Israeli ambassador home.
mickysavage
Greg if you are of a certain age you will understand that you are using the same morally indefensible and bankrupt excuse used by the NZRFU and the Muldoon administration for keeping ties with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
And I do reject the murder of innocent women and children. Have a read of what I have written on the subject if you want proof.
mickysavage
Greg you can keep up your liberal handwringing as long as you like, but by refusing to take a stand to match, your expressions of condemnation and concern at the massacre of innocents are hollow.
Climate change is not yesterday’s news, the same lack of leadership from the Labour Party we are seeing around that issue we see around the genocide in Gaza.
If Labour activists really started fighting for what they believe and convinced their leaders to come out swinging with policies sharply contrasted to National’s then we might see Labour’s electoral fortunes turn around.
As it is, how can there really be an electoral contest between Labour and National when both Labour and National agree on deep sea oil, fracking and new coal mines, and in foreign affairs on how to deal with Israel. The strongest thing the two parties disagree on most strongly in the eyes of the electorate is raising the age of Superannuation entitlement. If it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny.
Your disingenuity does much damage to your position, which increasingly looks petty, spiteful and coordinated, leaving you very much isolated, inhabiting the fringes of debate.
TRP and Alien – Jenny is saying something eminently sensible here. I agree with her. I don’t know what you two are trying to say, because all you’ve done is attack her.
Diplomacy doesn’t work with the Zionists. Latin American countries have taken the lead and are cutting off diplomatic relations. We should be with them, not with countries that do all they can to support Zionist aggression.
Not just a case of shoot the messenger, there are plenty of reasons why Labour should not come out calling for the expulsion of diplomats or the closing of the idf embassy.
One, it’s a big call to make, and the run up to a general election, without the benefit of departmental briefings etc.. is not the place to make ad-hoc/snap policy decisions, especially by the current opposition.
Second, there are other avenues open, such as calling the embassy boss in for a please explain, and to officially pass on the dissatisfaction of the NZ public over the idf operations and occupation of Palestine before reaching the expulsion stage, without which, would expose the Labour leadership to accusations of being unfit to govern.
I support the closing of the Israel embassy and telling them to only come back when they’ve negotiated a two state agreement, but after winning the election first and following due procedure after informed advice.
Weird. Having an internationalist perspective and wanting to preserve diplomatic relations is somehow a bad thing. (Nevill Chamberlaine’s ghost scratches his head in puzzlement that his critics could ever think such things as he eternally walks from the plane.)
Robert Muldoon’s ghost from 1981 creases his cheek and chuckles
Mickeysavage, with all due respect to you, and for your p.o.v. on this issue – I beg to disagree.
Israel will not “listen” to international pressure until the are made to feel international pressure by increasing isolation.
When the Ambassador is sent home – then Israel will feel that pressure.
When we stop trading with them – then Israel will feel that pressure.
When we cease sporting contacts with them – then Israel will begin to understand.
That is how the white regime in Souith Africa was made to “listen” to international pressure. Apartheid was finally destroyed when it was no longer tenable for the South African government of the day to preserve it.
Any message we send to Israel can be done through the U.N.
Thanks Frank. I will cogitate on the issue. At Uni I studied Advanced International Law and I agreed with the model that diplomatic channels should be kept open if at all possible.
I am more than happy if we stop trading and sporting contacts with Israel.
The World is Starting to Turn Against Israel! I srael must be called to account for crimes against humanity!
From Robert Fisk , the Independent
‘Dress the Gaza situation up all you like, but the truth hurts -The world is starting to turn against Israel’
“There was a time when our politicians and media had one principal fear when covering Middle East wars: that no one should ever call them anti-Semitic.
So corrosive, so vicious was this charge against any honest critic of Israel that merely to bleat the word “disproportionate” – as in any normal wartime exchange rate of Arab-to-Israeli deaths – was to provoke charges of Nazism by Israel’s would-be supporters. Sympathy for Palestinians would earn the sobriquet “pro-Palestinian”, which, of course, means “pro-terrorist”.
Or so it was until the latest bloodbath in Gaza, which is being so graphically covered by journalists that our masters and our media are suffering a new experience: not fear of being called anti-Semitic, but fear of their own television viewers and readers – ordinary folk so outraged by the war crimes committed against the women and children of Gaza that they are demanding to know why, even now, television moguls and politicians are refusing to treat their own people like moral, decent, intelligent human beings…..
People supposed that the open nature of the internet would increase accountability, but all it does is clarify the ability of the powerful to act with impunity. A harsh lesson.
They’re bigger than they were last time the Zionists slaughtered people in Gaza. If there’s a next time, they’ll be even bigger. When the outspoken supporters of Zionist terror are people as rotten as SSlands, Tel Aviv should be worried.
Yep, Chooky, although (in response to the excellent Robert Fisk) I’d say public opinion throughout the world has been slowly changing since Israel’s brutal invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and, much more rapidly, since its carpet-bombing of Lebanon in 2006 and, above all, its previous massacre of around 1400 Gazans in late 2008 / early 2009 (as with the current orgy of mass murder, the vast majority were civilians, with a sizeable minority of children – although, you probably know that already).
A poll was conducted in New Zealand around the time of the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, asking respondents who they basically sympathised with. From memory, 25% said Israel, 23% said the Palestinians, almost all of the remaining 52% chose the Unsure because I don’t have enough knowledge option, albeit with tiny minorities choosing either Both or Neither. So, bearing in mind the margin of error, roughly half unsure, a quarter sympathetic to Israel and a quarter sympathetic to the Palestinians. And that division of opinion was very similar to that in Britain, Australia and a few other countries (especially Japan, where the figures were, if I remember rightly, almost exactly the same).
I’d be surprised if that hasn’t changed significantly since 2006. All of the international polls carried out over the last 8 years suggest a major swing against Israel. There’s even been swing in the US, despite the uber-Israeli nuttiness of their mainstream media.
Having said that, there’s always existed a politically astute minority in western countries who have managed to cut through the barrage of Israeli propaganda over the decades. I’ve just been listening to George Galloway talk about the way he became active in the mid-70s and almost suggesting he was unique in this. But, despite a broad sympathy for Israel in Labour Party circles throughout the 40s, 50s, 60s (both in NZ, UK, Oz), there were always people within the Labour Party like my mother who saw things pretty clearly from early on. She became strongly sympathetic to the Palestinians as a teenager in Wellington in 1948 after reading reports of the 1947-48 Arab-Israeli War in The Evening Post, The Dominion and, above all, the Wellington version of The Standard, the Labour-aligned Southern Cross newspaper (published during the post-war period, through to the early 50s).
She said you didn’t have to read much between the lines to see Israel was carrying out a brutal ethnic-cleansing of the Palestinian population, complete with a whole series of massacres of civilian men, women and children. Same old Israeli mindset, never changes. Zionism, at least since the 30s, has always been about the proud, gun-toting Israeli Jew, using violence to militarily carve-out an ethnically-pure Greater Israel.
thanks for that swordfish…your Mother must have been very enlightened for her times in 1948!
…i only wised up when I first went to university in my teens and mixed with some socialist types ( lol) and read a book called ‘Is Israel a Colonial Settler State?’….up until then I was indoctrinated by the fiction best seller ‘Exodus’ and was very pro Israel, like many others then and today, because of the horrors of the WWII holocaust
..this is why i am so pro Internet freedom and free access for all …because you do not have to be an academic or a student to have access to information ( both the best and the worst)….if you search for it and inquire with an open and fair mind…you can see all sides of the story and make up your own mind…It has to be a win /win for world justice and peace in the long term.
“because you do not have to be an academic or a student to have access to information ”
That is right. But you still need an education to make use of that information. What you did with the “information” you cam across on vaccination was abhorent. You simply cannot be trusted to come to the right conclusions on anything. Your vaccination rantings make you a fundamentally untrustworthy person.
@ srylands lol…yes I am uneducated!….. so I let others speak for themselves including doctors and scientists and immunologists and Mothers of children adversely affected by some vaccines
….however as you are so venal and interested always in defending multinational multi billion dollar interests and profits….i guess this would interest you because there is BIG MONEY involved here:
You mentioned the holocaust Chooky. It has crossed my mind of recent times that the N—is were actually afraid of the “Jews”. That was the real reason for the “ethnic cleansing” in ‘Nasti’ Germany.
And when you look at what is happening today there is a correlation between 1930s Germany and Israel of today. Two cuckoos from the same nest so to speak.
Oh do kindly keep your antisemitism to yourself. The Jews of Germany were mostly all assimilated and consider themselves German. And don’t conflate Israel’s far right with “all Jews” – that just makes you a bigot.
Me anti-semitic? It’s the N–is who called them “Jews” not me. I happen to have a number of Jewish relatives in England with whom I lived with for a few years. I have probably had a darn sight more to do with Jewish people than you have.
To help you with your comprehension:
I don’t blame most ordinary Israelis for the actions of their government.
I have never blamed ordinary Russians for the actions of their successive governments.
Nor do I blame ordinary Americans for the actions of their government.
And so it goes on… savvy?
I’d be surprised if that hasn’t changed significantly since 2006. All of the international polls carried out over the last 8 years suggest a major swing against Israel. There’s even been swing in the US, despite the uber-Israeli nuttiness of their mainstream media.
And yet Israel manages to violate human rights with ever more impunity. All your talk matters not a bit, since both sides of the US congress have been bought, and that’s all that is needed to prevent Israel ever being held to account.
Palestine is simply not an issue that looms large in the minds of voters.
Q&A TVNZ this morning;
FIRST Union Secretary Robert Reid on the panel with (might pay to eat after the show) David Farrar, Claire Robinson–and David Shearer on the Israel/Palestine situation.
In my opinion on Q&A David Shearer came close to calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy, but is not quite there.
When asked directly whether he would recommend closing the Israeli embassy Shearer said that there is movement toward that around the world.
David Shearer also confirmed that what New Zealand does is influential. In his words we are “The mouse that roared”
This is where influential leading Labour Party activists like Greg Presland could tilt the balance. Instead Greg channels Murray McCully’s statements about the need to keep the communication channels open. Followed by a lot of moralistic handwringing in the exactly same vein as mickysavage
The moral danger for Greg and other conservative political activists is that the centrist political swamp they are wading through will see them left stranded with the McCullys and Keys on the wrong side of history.
Labour Party activists are working their butts off at present. Many (including me) will have attended protests supporting Palestine and sent emails to the Israeli Embassy. I am sure that I am not the only one who has wept in sadness and disgust at the inhumanity shown by Israel. Lashing out at others will not remove that pain.
A bunch of us will make sure that this issue is covered in Labour’s policy platform going forward i.e. that it is the Labour Party position that the Palestinian people have the right to a sovereign state including democratic and economic self determination without military interference or assault, sanction or blockade, which is exactly the same right that Israel has.
Really? Are you suggesting that New Zealand break off diplomatic relations with the only democracy in the middle east? It is not going to happen. The crazed hate filled mug of Minto will strike zero resonance with New Zealanders. Just look at his face.
In deference to religious Jews, no public bus services run in Israel on the traditional day of rest, except in Arab areas; aircraft operated by El Al, the state airline, remain grounded. Because Jews are not allowed to eat anything leavened or fermented at Passover, in memory of the exodus from Egypt, foods containing grain – even beer or muesli – have to be cleared from the supermarket shelves every spring. Instead of white and brown bread, they sell matzo – an unleavened cracker.
Their proposal defines Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, where the Jewish people have the exclusive right to national self-determination.
Srylands
In terms of threatening liberty – you forgot (most likely omitted);
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Ukraine
Georgia
and the United States of America.
The Israeli “collateral quotient” equates 4 MH17’s – and counting..
Go and do your own protesting against whoever you like, SSlands, but don’t demand that we do it for you. Get over your stupid sense of entitlement.
As for Israel being a beacon of secular democracy – what a load of shit. It’s a corrupt mafia state these days, with special laws for non-Jews, and lucrative property deals for Bibi’s mates. Mind you, I suspect you think democracy means helping the rich get even richer.
Labour Party activists are working their butts off at present. Many (including me) will have attended protests supporting Palestine and sent emails to the Israeli Embassy.
Tautoko Viper
Good on you TV. It shouldn’t take much more of a push to get the Labour Party leadership to come out on the side of the Palestinians and call for the closure of the Israeli embassy. Already Labour’s potential coalition partners the Greens and Mana have made this call. Ask yourself TV, what would a Kirk or even a Lange do? In 1984 on the Labour Party coming to power the South African embassy didn’t wait around to be asked to leave, but shut up shop and fled the country. TV what you don’t want is your party to be on the wrong side of history this time.
Yesterday I went to the rally in support of the Palestinians at QEII Square at the bottom of Queen Street, Auckland. I saw a number of Green Party and Mana Party banners and flags. But never saw one Labour Party one. Both Mana and Green Party have sent official spokespeople to speak in support of the Palestinians.
On the 16th of August the organisers have called for an even bigger rally and march starting from Aotea Square. Will Labour be there? All political parties have been invited to send official representatives and spokespersons. Labour is the biggest Left Party, TV if Labour Party activists and supporters were as sincere as you claim they could rally far greater numbers than the Green and Mana Parties combined, and make this rally the success it should be. Will we see David Shearer take the speakers platform? Or will it be another no-show?
I hope you are doing all this protest etc for genuine altruistic honest reasons and not just to get some political capital for the coming elections. Your dissing of Labour and demanding that they should do this and that just as the Greens and Mana are doing makes me suspicious of your motives.
Jenny’s regular corrosive style misses the target by singling out mickysavage who has actually made a number of supportive and obviously sincere statements against the Gaza massacre here on The Standard.
Labour as a Party at top level certainly needs to step out of the ‘safe zone’ of underplaying the asymmetrical nature of the Israeli occupation. Sending the ambassador home is a symbolic move but one I support, and putting pressure on the US rather than cheerleading like Key and McCully.
The most important two practical things Kiwis can do is support Kia Ora Gaza with donations for medical aid and become informed and start hitting Israeli business and enablers in the bank account via BDS (Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions). Notice how quick the brief halt to international flights into Tel Aviv got the corporates squealing.
Jenny’s regular corrosive style misses the target by singling out mickysavage who has actually made a number of supportive and obviously sincere statements against the Gaza massacre here on The Standard.
Tiger Mountain
Yet the party he supports has been missing in action. At the protest in Queen Street yesterday I saw a number of Green Party and Mana Party flags but not any of the Labour Party. And both Mana and the Green Party have sent official spokespersons to address these rallies and speaking in support of Palestinians.
Yet Labour is the biggest and most influential party on the Left and could if they were sincere rally many more people to these rallies than either Mana or the Greens.
This tells me that there is a serious default in leadership being shown by influential Labour Party activists like Greg and others like him.
If they were really sincere then they should have the courage of their convictions and be calling for their party leaders to promise to close the embassy. You almost sense that David Shearer wants to make that call and knows that this is necessary if you are serious in opposing the massacre in Gaza, but that he is not getting the support he needs from his party. Leaders must lead but they can’t do that in a vacuum. And with Greg Presland and presumably others opposing this call he won’t.
FFS Jenny your corrosive style of commenting is really unhelpful. I was door knocking and getting people on the roll yesterday. I have been on protests in the past and I have followed the issue for years.
Disagreeing with you on one particular action point does not make me a conservative sellout.
mickysavage
First of all Greg I haven’t accused you of being a conservative sellout, don’t put words in my mouth that I never said.
But it is not just one action point, the trouble Greg, is this is all part of a very worrying pattern.
The same as climate change, you can write dozens of articles on climate and inches of type about how dreadful it is, but when it comes to the crunch, refuse to advocate doing anything about it, and go all silent.
I think the key words in your statement above are “action point” it is ACTION that the modern Labour Party seems to have some allergic reaction to.
For goodness sake Greg, Norman Kirk wasn’t satisfied to just rail on about how awful French nuclear testing at Muruoa atoll was, (he could have done), he did something about it, he sent a gruddy great warship there to protest against it.
Greg your party will have a chance to redeem itself on the 16th of August in Auckland’s Aotea Square.
Will the Labour Party rally their members to turn up?
Will the Labour Party take up their invited place on the official speakers platform?
Will Labour join Mana and the Greens in calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy?
I know you won’t answer Greg, but the whole country will get to see your answer on the day.
[lprent: You appear to be harassing and haranguing one of my authors again because they don’t think exactly the same as you do. I really don’t have time for it at present. I’m trying to move the server.
The server is now at its new (ie cheaper) home. It was going to be the backup server, but when I tested the UFB and looked at the costs, it turned out to be better here and to make the AWS system the backup.
Fortune magazine quotes Jim Johnson of the Standish Group saying 90 percent of ERP projects are either late or over budget. He says: “Your chances of coming in on time and on budget are statistically zero“
SAP has an interesting track record including being successfully sued by Waste Management for fraud after selling the company a US$100 million ERP system described as a complete and utter failure.
So, on the surface, it appears government is willing to entrust the backbone of our economy to a company and industry with a track record of spectacular failure.
When are we going to accept that it’s just to risky and expensive to have private contractors doing the government’s IT work?
What is the solution then? Bill Bennett clearly didn’t offer one. Just scaremongering.
The main IRD tax system, called FIRST, is many decades old, and from what I’ve seen difficult to maintain – the code is COBOL and finding experts in that area gets more difficult each year – and law changes are difficult to implement, see Kiwisaver and Student Loans. Support by third parties might stop.
So at some point the system has to be replaced.
Some areas within IRD are already off the main tax system, for example the Kiwisaver administration, which interestingly runs on SAP. Did you read anywhere, that this project was over budget, over time or didn’t meet the expectation of the client/IRD?
There are thousands of SAP projects around the world and – of course – the failures get a lot more press than the successes (even if you work within the industry).
As far as I know, the only other software option for the FIRST replacement is Oracle. The project to move student loans within IRD to Oracle was, after spending significant amount and efforts, cancelled.
Over the years I’ve been involved in many projects like this one. The success/failure simply depends on (high level):
Quality, expertise of the System Implementer (SI),
Business input (here not only IRD, but also the government for example by simplifying the framework, like tax laws)
Over the years both points might have gone a bit “downhill”, because of (supposedly) cheaper off-shore models, like customer-specific development in India, and larger scopes and complexities, like more sophisticated products, more customer channels etc.
A government IT department tasked with supplying all government departments with their IT needs. This would have a number of advantages:
Build up of institutional knowledge which will produce better software (Addresses your Quality, expertise of the System Implementer)
Better integration across the whole of government (Better for statistical purposes and sharing of data when needed)
Software would be developed over time removing the problems brought about by the sudden upgrade process that we have now
It would be cheaper (No profit to cover and keeping a few people fully employed will cut costs associated with the sudden upgrade process as well as removing the added costs of proprietary software)
Removal from the constraints of proprietary software (government shouldn’t be limited by the software it uses because of IP ownership)
Everything you say there reinforces what I said. A continual small iterative process would remove the major failures and the government, as a whole, is large enough to support a dedicated IT department.
What you say is true. But that’s the nature of big long projects. The answer is – don’t have big long projects. They are too complex and requirements will always change if a project is dragging out 4, 5, 6 years long. Governments change, Ministerial heads change, of course there will be requirements changes.
Simplifying our tax system down would also be very beneficial.
The specific answer is to use a development methodology that de-risks big long projects.
Big problems require big complicated solutions by their very nature. Big complicated solutions take a long time to write.
Agile methodologies de-risk long projects by (effectively) breaking them up into many many many small projects. That way if one small project fails, you find out about it early and have a chance to determine why it failed and what needs to be done differently to ensure that future projects don’t fail.
now that’s talking sense. (Wouldn’t hurt to have a whole lot of the capabilities in house either as opposed to knocking on Accenture’s door every time etc…)
it also helps to have IT project managers rather than working parties on the govt side, and ministers who read the fine print before signing go-live authorisation. And the ministers should know that “mission critical” is important.
How dishonest, or at best unartful, can Q + A become ?
Shearer interviewed on Gaza. That was his billing. Gaza.
The Panel – Robinson, Farrar, Reid.
Reid addresses Shearer’s Gaza comments.
Farrar disagrees. Not sure with whom or about what precisely.
Robinson barely acknowledges Gaza. What ? Supposedly she’s there to offer response to Shearer’s comments, on Gaza. The headline under which Q + A billed him.
But no. She and Farrar committedly engage one another in lively depiction of Shearer as leadership aspirant. So quickly and so thoroughly that you’d think it was planned. Wood chirps in merrily – about Shearer as leadership aspirant.
This perfectly reflects (1) the bankruptcy of Q + A as but a Sunday morning shill show for National Party status-quoism, and (2) the never spoken springboard of western media editorial that Palestinians matter less. The murder figures ? Profess horror and move on. Robinson of course is worse. She doesn’t even profess horror.
Reid’s identification of Robinson as “spin-woman”. Spot on !
Reid is one of the few authentic political commentators in NZ. The Robinsons and the Millers, Wood et al are pure frippery. Delivered with (mock) solemnity as to suggest authority. Except for Wood whose number is the perpetually affixed condescending smile, tending to smirk.
+1
I had anticipated the pundits having to create a new narrative about Labour’s polling, but they skirted that; Robinson even resorted to the old ‘polls bounce around’ defence.
Q and A, particularly when they have half -wit, biased, pro-Right wing, pro-National, anti-Labour, anti-Cunliffe commentators like Clair Robinson, turns into a time wasting unfair gossip session rather than a genuine balanced political programme. Reid HAD to pull the other two twits in line for their uncalled for anti Cunliffe comments and he did! Reid is good. Farrar is ok and tolerable. But Robinson is a completely biased irritating idiot.
Haven’t been able to watch all the way through it yet. But this rehash of Labour leadership in the election campaign- following on from Mallard’s fucking “David Cunliffe is the Labour leader. David Cunliffe is the Labour leader.”
Cunliffe hasn’t been able to unite all the caucus groups yet, but if it comes out that Grant Robertson isn’t doing all he can to stomp on this in the run up to the election, well, I guess my disappointment in him allowing Shearer to become leader the first time will only be amplified enormously.
in reply to Clem : Farrar is good at what he does, and not a twit unless it seems very very necessary. As for the rest…eck.
Well, when one side is dominating…
Or am I being completely sucked into a National play to make what is an enormous strength for Labour- a moral foreign policy with an experienced minister- about the leadership?
Flag-burning is an outrage, scream the extreme right.
Burning children, bombing hospitals? Not a problem.
Mediawatch, Radio NZ National, Sunday 3 August 2014
If you have a taste for the moronic, the insane and the disturbing, then you may well be familiar with the public utterances of one Dennis Prager. This fellow is a deranged lunatic who has achieved a cult status in the United States simply because he is so stupid. In appearance and style, he is like one of the bizarre occasional eccentrics in The Simpsons, or perhaps one of the deluded characters dreamed up and perfected by Steve Coogan or Ricky Gervais. In fact, Prager is so unintentionally hilarious that he might even have been dreamed up by Peter Cook himself. Dennis Prager is to public discourse as Binyamin Netanyahu is to statesmanship, and Lance Armstrong is to sportsmanship: he is a mockery, an insult, a vexation, a screaming nutjob who reads nothing and knows nothing. He is, in other words, the American version of errrrr, ummmmm, Leighton Ummmm, errrrrrr, uuuummmmm, Smith.
So who better to learnedly discuss the massacre in Gaza? Dennis Prager was the guest of NewstalkZB’s drivetime shockjock Larry “Lackwit” Williams last Monday 28th July. He was in vintage form. “Looking at things from my perspective, which I think is the position of moral clarity,” he explained to the head-nodding Lackwit, all of the conflict in the world comes down to “West versus non-west, weak versus strong, white versus non-white.” Prager raved on for a long time in this erudite manner. Not once was the stream of lunacy challenged by Lackwit Williams.
In fact, throughout the week, Lackwit Williams treated his listeners to his own views on the conflict. They were, as you might expect, pretty much identical to Dennis Prager’s, except that Williams is not as absolutely depraved as Prager; he did acknowledge that Israel had committed atrocities. Not that that little quibble was going to derail his prepared speech….
LARRY WILLIAMS: The bombing of Gaza is just appalling…. but while it is unforgivable, it is also unforgivable that Hamas uses human shields.
That’s a lie, of course, straight from the Israeli government’s propagandists. It has been refuted time and again, including by the comprehensive U.N. inquiry into the 2008-9 massacre in Gaza. Not that Larry Lackwit Williams, or Cameron Slater, or any of the other “friends of Israel” that infest the media would care about that.
On Maori TV, Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson was vapouring about how she finally was forced to think about what was happening to the people of Gaza by the sight of UN spokesman Chris Gunness breaking down on camera. “It takes a middle class white guy to cry before we start taking notice,” she barked. “What does that say about us?”
Of course, seeing that she hadn’t taken any notice of the suffering of Gaza’s people before last week, it hardly comes as a surprise to find that she has not taken any notice of the shameful quality of “reporting” of the massacre by the likes of CNN, ITV and the British state broadcaster. Asked what she had to say about TV3 reporter Mike McRoberts’ deservedly praised performance in Gaza, she hesitated for a while, in order to make it clear she was thinking deeply about what she was about to say. Then she spoke. “He has done a pretty good job,” she said, carefully. “But I’m not sure I would have sent him, when the media organizations TV3 is lined up with would have handled it thoroughly anyway.”
So there we are: this is the standard of media commentary we are served up day after day, week after week. Unhinged lunatics from the farthest fringes of the right wing in the United States, Larry “Lackwit” Williams and his silly ignorant guests on The Cauldron, and a media “expert” (Janet Wilson) who obviously has not watched any of the media she is paid to comment on.
Of course, to the extremists, there was only one issue during the protest marches against the Israeli aggression in Gaza. It wasn’t the bombing of schools and hospitals and the killing of men, women and children. They applaud all that. What exercised these moral leaders was the outrageous sight of an Israeli flag being burned. I sent the following email to Wallace Chapman…..
It’s not “unfathomable” that the right focuses on flag-burning
Dear Wallace,
On Mediawatch this morning, Colin Peacock claimed that the obsession of the extreme right with flag-burning is “unfathomable”. Actually, it’s perfectly logical. It’s a chance for the likes of Cameron Slater, Larry Williams and Paul Henry to distract from the issue, which is the burning of people, schools and hospitals in Gaza.
As Laila Harre showed when she silenced Paul Henry’s objections by insisting that he focus on the issue of the protests—the ongoing death and destruction being inflicted on the citizens of Gaza—the extreme right has no coherent answer when it is presented with the facts.
“On Maori TV, Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson was vapouring about how she finally was forced to think about what was happening to the people of Gaza by the sight of UN spokesman Chris Gunness breaking down on camera. “It takes a middle class white guy to cry before we start taking notice,” she barked. “What does that say about us?”
Ghastly is right! Speak for yourself, Jan, not ‘us’. Unless by ‘us ‘ you mean vapid, shrill righties, in which case go ahead.
A little story about the wife, Janet Wilson and hubby, Bill Ralston.
Once upon a time (maybe 10 or 12 years ago now) there was a dairy in the locality where I live. It was just and ordinary dairy (or so I thought) and one quiet Sunday afternoon I was sitting nearby in my car when I saw the above loving couple having what appeared to be a very earnest discussion or domestic dispute outside the dairy in question. Eventually the problem (whatever it was) was solved and loving wife disappeared inside the dairy. Hubby wandered self-consciously off in the opposite direction and I was left wondering what it was all about because their demeanour appeared cagey -almost clandestine. Several months later the dairy in question was raided by the police for illegal party drugs. The penny dropped.
@Ergo Robertina
Distasteful slur? – rubbish! It was an interesting and humorous aside about two well known people prompted by their names being mentioned by Tigger @ 8.1. Are you inferring I made it up? I don’t do lies like the “piece of smelly blubber” you refer to.
And thanks North and Chooky below. Good to have some reasoned commenters around at times like this. Perhaps the others had a heavy weekend. 🙂
Probably been mentioned befor, BUT, on my drive back from this mornings veg market among the nests of election billboards i got this message, ”Vote Positive”,
Ok, i will look for the positive party on my ballot papers in September, because at 40K which was the speed i was driving at that’s the message i got from the billboard along with a splash of color which might or might not have been a picture of ‘happy families’,
Obviously, because i know it is, i can identify the ‘vote positive’ billboard as a Labour one because of ‘prior knowledge’, my point being, that those armed with NO prior knowledge wont have a clue considering the ‘cluster’ of messages that are on offer at the two nests of billboards i have so far seen in this electorate,
Are Labour shy or something??? what’s wrong with Big Red BillBoards that Yell in Big White Letters, VOTE LABOUR,
To be noticed in a crowd you have to be bold and loud…
Three weeks ago I emailed via the Labour Party website to ask about their welfare policy, do they have one and when will it be released. I was informed the next day my email would be forwarded to Sue Moroney (Welfare spokesperson) “for her consideration”. I love that, apparently a straightforward, simple question needs to be “considered”. I have had no reply from ANYONE.
I would love to be generous and say that the email genuinely got lost, but it wasn’t. Labour has a welfare policy all right and that’s to totally avoid the subject. That’s been obvious for years, continuing the cuts of the 1990s, their deafening silence in “opposition” to the last 6 years of NACT cruelty, and more recently their refusal to engage in the subject when questioned in the media or blogs, here included (DCs question time for example).
Labour are in total agreement with National over welfare (read:benefit) policy and their attitude towards those of us who have no choice but to be dependent on it. The only difference is that National don’t pretend to hid their distain and we know exactly. where we stand with them.
Long term beneficiaries realised many years ago that Labour are no longer our friend and we changed our votes accordingly. Now it’s up to us to inform others we know on benefits, or who’s jobs aren’t safe and might be having to run the WINZ gauntlet in the near future, that while we need a Left Government to vote Greens or Mana. Labour don’t want our vote, they’ve done everything short of actually saying it our loud, and if we can get more Green/IMP MPs in Government at least we might stand a chance of stopping our situation getting worse.
Labour IS a very caring but also a very responsible party.
Labour do have a well thought out financially and socially manageable fair and reasonable welfare policy for beneficiaries, for families, for students, for super annuitants, for children, for mothers, for the poor, for the sick, for the homeless, for the unemployed etc. There aren’t unlimited funds to give unlimited rock-star assistance that you and I may desire. No responsible party can do that. For you to say that the Labour party is akin to the National party in its welfare policies is a lie.
Remember that it is a balancing act that needs public support too to be in a position to form a government to make the necessary changes. What use of having utopian wishes without the majority public votes and without being fair to the workers and everyone else in society too?
I think your plug for the greens and Mana is obvious, but completely unfair in your blatant attempt to diss the Labour party in this context.
P.S :
Just go to the Labour party website (google is your friend, even if you are a Labour foe) and READ their policies before firing off time wasting emails around or posting unjust comments here.
Have you contacted them before Kaye? Maybe they know you are not a friend. As Clem says, you can go to the website and find out anything you want for yourself. Why should Labour – who are in campaign mode and have been for some time now – waste precious time on someone who is too lazy to find out for him/herself.
According to the Labour website, this is a list of all the announced policies. Perhaps you could find the welfare policy for us Anne, because I can’t see it.
I think DC said at the last Q and A that Labour would announce welfare policy soon. That was a month or so ago.
Hi Weka – I’ve noticed your absence – Welcome back! 🙂
I have also searched for the Labour party’s welfare policy and it doesn’t appear to be there (apart from the Best Start policy). The Greens and Mana are quite clear on their welfare policies. I haven’t looked up the Internet Party’s policy yet.
One thing I am glad of is that so far unemployed people have not been used as a political football. Long may that last.
I very much appreciated Mr Cunliffe’s comments on the Q&A:
But what I can tell you is that the systematic victimisation and demonisation of beneficiaries we’ve seen under National has absolutely no place in Labour’s values or a Labour Government.
This is a heartening signal – yet, yes, it isn’t policy – which as Weka conveyed Mr Cunliffe wrote on the same Q&A session: “I’m not going to announce our welfare policy here.”
I don’t think Labour and National treat beneficiaries the same, although I can understand why Kaye feels like they do. However, Labour have an appalling history of welfare policy and implementation and despite some of the good things they have done that Anne refers to, they still suck for a supposedly left wing party. The only way that you can say that Labour have good welfare policy is by comparing them to NACT.
I too hope that Cunliffe’s Labour will pull something out of the hat before the election. I won’t be surprised if that something is fairly mediocre and designed to not give the impression that Labour are soft on bludgers. It also greatly concerns me that Labour’s welfare focus is so hugely on job creation to the point where they seem incapable of talking about people who don’t/can’t/shouldn’t work in paid employment. I will be very interested to see what they do with the shit being done to solo parents currently. Will Labour reinstate the right to stay at home and raise your kids, or will they continue with policy that says that solo parents need to be punished and bullied into work?
As far as I can tell DC believes that the solutions are in job creation. I’ve yet to see anything definitive about who should be expected to work.
And there has been nothing from Labour to make up for Shearer’s painter on the roof fiasco.
Labour are actually doing what I thought they should do – keeping very low key re welfare. I can see, however, that leaves those on welfare worried that they are going to be ‘just as bad as National’ and not reverse draconian approaches National have introduced. It is a bit frustrating because I can just imagine what shite Labour are going to get if they release anything of substance re welfare – and if they don’t they will get shite from potential supporters.
It seems like a terribly no win situation they are in.
Personally, I would prefer that they keep fairly low key on welfare -[ yet I can see there is a problem with trust for many. ] I would rather Labour went low key and got in and lost some of the welfare vote to Mana than come out fighting and get completely obliterated by the predictable vitriol that would set in from National and our uncaring Media and end up not getting in at all.
I realise this is a pretty sadly, fearful and conservative approach. 🙁
It could be that a strong message could be sent out to New Zealanders that welfare improvement is much needed (as it is) and a shift in peoples’ attitudes occurred however I would assume this would have been better started way earlier and Cunliffe hasn’t been leader long enough to have taken that approach. 🙁
At what point then should Labour actually reform welfare in a good way?
Labour won’t be as bad as National. I’ve argued pretty strongly on ts in the past that it does a big disservice to characterise Labour in this way, because it hides the reality that Labour hide behind their welfare lite reform that fiddles a bit and makes some things better but doesn’t change anything substantial (the hard core call this National stab us in the front, Labour stab us in the back). Based on previous Labour govts, what I expect is that a few of the harsher things Bennett has done will be rescinded, but many things will just have the hard edges sanded off them but essentially left in place. The culture within WINZ will swing back towards being human towards beneficiaries, but such change takes time and will never reach all staff and all offices. And they won’t make up for the shit entrenched in policy and legislation. I can’t see Labour doing much about the extreme institutional dysfunctionality of WINZ unless there is a distinct shift left. No-one will want to touch that.
Perhaps it needs to come from an organised ‘people pressure’? That way Labour can’t be ‘blamed’. It can be ‘sold’ as Labour being responsive to public pressure?
If Labour are going to make changes they need to address attitudes first. I think Cunliffe is doing well in that respect. If he keeps pushing the line that all people need to have a share in our country’s wealth and of fairness and also values and if his government actively creates jobs, then people have to start seeing that those on welfare are actually more victims of the system than ‘bludgers’. I really don’t think that is the case in most peoples’ minds yet, although I am open to arguments on that matter!
For people on invalids these concerns I have shouldn’t be such an issue – changes should be made straight away. I also think that treating those in relationships differently than single people needs to go straight away – this should actually save money on the ridiculous investigations that must go on all over this country. It could also be sold as ‘keeping families together’ because I feel quite certain that welfare for couples must split rather a lot up.
That is a bit rough. They should have at least told Kaye they hadn’t released it yet. Kaye is showing interest and democratic responsibility in contacting Labour to find out what they are offering. If we all did that, then our democracy would be achieving more sound results!
@ Kaye
Good one for your efforts Kaye! 🙂
Hope Labour’s poor response/non-response doesn’t put you off completely – I wrote to them asking about their stance on broadcasting a few weeks ago and got an extremely quick reply – surprisingly so. They only told me that there was a policy release in the pipeline – no details, which is what they should have done for you too – hopefully they will…eventually. Good communication is very important. 🙂
Have a read of Kaye @10. He/she was being provocative, judgmental and in the case of the following quote from the same post :
Labour are in total agreement with National over welfare (read:benefit) policy and their attitude towards those of us who have no choice but to be dependent on it. The only difference is that National don’t pretend to hide their disdain and we know exactly where we stand with them.
totally wrong.
The facts are far more likely to be… they are saving the Welfare policy package in order for it to have maximum impact, and to reduce the ability of National and the MSM being able to distort, misrepresent and generally pillory the policy as well as the beneficiaries themselves.
We’ve seen more than enough of the deplorable discrediting tactics coming from the Tories and the MSM in recent times without having the very people Labour wants to help ensuring they succeed.
Btw, I was a beneficiary in the 1990s – the Christine Rankin era – and I know all about the bullying, humiliation and thuggery that took place at the time. And Helen Clark’s Labour government took immediate steps to remove Rankin and overturn the culture of bullying etc. that prevailed.
Yes, I have commented in other threads I, too, have been on welfare when the government has changed. There is a noticeable difference between the two parties – one is much more likely to get off welfare under Labour because there is more assistance to help you do that – generally more helpful and less hostile under Labour.
[There is such a difference I have to admit to having a few moments of feeling sorry for WINZ staff with the latest round of draconian changes! They are encouraged to establish a rapport with you and then suddenly they have to change their entire attitude and leave you stranded when National do their shite. It can’t be very good working conditions at WINZ. Not easy to just quit either – considering the dreadful levels of unemployment – that they know all about!]
I, therefore, also get annoyed when people say Labour and National are ‘just the same’. [Not saying there is not room for improvement re Labour!] However, Labour should be organised and communicative with people writing in to find things out about their policies. If only to say ‘we haven’t released the policy yet’. It makes a big difference if one gets quick and friendly response.
@clemgeopin
I have been to their website. I looked, and I’ve been looking regularly for months. If there’s something there I can’t find it. If it is there can you please link it for me? If they have a policy then there’s a lot of us who would like to study it so we can make an informed vote. Why is it so hard to even get an answer from them about their policy??
btw,a welfare policy isn’t just about money, it’s about how people are treated by the system and the community as a whole. I’d like to know if a Labour govt would reverse the general cruelty that anyone unfortunate enough needing WINZ assistance now has to deal with, for example. You know, consider us as human beings. The fact that they’ve been incredibly quiet about this is telling. Get my point? I’m happy to stand corrected of course. Believe it or not I’ve been looking for reasons to vote Labour, I used to. I’m not a member of Greens/Mana and until this year I’ve never remotely engaged in anything political and never thought I’d ever be posting on blog sites but this is something I feel very strongly about so I’m putting it out there.
And I’m not the only person with these views who’s commented on the Standard in the last few months.
Searching for the word “welfare” gives no results. However the very top of the page says this:
We will continue to announce policies through until the general election on 20 September 2014.
So you’ll just have to wait.
Labour are obviously not going to tell random people that email them the date on which they are going to announce particular policies, because that would allow their political opponents to arrange how they are going to respond, by example by releasing their equivalent policies on the same day, or the day before, to ensure they get total media coverage.
Labour’s policies will be based on its Policy Platform – which is on the official NZLP website.
If you just google NZ Labour Party Policy Platform, you should be able to get to it easily.
The Policy Platform has a series of Values which Labour will base its various policies on.
Start at page 25 and go on from there. Here is an example :
5.12 Chance and misfortune mean that some people struggle even in ‘the good times’. Security, mutual responsibility, and fairness demand that those adversely affected should not depend on charity and the stigma that carries, or be subject to humiliation or meaningless ‘make work’ to survive.
This indicates to me that Labour does care about how people are treated by the beaurocratic system set up under National, and intend to do something about it.
The Policy Platform goes on to say –
As a matter of principle and sound social and economic investment, Labour is committed to banishing child poverty in New Zealand. The solutions are not simple, and the goal cannot be achieved immediately. We will co-ordinate and monitor its approach across all of government and policy……..
Yep, its also called a comprehensive food in schools program and an equally comprehensive rebuild of the States Housing stocks so that the lowest income working families, those who are the last to be hired and the first to be fired, are all housed at 25% of their household income,
There is a point of measurable poverty judged in dollar terms, everyone who lives at that measurable point should be eligible to be paying no more than 25% of their income as rent,
I seem to remember Marion Street and another Labour MP, may have been Sue Moroney had been working on this very issue, i.e. the issue of how people are treated when they go into WINZ ………..looking at changing the culture, so people are treated with dignity and respect………I think they may have done this in association with the young woman who spoke up so bravely about her experience with Nelson WINZ. Correct me if my memory doesn’t serve me well.
I don’t think they have released their welfare policy yet. If it’s not on their website then this is likely the case.
The one thing we know is in Best Start, parents of new infants including those on benefits will be entitled to that $60.00 a week.
“I seem to remember Marion Street and another Labour MP, may have been Sue Moroney had been working on this very issue, i.e. the issue of how people are treated when they go into WINZ ………..looking at changing the culture, so people are treated with dignity and respect………I think they may have done this in association with the young woman who spoke up so bravely about her experience with Nelson WINZ. Correct me if my memory doesn’t serve me well.”
They were doing some work via the website. As a beneficiary there is no way that I would have answered their survey. It was unsafe, asking people to give details about negative experiences and identifying details with absolutely no information about how that would be used, or how the safety of those beneficiaries would be safeguarded. Made me trust Labour even less than I did before when it comes to WINZ issues. What do you think happens to beneficiaries who make complaints about WINZ who happen to reside in areas that have WINZ offices with vindictive and petty staff? Remember what happened to the two Nelson women on the DPB who spoke out about National removing the training incentive allowance? Paula Bennett dragged them through the media, including revealing confidential information from their files, and then told the Privacy Commissioner to get stuffed when they ruled against her breaching the privacy rights of those two women.
This is why I and others want to know what Labour intend to do, not just some nice sounding values stuff.
“The one thing we know is in Best Start, parents of new infants including those on benefits will be entitled to that $60.00 a week.”
That’s not welfare policy, that’s social security. What’s at issue here is how beneficiaries, ie clients of WINZ, are treated and supported.
Kaye, I have no idea why they did not reply to you. They should have. I am guessing that perhaps they get thousands of emails and letters daily from supporters, enemies, press, other parties, MPs, campaign workers, campaign personnel, etc etc with suggestions, queries, criticisms etc etc that they are simply unable to respond due to lack of time, personnel and resources. Perhaps they only answer very urgent/essential messages. I do know that for a major political party, the Labour party barely has enough funds and donations to manage a general election, unlike some other parties. Added to that, there seems to be a strong MSM unfair crusade dissing tide against it and its leader. That is why I get irritated when posters supporting other progressive minor parties too try to diss it. Sorry for being short in my reply if you were not one of those.
At least they replied to you saying they have sent your query to Sue Moroney, their welfare spokesperson. By the way, I have NOTHING to do with the party itself, except it is the party I like and will most certainly be voting for it.
Do post here when you find out what their ‘welfare’ policies are.
Also, can you state clearly what exactly you want to see in a welfare policy? I am curious to know.
Will Labour restore benefits to the inflation adjusted levels of pre-1990 benefit cuts?
Will Labour remove the institionalised prejudice inherent in its Working for Families policy?
Will Labour reintroduce a hardship grant that allows beneficiaries under significant financial duress to get adequate assistance?
What specifically will Labour do to reverse the bene bashing meme that has been allowed to arise both within govt and within NZ society? (that Labour has participated in in the past btw)
What will Labour do to reverse the bene bashing culture within WINZ?
What will Labour do to turn WINZ into a functional bureaucracy as opposed to the dog’s breakfast it has become in the past 25yrs? (including under Labour’s watch in that past)?
Which of National’s draconian welfare Acts and policies will Labour repeal or significantly ammend in its first term?
You can understand why some beneficiaries aren’t holding their breath about change under a Labour govt.
You use the same search techniques here as those applied to your wisdom on vaccinations.
Gaza could have developed the gas with Israel cooperation if Hamas had not taken power. There were plans well developed with Israel’s cooperation. But why would Israel boost the resoucres of Hamas? If Gaza residents nominate rational representatives who support Israel’s right to exist and give up on the terror, they will get their gas.
..the French did not lie down and take it from Hitler…there was resistance …so why should the Palestinians take it from the Israelis?…..really the West has to support the Palestinians otherwise they are acquiescing to a new Fascist Nazi force in the world
Because in 1939 the French were the good guys and in 2014 Hamas are the bad guys? Had you considered that difference just for a start? Or are you still addled from the influence of the anti-vaccine nutters?
with a line that I thought ought to be pondered by Trevor, Phil and Annette….
“…even years on and rightwing intellectuals still cannot accept that their certainties no longer make sense. Like old men at a bar, they block out the present and relive the moment when they were young and filled with audacious vigour…”
These kind of polls are good for a laugh, but all I’d take from is it that Nat supporters haven’t seen the email telling them to get onto it and vote ASAP. That and there are 6 Colonservative folk who were voting when they should have been in church. Colin knows your names, people. He Sees All.
Agree Ffloyd @ 15………I was commenting on this today………..English answering on his behalf in the final session of Parliament for the year and what a truly disgraceful performance it was dodging and fudging questions on child poverty……….
Then Joyce coming in. National’s strategy seems to be talk loud and over others, dick around about statistics and then say we are doing that already. Laugh at opponent in an attempt to ridicule and discredit them……………..
I have thought for some weeks Key looks tired and ???? possibly unwell? Could we see his resignation soon? If it is just after the election, it would demonstrate just how much National hold the NZ public in.
Learning more of his spin lines and trying to improve his brain fades and golf strokes.. And oh, perhaps the recent secret visitor, the FBI big guy, may have given him some urgent home work to do.
I think Clem’s on to it. Also the discovery there was a secret visit from an NSA engineer last year advising the GCSB how to intercept the Southern Cross cyber-optic cable. I doubt Key wants to be interviewed about it.
Michael Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow at Massey University, is interested in finding out more about the arrival dates of our two species of migratory cuckoos: the Long-tailed Cuckoo and Shining Cuckoo. If you hear or see one of these birds, please help by reporting it using one of the Google forms:
Long-tailed Cuckoo spring migration form http://goo.gl/ClBMWZ
Shining Cuckoo spring migration form http://goo.gl/CDjbuh
Prime News just had an article extracted from TV1’s Q&A where David Shearer didn’t rule out challenging for the leadership..it really makes me wonder about these guys and whether they have any political extinct at all. The fact that he answered that particular question in that way would disqualify him straight away in my humble opinion.
@ Sarrbo 5.55
Political “extinct” or instinct? While wondering which it occurred to me that this is clever satire. Are they ex or in? Is politics itself? And does anyone in Lab-our care, or is it all ‘our’ scientific experiment on the mumblers to see how much bullshit we can swallow?
Why would they comment on it? He can endorse whomever he likes. In any case, Lomu’s a wealthy man – of course he’s backing National. For the wealthy, it’s either National or ACT, and ACT is a basket case.
As a famous sports figure liked by the country Lomu should have better sense than supporting any political party and its leader, especially a crooked one like National party and its dodgy leader, Key!
Lomu has now come across as a right wing political pawn and a politically naive fool!
League player? Actor? Radio announcer? Married to someone with plastic surgery?
Please advise how shallow your hero worship is?
I haven’t bothered watching or following sport, most TV, or many aspects of popular culture for the last 20 years. The vacuous mindset and allusions that you display are usually not worth following.. But hey, we must feel charitable for those afflicted with such addictions.
He played rugby union and was supposed to win the world cup in South Africa, but the South Africans poisoned our rugby heroes (at least that’s what the coach claimed) and South Africa won. He then got kidney disease and had to stop playing.
I have no idea why anyone should give his political preferences any time at all.
@ lprent 7.38
I said to mickeysavage yesterday how it would be good to start off comments in the manner I have in this one, because you can nail who and what is being replied to. Nuff said.
Meh! Just a rinse’n’repeat CrosbyTextor gimmick from last election when it was Michael Jones. At least this time Jonah’s followers have put a flea in his ear.
Sorrylands a millionaire and serial philanderer who has damaged his health eating burgers with high salt trans fats refined carbohydrates bludging on the health system what role model for the right personal resposibilty and all.
He should be encouraging people to vote ACT.
Then he could go round to Dirty old Don,s place for tea discuss old flames philandering techniques and share a corned beef and frozen pea dinners!
Not the first All Black to be a Tory. One even became a NAct MP, but we shouldn’t talk about him. Doesn’t surprise me at all. At the All Black level it’s all corporate and they suck off the government tit. He’s just thinking them for all the corporate welfare.
Lomu is a sometimes official/sometimes unofficial rep of the NZRU. We’ve seen the stake in the ground from the NZRU, it’s on the cover of the Rugby News.
Me too. I am a rugby fan and have been since my dad used to wake me up in the middle of the night in the ’70s to watch All Black test matches in Europe.
The two incidents, Rugby News cover, and Lomu’s bought and paid for endorsement have really shaken me.
Thing is, at junior level it is not about elites at all, it’s about every kid, decile 1 to 10, no matter what the background. This is our patch, and why rugby should be totally left alone by politicians.
Oh, I grew up in a rugby family, but, (as far as I can guess) my parents voted National.
I used to like going to watch club rugby, and to the main match at Eden Park on Saturdays when i was growing up. But as a teenager, I went off it for years – for political reasons (mainly feminist ones – socially conservative and patriarchal values dominated rugby circles). But after ’81, I gradually got back to watching it….. off it again now.
I played cricket, rugby, and league when I was a kid. My interest waned when I stopped playing. I never watched them on TV. After all we had Eden park down the road and it didn’t cost much to go and watch a game.
After I moved cities, joined the army, started working as a barman, and did university (all at the same time), my interest completely died. There were more important and interesting things to do. And that was before I got seriously into programming.
It is quite prudent to avoid following and advocating representative sports.
Most often it is about people impeding other people from achieving their goals (or Try’s).
These days the sports persons are earning MILLIONS of dollars in fees and sponsoring, as well as sports has become corrupt and very suspect with match fixing and entwined with corporate crooks and tie wearing gangs from the gambling dens.
Every time I look at a game on TV now, I wonder how many millions have passed hands and if the results are genuine ones or just make-believe genuine looking stunts for gullible arm chair screaming suckers around the world including me!
Shanghai Pengxin, the controversial Chinese buyer of the massive Lochinver Station, was recently given conservation land by the Government, including parts of the Rakaia riverbed.
“Decision
Consent granted
Section 12(b) Overseas Investment Act 2005
Decision date 1 April 2014
Investment
An overseas investment in sensitive land, being the Applicant’s acquisition of rights or interests in up to 100% of the shares of China Merchants Pacific (NZ) Limited which owns or controls a freehold interest in approximately:
4.5112 hectares of land at Chatham Hill, Gulf Harbour; and
10.9114 hectares of land at Matua Road, Huapai.
Consideration $55,520,300
Applicant
China Merchants Properties Development Limited
Chinese Government, China, People’s Republic of (100.0%)
Vendor China Merchant Holdings (Pacific) Limited
Chinese Government, China, People’s Republic of (82.44%)
Various overseas persons (17.56%)
Background
The transaction reflects an intragroup transfer, which results in an increase in China Merchant Group Limited’s ultimate control of the target China Merchants Pacific (NZ) Limited from 82.44% to 100%. The rationale is to transfer the target’s property development activities from the Vendor (whose core business is developing toll roads) to the Applicant whose core business aligns with those activities.
The overseas investment transaction has satisfied the criteria in section 16 of the Overseas Investment Act 2005. The ‘benefit to New Zealand’ criterion was satisfied by particular reference to the following factors:
Overseas Investment Regulations 2005
28(c) – Affect image, trade or international relations
28(e) – Previous investments
28(f) – Advance significant Government policy or strategy”
Tolls roads brought to you by the Chinese Government! Criterion 28 (f) “Advance significant government policy or strategy indeed!” Stephen Joyce you are everywhere.
The forest sell off was too much WTF to start with and it’s getting late so will park this until tomorrow. Seems 12 hectares of conservation handed over to Shanghai Pengxin is the tip of the iceberg
Don’t you just love that 28(f) catch all? Thing is, the National Ltd™ government’s policy and strategy to sell off everything has never been made clear to the New Zealand public. Its starting to become more and more apparent though but, alas, too late.
…lets hope this becomes a BIG Election issue( Winnie was on the case this morning) ….Chinese corporate buy up of New Zealand land….China could buy New Zealand up millions of times over
….John Keys NACT govt is selling New Zealand and New Zealanders OUT!
You know, once, a long time ago Rhinocrates expressed his shock and surprise at something appalling in the Nat Govt’s long list of “shocking and appalling things we do to NZ”.
He expressed his surprise by saying “Well! my flabbers are well and truly gasted!” I’ll never forget that great line and this is one of those times where that line can be brought into use, again.
PS: Good links you provided yesterday re Jewish peace rallies held in NY and Tel Aviv in support of Palestine. No time to reply as I only got to Open Mike later in the evening. Onya Chooky.
I wonder if ministerial funds were used Judith Collins Jenny Shipley most likely involved.
This is the sort of corruption we read about happening in China every day.
Steven Joyce and Nick Smith are more than likely involved.
with all these extravagant expenses National MP are running up at the taxpayers expense!
Brain Fade Keys PROMISE of more accountability seems to be fading like his memory!
Is it too late? It’s too late to stop the applications that have been approved but is it too late to halt further “investments” that are not in the public’s interest?
Could the very deep well of darkness be exposed to the light of day by researchers for the opposition parties, pronto, before the election?
Agree Steven Joyce (especially roads and other infrastructure) and Nick Smith (forests)will more than likely be involved. They are agents of team knock off the lot. This could be a scandal of Collins’ proportions.
Are we “Little China” or are we “Little America”? Make your mind up Key.
That article actually says “It’s notable that one former MP, convicted fraudster Donna Awatere Huata, is back on the fringes of the Internet-Mana alliance.” It doesn’t mention “advising” at all, so I doubt your good faith in making your comment.
Given who the author is, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from the mighty Whalespew army had seen Awatere in Rotorua, and everyone knows Annette Sykes is from there!!
I continue to be disappointed with Labour. Now the dismaying news that they plan to “replace Careers New Zealand with a new agency to oversee a national careers strategy”.
“Funding for the Agency would be $17 million over four years…”
Funding for Careers New Zealand right now is $15 million PER YEAR. That’s $60 million over the last four years. Funding for the agency has been flat for nearly 6 years thanks to our idiotic National govt, which has resulted in a steadily reducing reach and staffing level as inflation cuts into their ability to perform.
Careers NZ ALREADY HAS a national careers strategy. What they need is MORE funding, resources and assistance to achieve it.
Instead, they talk of replacing a perfectly good agency, squandering resources and effort, and replacing it with a body with a quarter of the funding!
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
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 ...
RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are weshortchanged democratically by the way ...
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is to meet China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang where she might have to call on all the diplomatic skills at her command. Almost certainly she will face questions on what role ...
TL;DR:The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots – Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins – or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
Chris Trotter writes – The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crown’s media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even “celebrate” its existence (presumably as proof of Democracy’s broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. That’s a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldn’t have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkins’ newly appointed Chief of ...
Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
Buzz from the Beehive New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
Nick Matzke writes – Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
Thomas Cranmer writesLike it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins,Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Human Destabilisers: Russia now has a new strategic weapon – migratory waves of unwelcome human-beings. Desperate people with different coloured skins and different religious beliefs arriving at, or actually breaching, the national borders of Russia’s enemies can wreak as much havoc, culturally and politically, as a hypersonic missile exploding in the ...
Hi,After Webworm contributor Hayden Donnell wrote his latest piece, ‘RIP to Millennials Killing Everything’, he delivered this exciting and important bonus content.It will make more sense if you’ve read his piece.David. Read more ...
Hi,Before we get to Hayden’s column — RIP to Millennials Killing Everything — a quick observation.There was a day last week where it had suddenly reached 10pm and I hadn’t eaten all day. Hunger had suddenly gripped me with a panicky all-consuming force, so I jumped onto Uber Eats and ...
We add some of the CMIP6 models to the updateable MSU comparisons. After my annual update, I was pointed to some MSU-related diagnostics for many of the CMIP6 models (24 of them at least) from Po-Chedley et al. (2022) courtesy of Ben Santer. These are slightly different to what ...
In a memorable Pulp Fiction scene, Vincent inadvertently shoots their backseat passenger in the head. This leads our heroes Jules and Vincent to express alarm about their predicament.We're on a city street in broad daylight here!says Vincent. We gotta get this car off the roads. You know cops tend to ...
Primary, secondary and kindergarten teachers are all on strike today, demanding higher pay and an end to systematic understaffing. While the former is important - wages should at least keep up with inflation - its the latter which is the real issue. As with the health system, teachers have been ...
So the teachers are on strike, marching across Aotearoa today to press their demands for better pay and working conditions.Children remained in bed this brisk morning, many no doubt quite pleased about a day off school. Parents perhaps taking the day off to look after the kids, or working from ...
After the Cold War the consensus among Western military strategists was that the era of Big Wars, defined as peer conflict between large states with full spectrum military technologies, was at an end, at least for the foreseeable future. The … Continue reading → ...
Dairy giant Fonterra has posted a 50% lift in net profit to $546m, doubled its interim dividend, and is proposing a return of capital of 50c a share, injecting a note of optimism into the nation’s dairy industry. Fonterra’s strong performance is against a backdrop of market volatility. It ...
Buzz from the Beehive The bothersome economic news today is that New Zealand’s GDP fell by 0.6% in the December quarter, weaker than market forecasts of a fall of around 0.2% and much weaker than the Reserve Bank’s assumption of a 0.7% rise. This followed the even-more-bothersome news yesterday that ...
Ouch: Hipkins’ policy bonfire has resulted in an expensive self-administered removal of a Budgetary foot with an explosive device. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Bonfires can be dangerous things when they get out of control. They also create a lot of smoke and heat and burn the grass. ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – I teach a first-year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we ...
I teach a first year course at Victoria University of Wellington about government and the political process in New Zealand. In “Introduction to Government and Law”, students learn there are rules preventing senior public servants from getting involved in big political debates – as we have recently witnessed with Rob ...
An issue of integrity has claimed the first ministerial scalp in Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ premiership. Police Minister Stuart Nash lasted mere weeks in the role after admitting in a radio interview this morning that he had called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to ask him if police were going to ...
For some time now we’ve known that the cost and completion timeframe for the City Rail Link would increase. Yesterday we finally learned by just how much. Costs City Rail Link Ltd (CRL Ltd) today confirms it has submitted a formal funding request to its Sponsors – the Crown and ...
The Government’s decision to back peddle on lowering speed limits is hitting potholes. At this stage, although it is part of the Government’s reprioritisation efforts to free up money to alleviate cost of living increases, the speed limit change looks unlikely to do that. And it appears that it ...
The University of Otago – the oldest university in New Zealand – towers over my home city of Dunedin. When classes are on, something like a fifth of Dunedin’s population are university students. It is also the largest employer in the South Island. To say that this is a ...
Last weekend brought the latest instalment in Stuff’s bravura satirical series Of course you can afford a house! Just dig deeper!I love how much their appreciation of humour has evolved in just a few short years since the days when I would get to produce, for a few meagre dollars, ...
Australia’s move to strengthen its defence capability with five nuclear-powered attack submarines underlines how relatively defenceless New Zealand is in the Pacific. Kiwis may gasp that the Labor government in Australia recognises it must outlay $400bn on the nuclear subs, but this ensures that Australia is not exposed ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoa’s oceans. ...
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
The Government’s sharp focus on trade continues with Aotearoa New Zealand set to host Trade Ministers and delegations from 10 Asia Pacific economies at a meeting of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission members in July, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor announced today. “New Zealand ...
$25 million boost to support more businesses with clean-up in cyclone affected regions, taking total business support to more than $50 million Demand for grants has been strong, with estimates showing applications will exceed the initial $25 million business support package Grants of up to a maximum of $40,000 per ...
80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visas applications have been processed – three months ahead of schedule Residence granted to 160,000 people 84,000 of 85,000 applications have been approved Over 160,000 people have become New Zealand residents now that 80 per cent of 2021 Resident Visa (2021RV) applications have been ...
The Government continues to invest in New Zealand’s burgeoning space industry, today announcing five scholarships for Kiwi Students to undertake internships at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. Economic Development Minister Stuart Nash congratulated Michaela Dobson (University of Auckland), Leah Albrow (University of Canterbury) and Jack Naish, Celine Jane ...
The Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques travels to Melbourne, Australia today to represent New Zealand at the fourth Sub-Regional Meeting on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Security. “The Government is committed to reducing the threat of terrorism ...
The health and safety practices at our nation’s ports will be improved as part of a new industry-wide action plan, Workplace Relations and Safety, and Transport Minister Michael Wood has announced. “Following the tragic death of two port workers in Auckland and Lyttelton last year, I asked the Port Health ...
Bikes, electric bikes and scooters will be added to the types of transport exempted from fringe benefit tax under changes proposed today. Revenue Minister David Parker said the change would allow bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters, electric scooters, and micro-mobility share services to be exempt from fringe benefit tax where they ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will hold bilateral meetings with Fiji this week. The visit will be her first to the country since the election of the new coalition Government led by Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sitiveni Rabuka. The visit will be an opportunity to meet kanohi ki ...
The Government is introducing the Severe Weather Emergency Legislation Bill to ensure the recovery and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle is streamlined and efficient with unnecessary red tape removed. The legislation is similar to legislation passed following the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes that modifies existing legislation in order to remove constraints ...
Approximately 1.4 million people will benefit from increases to rates and thresholds for social assistance to help with the cost of living Superannuation to increase by over $100 a pay for a couple Main benefits to increase by the rate of inflation, meaning a family on a benefit with children ...
$1 billion in savings which will be reallocated to support New Zealanders with the cost of living A range of transport programmes deferred so Waka Kotahi can focus on post Cyclone road recovery Speed limit reduction programme significantly narrowed to focus on the most dangerous one per cent of state ...
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 Jingdong Yuan, Associate Professor, Asia-Pacific security, University of Sydney Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow this week has been more about reiterating China and Russia’s shared interests, and less about any concrete pathway towards ending the war in Ukraine. While a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney This May, Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco and her label Ngali will be the first Indigenous designer to have a solo show at Australian Fashion Week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney This May, Wiradjuri woman Denni Francisco and her label Ngali will be the first Indigenous designer to have a solo show at Australian Fashion Week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Robinson, Associate Professor in Housing and Communities, University of Tasmania Shutterstock Thousands of children end up being homeless in Australia without a parent or guardian. In 2021-22, 12,812 children (aged 10-17) were on their own when they sought help ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Robinson, Associate Professor in Housing and Communities, University of Tasmania Shutterstock Thousands of children end up being homeless in Australia without a parent or guardian. In 2021-22, 12,812 children (aged 10-17) were on their own when they sought help ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra There has been a lot of talk about the risk of financial contagion following the collapse of California’s Silicon Valley Bank. Perhaps too much talk. While the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra There has been a lot of talk about the risk of financial contagion following the collapse of California’s Silicon Valley Bank. Perhaps too much talk. While the ...
A Pacific elder and former secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Forum says Pacific leaders need to sit up and pay closer attention to AUKUS and the Indo-Pacific strategy and China’s response to them. Speaking from Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Dame Meg Taylor said Pacific leaders were being sidelined ...
The government says it should have details on which weather-hit areas are high risk within three weeks, and can then make decisions about rebuilding. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carly Tozer, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Dean Lewins/AAPLa Niña and El Niño are well-known terms in Australia these days. Linked to them are certain expectations: we expect wet conditions in La Niña and dry conditions in El Niño. These ...
Promoters say The Game has pulled out of his upcoming appearance at two legs of a new New Zealand hip-hop festival, continuing the Compton rapper’s sketchy attendance record in Aotearoa. In an announcement made on Facebook today, promoters Room Service say The Game, real name Jayceon Taylor, has “last-minute commitments” ...
Counter-protests are planned for this weekend as a controversial anti-trans campaigner speaks in two New Zealand cities. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull will be allowed into the country after Immigration NZ said the threshold to stop her had not been reached. In a tweet, Rainbow Greens, the group that released an open letter ...
We asked workers at some of our favourite food establishments to show us what they eat when the rush is over.This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter The Boil Up. Last week was Work Week on The Spinoff, dedicated to unpacking our relationship with the world ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: Who will drain Wellington’s lobbying swamp? Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in ...
65 percent of Kiwis surveyed admit they would have no idea what to do if their identity was stolen Norton, a leading consumer Cyber Safety brand of Gen, today announced the New Zealand launch of Norton™ 360 Platinum, which leverages the company's ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Breen, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images There might have been pragmatic political reasons behind the government throwing voting-age legislation onto its recent policy bonfire, but it remains a sadly wasted opportunity. The announcement reversed former ...
ANALYSIS:By Bevin Veale, Massey University The impending arrival of Kelly-Jean Keen-Minshull — aka Posie Parker — has put the spotlight on the tension between free speech and protecting vulnerable communities in Aotearoa New Zealand. In particular, it raises questions about Immigration New Zealand’s role in limiting who can visit ...
Wairoa has ready-to-go projects that could be accelerated to quickly get people back into homes following Cyclone Gabrielle, Minister Willie Jackson was told on a visit to Wairoa today. Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa is seeking a Government commitment ...
A new report published by the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union exposes the bad decision-making that led to a 61% cost blowout in Auckland’s City Rail Link and shows that the costs of the project now significantly outweigh any benefits. ‘The City Rail Link: ...
Immigration NZ has today confirmed that the controversial anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull will be allowed into New Zealand for her speaking events this week. You can read our report here – and the full statement from Immigration NZ’s Richard Owen to the media is below: “I can confirm that ...
Immigration NZ says it knows some people will be unhappy, but ultimately the threshold to bar Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull from New Zealand hasn’t been reached.The British anti-transgender campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, will be allowed into New Zealand this weekend, Immigration NZ has confirmed.Keen-Minshull’s ability to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Stevens, Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Adelaide Antarctica is an icy place today, but the ice extended even further during past ice ages. The question of how and where life survived on land in the icy continent, through the ages, has ...
Like a Tongan Cool Runnings, with trumpets instead of bobsleds, Red, White & Brass is a feel-good movie based on an incredible true story. First-time film producer Halaifonua Finau tells Sela Jane Hopgood how he got it made.In 2016, promising new Tongan producer Halaifonua Finau was sitting in the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Thomas Gleeson, Doctoral Candidate, Australian National University Luz Rovira / Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND In the 19th century, Charles Darwin was one of the first to notice something interesting about domesticated animals: different species often developed similar changes when compared ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katharine Kemp, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney New research reveals serious privacy flaws in fertility apps used by Australian consumers – emphasising the need for urgent reform of the Privacy Act. Fertility apps provide a number ...
The Fiji Times “The University of the South Pacific (USP) has been and continues to be a bedrock for regionalism. A resource owned by the region; for the region and a precious institution that needs to be protected in line with the vision of our forebearers.” This was the message ...
By Claudia Tally in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinean family who have been renting a property from the National Housing Corporation for the past 46 years have been served with a 24-hour eviction notice by a different owner who had obtained an eviction notice from the Port Moresby District ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s plans to cut back on spending could see the council quit Local Government NZ, the group that represents councils across the country. Stuff’s Todd Niall has reported that $400,000 would be saved by the move, with mayor Brown reportedly wanting to direct that money into other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Frederic Gachon, Associate Professor, Physiology of Circadian Rhythms, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland Gregory Pappas/Unsplash Some of us love to be tucked up in bed by a particular time every night, ensuring a certain number of hours ...
The government has launched campaign to help young people navigate break-ups with the long-term aim of preventing family violence, believed to be the first of its kind. ...
The government has launched campaign to help young people navigate break-ups with the long-term aim of preventing family violence, believed to be the first of its kind. ...
Sports can be hugely beneficial for children but there are still many barriers for trans kids wanting to play, writes researcher Julia de Bres.There’s been a lot of talk recently about trans athletes in high performance sport, much of which derives from a broader anti-trans project rather than a ...
A new documentary follows Amber Clyde, skateboarder and founder of Girls Skate NZ, as she works to rebuild her confidence in the sport while juggling solo motherhood.Amber Clyde remembers being bullied as the only girl at the skate park in Birkenhead – but these days all the same bullies ...
After dedicating years to helping young women find their confidence in skateboarding, Amber Clyde must teach herself how to get back on the board after the birth of her second child. But balancing the realities of being a solo Mum with running her own business means that her time is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arthur Immanuel Crichton, PhD candidate, Flinders University Relative of _Chunia pledgei_ named _Ektopodon serratus_ (top left), with _Wakaleo oldfieldi_.Reconstruction of the early Miocene Kutjumarpu faunal assemblage by Peter Schouten, CC BY-SA Imagine a vast, lush forest dominated by giant flightless birds ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is urging its 27,000 members and subscribers to have a say on Auckland Council’s proposed 2022/23 annual budget. Last week, the Ratepayers’ Alliance launched a new website to encourage public feedback. Backtobasics.co.nz ...
New Zealand distance runner Zane Robertson has been banned from all sport for eight years due to doping. Robertson, who is the holder of six national distance running records and a Commonwealth Games bronze medal, was tested at the UK’s Great Manchester Run in May last year. His sample returned ...
Alex Casey asks a psychologist why she was too chicken shit to wear a mask during the flight that probably gave her Covid-19. In the live action replay in my head, I can basically see, frame by frame, the moment that one of those puny little Covid-19 Koosh balls did ...
Social services and health & disability provider Presbyterian Support Northern (PSN) has appointed Joe Waru as its new Kaitohu Matua (General Manager Māori). The appointment will provide PSN with strategic leadership and advice as it seeks to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Veale, Lecturer in Media Studies, part of the Digital Cultures Laboratory in the School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication, Massey University Getty Images The impending arrival of Kelly-Jean Keen-Minshull – aka Posie Parker – has put the spotlight ...
Deputy Public Service Commissioner Ms Heather Baggott has today announced the appointment of Mr Andrew Hampton to the position of Director-General of Security and Chief Executive, New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS). The role of the NZSIS is to understand ...
Money isn’t everything. But for most of us, it’s easier to deal with anything else in our lives if we know the bills are getting paid. So when household budgets come under pressure from cost of living increases – especially when that includes the mortgage that keeps a roof over ...
The National Party will announce the first part of its new education policy tomorrow in the prime minister’s own stomping ground of the Hutt. Leader Christopher Luxon said the “Teaching the Basics Brilliantly” policy will see the curriculum totally overhauled, with a direct focus on reading, writing, maths and science. ...
In conjunction with Curia Market Research, the Free Speech Union has distributed a survey on academic freedom to academics across each of the eight universities in New Zealand. Respect for academic freedom is a statutory responsibility for universities, ...
Thirty years ago, after a marathon Parliamentary sitting, the Bolger National government passed the Maritime Transport Act which deregulated coastal shipping by abolishing cabotage. Cabotage was the practice which restricted the operation of sea, air, or ...
New reports out from the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) this morning show that in the year to June 2022, 113,400 people came off a benefit, the highest number since electronic records began in 1996. From early 2020, at the start of the pandemic, there was a large increase in the ...
A recent court action by Australia’s financial regulator suggests ‘greenwashing’ claims can expect far greater scrutiny – a situation likely to happen here soon enough, writes Steven Moe.Coal mining can seem like yesterday’s fuel – a relic of the last century, in the coming age of wind farms and ...
Grammy-winning pop star Lizzo will return to New Zealand in July for her first solo show on our shores. The singer, rapper and flautist (yes) will play Spark Arena on July 26 as part of her Special Tour. The last time she was in New Zealand, Lizzo was a festival ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trevor Ireland, Professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland MASCOT / DLR / JAXA How did life come about? The answer to this question goes to the very heart of our existence on planet Earth. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Unsplash/Olga Guryanova, CC BY Disturbing reports about botched cosmetic surgeries and injuries in Australia – from breast augmentations causing chronic pain to liposuction leaving patients with lifelong injuries – have sparked concerns in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Zylstra, Adjunct Associate Professor at Curtin University, Research Associate at University of New South Wales, Curtin University Shutterstock Fire management in Australia is approaching crisis point. Seasons such as the Black Summer three years ago showed how our best ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Geary, PhD Student, Deakin University Once abundant, woylies – or brush-tailed bettongs – are now critically endangered. John Gould, CC BY-SA Conserving native wildlife is a challenging task and Australia’s unenviable extinction record shows us we urgently need more sophisticated ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Pi-Shen Seet, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Edith Cowan University ThisIsEngineering/Pexels , CC BY-NC Australia continues to grapple with acute skills shortages. Businesses are struggling to find workers with the skills they need. Meanwhile, workers struggle to get jobs because ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robin Eames, History PhD candidate, University of Sydney Portrait of De Lacy Evans and his wife (1870)State Library VictoriaThis article contains references to anti-trans, colonial and institutional violence, and includes information about an Aboriginal person who died in the early ...
The new police minister has defended the government’s approach to dealing with crime, as new figures show just 32% of charges laid against young people last year actually resulted in a sentence. Ginny Andersen was promoted into the police portfolio on Monday after Stuart Nash was sent falling to the ...
The final IPCC report was unequivocal in its call to reduce emissions immediately but the government has no further news on how agricultural emissions charging will work, 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. ...
The Greens say climate change will be integral to the big decision this year. Toby Manhire explores the data. Devastating, global-warming-exacerbatedstorms. A new IPCC report laying outthe calamitous fireball hurtling our way. And a prime minister jettisoninga host of climate-aligned policies. There is plenty of material for James ...
Medsafe has approved applications for Ozempic to be used in New Zealand. How does this new drug work and why is everyone talking about it? What just happened? Last Thursday, New Zealand’s medical regulatory body Medsafe gave consent for Ozempic to be prescribed in New Zealand. The approval is for ...
An author on the death of a baby and "a calm respectful grace" The normal world was out there. The clocks and the jobs and the traffic and the mortgages and the death. Especially the death. Death in suburbia means funerals with piped fake Celtic music despite the fact ...
One of New Zealand’s brightest young netball talents, Paris Lokotui has returned to the court 10 months after a knee reconstruction. Now she hopes her tough journey back paves a better way for other Māori and Pasifika players. Paris Lokotui remembers the moment time stood still. The 21-year-old was playing ...
A month on from Cyclone Gabrielle, many residents in Muriwai are still living in limbo, unable to return to their homes "I can't look back because it's too sad. I can't look forward because it is too daunting." Kat Corbett's Muriwai home remains out-of-bounds more than a month after ...
The Climate Change Commission's chair says the Government's decisions to ignore its advice could weaken the country's most important climate policy. ...
Coconut plantations are far from being ‘natural’ environments, coconut oil is high in saturated fats, and, despite the advertising, most of the global supply of coconut oil doesn’t come from the Pacific Islands eitherOpinion: Coconut oil has gained a halo as a natural health product, with claims it can ...
Loading...(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],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. ...
‘
Labour and National Party activists and politicians must have a much higher tolerance level for genocide than most people.
Most people would reject the murder of innocent women and children on the first instance.
Come on Greg you can be better than this.
Stand up to the extreme Right pressure in your own party.
Do what ever it takes. Demand in the strongest terms possible (either privately or publicly), that your party leader David Cunliffe make a statement promising to cut diplomatic relations with Israel.
Gee Jenny I was expressing a personal view, not succumbing to right wing pressure.
My personal view is that diplomatic channels if at all possible should be left open. So I disagree with calls to send the Israeli ambassador home. And I do reject the murder of innocent women and children. Have a read of what I have written on the subject if you want proof.
Greg if you are of a certain age you will understand that you are using the same morally indefensible and bankrupt excuse used by the NZRFU and the Muldoon administration for keeping ties with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Greg you can keep up your liberal handwringing as long as you like, but by refusing to take a stand to match, your expressions of condemnation and concern at the massacre of innocents are hollow.
Come on Greg I expected better of you than this.
Weird. Having an internationalist perspective and wanting to preserve diplomatic relations is somehow support for Israel.
Ah, Jenny. Wallowing in the blood of the innocent dead to in order to make a sectarian and irrelevant attack on Labour. Quality stuff.
Yes, climate change must be yesterdays news.
More mileage in dead children than dead polar bears.
Lordy, imagine if a polar bear washed up on the beach at Gaza … Jenny Jackpot! Labour to blame, obviously.
You nailed it mate.
Climate change is not yesterday’s news, the same lack of leadership from the Labour Party we are seeing around that issue we see around the genocide in Gaza.
If Labour activists really started fighting for what they believe and convinced their leaders to come out swinging with policies sharply contrasted to National’s then we might see Labour’s electoral fortunes turn around.
As it is, how can there really be an electoral contest between Labour and National when both Labour and National agree on deep sea oil, fracking and new coal mines, and in foreign affairs on how to deal with Israel. The strongest thing the two parties disagree on most strongly in the eyes of the electorate is raising the age of Superannuation entitlement. If it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny.
Your disingenuity does much damage to your position, which increasingly looks petty, spiteful and coordinated, leaving you very much isolated, inhabiting the fringes of debate.
Good luck with that.
TRP and Alien – Jenny is saying something eminently sensible here. I agree with her. I don’t know what you two are trying to say, because all you’ve done is attack her.
Diplomacy doesn’t work with the Zionists. Latin American countries have taken the lead and are cutting off diplomatic relations. We should be with them, not with countries that do all they can to support Zionist aggression.
Not just a case of shoot the messenger, there are plenty of reasons why Labour should not come out calling for the expulsion of diplomats or the closing of the idf embassy.
One, it’s a big call to make, and the run up to a general election, without the benefit of departmental briefings etc.. is not the place to make ad-hoc/snap policy decisions, especially by the current opposition.
Second, there are other avenues open, such as calling the embassy boss in for a please explain, and to officially pass on the dissatisfaction of the NZ public over the idf operations and occupation of Palestine before reaching the expulsion stage, without which, would expose the Labour leadership to accusations of being unfit to govern.
I support the closing of the Israel embassy and telling them to only come back when they’ve negotiated a two state agreement, but after winning the election first and following due procedure after informed advice.
“Evil will prevail when good men do nothing”
The same dude who is popularly attributed to your quote.
Diplomacy doesn’t work with animals.
I’ve seen enough pictures of burned babies in my Twitter feed.
Weird. Having an internationalist perspective and wanting to preserve diplomatic relations is somehow a bad thing. (Nevill Chamberlaine’s ghost scratches his head in puzzlement that his critics could ever think such things as he eternally walks from the plane.)
Robert Muldoon’s ghost from 1981 creases his cheek and chuckles
Mickeysavage, with all due respect to you, and for your p.o.v. on this issue – I beg to disagree.
Israel will not “listen” to international pressure until the are made to feel international pressure by increasing isolation.
When the Ambassador is sent home – then Israel will feel that pressure.
When we stop trading with them – then Israel will feel that pressure.
When we cease sporting contacts with them – then Israel will begin to understand.
That is how the white regime in Souith Africa was made to “listen” to international pressure. Apartheid was finally destroyed when it was no longer tenable for the South African government of the day to preserve it.
Any message we send to Israel can be done through the U.N.
Thanks Frank. I will cogitate on the issue. At Uni I studied Advanced International Law and I agreed with the model that diplomatic channels should be kept open if at all possible.
I am more than happy if we stop trading and sporting contacts with Israel.
Cheers, micky! 🙂
Two out of three ain’t bad. We can work out the third option…
The World is Starting to Turn Against Israel! I srael must be called to account for crimes against humanity!
From Robert Fisk , the Independent
‘Dress the Gaza situation up all you like, but the truth hurts -The world is starting to turn against Israel’
“There was a time when our politicians and media had one principal fear when covering Middle East wars: that no one should ever call them anti-Semitic.
So corrosive, so vicious was this charge against any honest critic of Israel that merely to bleat the word “disproportionate” – as in any normal wartime exchange rate of Arab-to-Israeli deaths – was to provoke charges of Nazism by Israel’s would-be supporters. Sympathy for Palestinians would earn the sobriquet “pro-Palestinian”, which, of course, means “pro-terrorist”.
Or so it was until the latest bloodbath in Gaza, which is being so graphically covered by journalists that our masters and our media are suffering a new experience: not fear of being called anti-Semitic, but fear of their own television viewers and readers – ordinary folk so outraged by the war crimes committed against the women and children of Gaza that they are demanding to know why, even now, television moguls and politicians are refusing to treat their own people like moral, decent, intelligent human beings…..
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/dress-the-gaza-situation-up-all-you-like-but-the-truth-hurts-9641240.html
I don’t think that’s going to happen.
People supposed that the open nature of the internet would increase accountability, but all it does is clarify the ability of the powerful to act with impunity. A harsh lesson.
I disagree…..The internet is a powerful means of education and knowledge!.
…This is why we must all fight for freedom of access to the internet and oppose any attempts to censor or stifle it !
You can learn all you like. It makes no difference. You are a niche market.
Most people are posting inanities to Facebook, reading celebrity gossip or masturbating to violent pornography.
Projecting much?
Another hopeful sign…..Jews stage massive anti war demonstrations against Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians
http://www.globalresearch.ca/not-in-our-namejews-stage-massive-anti-war-protests-in-tel-aviv-new-york-and-elsewhere/5393512
Really? How massive are these protests? Probably a few hundred Hatnuah members out on a Thursday night.
@ srylands…Israelis and holocaust survivors speak out against Israel’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/01/all-6-former-israeli-secret-service-chiefs-slam-occupation-of-palestine.html
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/israeli-soldiers-testimonies-from-the-occupied-territories-2000-2010.html
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/11/holocaust-survivors-criticize-israeli-policy-towards-palestinians.html
They’re bigger than they were last time the Zionists slaughtered people in Gaza. If there’s a next time, they’ll be even bigger. When the outspoken supporters of Zionist terror are people as rotten as SSlands, Tel Aviv should be worried.
Yep, Chooky, although (in response to the excellent Robert Fisk) I’d say public opinion throughout the world has been slowly changing since Israel’s brutal invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and, much more rapidly, since its carpet-bombing of Lebanon in 2006 and, above all, its previous massacre of around 1400 Gazans in late 2008 / early 2009 (as with the current orgy of mass murder, the vast majority were civilians, with a sizeable minority of children – although, you probably know that already).
A poll was conducted in New Zealand around the time of the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, asking respondents who they basically sympathised with. From memory, 25% said Israel, 23% said the Palestinians, almost all of the remaining 52% chose the Unsure because I don’t have enough knowledge option, albeit with tiny minorities choosing either Both or Neither. So, bearing in mind the margin of error, roughly half unsure, a quarter sympathetic to Israel and a quarter sympathetic to the Palestinians. And that division of opinion was very similar to that in Britain, Australia and a few other countries (especially Japan, where the figures were, if I remember rightly, almost exactly the same).
I’d be surprised if that hasn’t changed significantly since 2006. All of the international polls carried out over the last 8 years suggest a major swing against Israel. There’s even been swing in the US, despite the uber-Israeli nuttiness of their mainstream media.
Having said that, there’s always existed a politically astute minority in western countries who have managed to cut through the barrage of Israeli propaganda over the decades. I’ve just been listening to George Galloway talk about the way he became active in the mid-70s and almost suggesting he was unique in this. But, despite a broad sympathy for Israel in Labour Party circles throughout the 40s, 50s, 60s (both in NZ, UK, Oz), there were always people within the Labour Party like my mother who saw things pretty clearly from early on. She became strongly sympathetic to the Palestinians as a teenager in Wellington in 1948 after reading reports of the 1947-48 Arab-Israeli War in The Evening Post, The Dominion and, above all, the Wellington version of The Standard, the Labour-aligned Southern Cross newspaper (published during the post-war period, through to the early 50s).
She said you didn’t have to read much between the lines to see Israel was carrying out a brutal ethnic-cleansing of the Palestinian population, complete with a whole series of massacres of civilian men, women and children. Same old Israeli mindset, never changes. Zionism, at least since the 30s, has always been about the proud, gun-toting Israeli Jew, using violence to militarily carve-out an ethnically-pure Greater Israel.
thanks for that swordfish…your Mother must have been very enlightened for her times in 1948!
…i only wised up when I first went to university in my teens and mixed with some socialist types ( lol) and read a book called ‘Is Israel a Colonial Settler State?’….up until then I was indoctrinated by the fiction best seller ‘Exodus’ and was very pro Israel, like many others then and today, because of the horrors of the WWII holocaust
..this is why i am so pro Internet freedom and free access for all …because you do not have to be an academic or a student to have access to information ( both the best and the worst)….if you search for it and inquire with an open and fair mind…you can see all sides of the story and make up your own mind…It has to be a win /win for world justice and peace in the long term.
“because you do not have to be an academic or a student to have access to information ”
That is right. But you still need an education to make use of that information. What you did with the “information” you cam across on vaccination was abhorent. You simply cannot be trusted to come to the right conclusions on anything. Your vaccination rantings make you a fundamentally untrustworthy person.
@ srylands lol…yes I am uneducated!….. so I let others speak for themselves including doctors and scientists and immunologists and Mothers of children adversely affected by some vaccines
….however as you are so venal and interested always in defending multinational multi billion dollar interests and profits….i guess this would interest you because there is BIG MONEY involved here:
Israel’s interest in Gaza Oil and Gas…
http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?273262-Armed-robbery-in-Gaza-Israel-US-UK-carve-up-the-spoils-of-Palestine-s-stolen-gas
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39050.htm
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/israel-wants-palestine-s-water-and-gas-1.1364615
http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/gaza-marine-offshore-field
http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-natural-gas-the-israeli-invasion-and-gaza-s-offshore-gas-fields/11680
Your existence serves as a warning of the consequences.
to be fair, it probably wasn’t education’s fault.
It was pearls cast before Swinelands…
What goes for you goes for the hordes of climate change deniers and World Islamic conspiracists.
There are more of them than there are of us.
You mentioned the holocaust Chooky. It has crossed my mind of recent times that the N—is were actually afraid of the “Jews”. That was the real reason for the “ethnic cleansing” in ‘Nasti’ Germany.
And when you look at what is happening today there is a correlation between 1930s Germany and Israel of today. Two cuckoos from the same nest so to speak.
Oh do kindly keep your antisemitism to yourself. The Jews of Germany were mostly all assimilated and consider themselves German. And don’t conflate Israel’s far right with “all Jews” – that just makes you a bigot.
What antisemitism? Be specific please. Your sense of vibe from the written word has been shown many times to be unreliable.
“And don’t conflate Israel’s far right with “all Jews” – that just makes you a bigot.”
Um Pop, Anne’s comment is right there. We can all see she didn’t say anything like “all Jews”.
Making up quotes – that just makes you a liar.
Me anti-semitic? It’s the N–is who called them “Jews” not me. I happen to have a number of Jewish relatives in England with whom I lived with for a few years. I have probably had a darn sight more to do with Jewish people than you have.
To help you with your comprehension:
I don’t blame most ordinary Israelis for the actions of their government.
I have never blamed ordinary Russians for the actions of their successive governments.
Nor do I blame ordinary Americans for the actions of their government.
And so it goes on… savvy?
Robert Fisk?? FFS and you ripped into me for linking to Breitbart?
And yet Israel manages to violate human rights with ever more impunity. All your talk matters not a bit, since both sides of the US congress have been bought, and that’s all that is needed to prevent Israel ever being held to account.
Palestine is simply not an issue that looms large in the minds of voters.
Q&A TVNZ this morning;
FIRST Union Secretary Robert Reid on the panel with (might pay to eat after the show) David Farrar, Claire Robinson–and David Shearer on the Israel/Palestine situation.
In my opinion on Q&A David Shearer came close to calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy, but is not quite there.
When asked directly whether he would recommend closing the Israeli embassy Shearer said that there is movement toward that around the world.
David Shearer also confirmed that what New Zealand does is influential. In his words we are “The mouse that roared”
This is where influential leading Labour Party activists like Greg Presland could tilt the balance. Instead Greg channels Murray McCully’s statements about the need to keep the communication channels open. Followed by a lot of moralistic handwringing in the exactly same vein as mickysavage
The moral danger for Greg and other conservative political activists is that the centrist political swamp they are wading through will see them left stranded with the McCullys and Keys on the wrong side of history.
Labour Party activists are working their butts off at present. Many (including me) will have attended protests supporting Palestine and sent emails to the Israeli Embassy. I am sure that I am not the only one who has wept in sadness and disgust at the inhumanity shown by Israel. Lashing out at others will not remove that pain.
A bunch of us will make sure that this issue is covered in Labour’s policy platform going forward i.e. that it is the Labour Party position that the Palestinian people have the right to a sovereign state including democratic and economic self determination without military interference or assault, sanction or blockade, which is exactly the same right that Israel has.
All very “aspirational” CV. But will you and other Labour Party activists be calling for a Labour led government to close the Israeli embassy?
Really? Are you suggesting that New Zealand break off diplomatic relations with the only democracy in the middle east? It is not going to happen. The crazed hate filled mug of Minto will strike zero resonance with New Zealanders. Just look at his face.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11296381
Why are you focussing all this angst on Israel? You could turn your attention to a host of countries that threaten liberty:
Russia
Egypt
Burma
Central African Republic
Just for starters. Go protest against them. Leave the beacon of secular democracy alone.
Quoth Shitlands: “the only democracy in the middle east“.
You have already been told that such a statement is a falsehood. That you persist in repeating this falsehood shows you up as nothing but a liar.
not the first time he’s been demonstrated as a liar, won’t be the last.
Um, Lebanon is a secular liberal democracy – if Israel is your yardstick anyway. And I’m protesting Russia like billy-o, shithead.
Neither secular,
In deference to religious Jews, no public bus services run in Israel on the traditional day of rest, except in Arab areas; aircraft operated by El Al, the state airline, remain grounded. Because Jews are not allowed to eat anything leavened or fermented at Passover, in memory of the exodus from Egypt, foods containing grain – even beer or muesli – have to be cleared from the supermarket shelves every spring. Instead of white and brown bread, they sell matzo – an unleavened cracker.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/religion-and-secularism-in-israel-unholy-conflict-in-the-holy-land-a-469996.html
or, if the RWNJ’s have their way, democratic.
Their proposal defines Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, where the Jewish people have the exclusive right to national self-determination.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.588478
Srylands
In terms of threatening liberty – you forgot (most likely omitted);
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
Ukraine
Georgia
and the United States of America.
The Israeli “collateral quotient” equates 4 MH17’s – and counting..
Go and do your own protesting against whoever you like, SSlands, but don’t demand that we do it for you. Get over your stupid sense of entitlement.
As for Israel being a beacon of secular democracy – what a load of shit. It’s a corrupt mafia state these days, with special laws for non-Jews, and lucrative property deals for Bibi’s mates. Mind you, I suspect you think democracy means helping the rich get even richer.
Good on you TV. It shouldn’t take much more of a push to get the Labour Party leadership to come out on the side of the Palestinians and call for the closure of the Israeli embassy. Already Labour’s potential coalition partners the Greens and Mana have made this call. Ask yourself TV, what would a Kirk or even a Lange do? In 1984 on the Labour Party coming to power the South African embassy didn’t wait around to be asked to leave, but shut up shop and fled the country. TV what you don’t want is your party to be on the wrong side of history this time.
Yesterday I went to the rally in support of the Palestinians at QEII Square at the bottom of Queen Street, Auckland. I saw a number of Green Party and Mana Party banners and flags. But never saw one Labour Party one. Both Mana and Green Party have sent official spokespeople to speak in support of the Palestinians.
On the 16th of August the organisers have called for an even bigger rally and march starting from Aotea Square. Will Labour be there? All political parties have been invited to send official representatives and spokespersons. Labour is the biggest Left Party, TV if Labour Party activists and supporters were as sincere as you claim they could rally far greater numbers than the Green and Mana Parties combined, and make this rally the success it should be. Will we see David Shearer take the speakers platform? Or will it be another no-show?
I hope you are doing all this protest etc for genuine altruistic honest reasons and not just to get some political capital for the coming elections. Your dissing of Labour and demanding that they should do this and that just as the Greens and Mana are doing makes me suspicious of your motives.
Jenny’s regular corrosive style misses the target by singling out mickysavage who has actually made a number of supportive and obviously sincere statements against the Gaza massacre here on The Standard.
Labour as a Party at top level certainly needs to step out of the ‘safe zone’ of underplaying the asymmetrical nature of the Israeli occupation. Sending the ambassador home is a symbolic move but one I support, and putting pressure on the US rather than cheerleading like Key and McCully.
The most important two practical things Kiwis can do is support Kia Ora Gaza with donations for medical aid and become informed and start hitting Israeli business and enablers in the bank account via BDS (Boycotts, Divestment & Sanctions). Notice how quick the brief halt to international flights into Tel Aviv got the corporates squealing.
Yet the party he supports has been missing in action. At the protest in Queen Street yesterday I saw a number of Green Party and Mana Party flags but not any of the Labour Party. And both Mana and the Green Party have sent official spokespersons to address these rallies and speaking in support of Palestinians.
Yet Labour is the biggest and most influential party on the Left and could if they were sincere rally many more people to these rallies than either Mana or the Greens.
This tells me that there is a serious default in leadership being shown by influential Labour Party activists like Greg and others like him.
If they were really sincere then they should have the courage of their convictions and be calling for their party leaders to promise to close the embassy. You almost sense that David Shearer wants to make that call and knows that this is necessary if you are serious in opposing the massacre in Gaza, but that he is not getting the support he needs from his party. Leaders must lead but they can’t do that in a vacuum. And with Greg Presland and presumably others opposing this call he won’t.
FFS Jenny your corrosive style of commenting is really unhelpful. I was door knocking and getting people on the roll yesterday. I have been on protests in the past and I have followed the issue for years.
Here is something I wrote in 2009. Here is something I wrote in 2010 after attending a protest. Here is something I wrote recently.
Disagreeing with you on one particular action point does not make me a conservative sellout.
First of all Greg I haven’t accused you of being a conservative sellout, don’t put words in my mouth that I never said.
But it is not just one action point, the trouble Greg, is this is all part of a very worrying pattern.
The same as climate change, you can write dozens of articles on climate and inches of type about how dreadful it is, but when it comes to the crunch, refuse to advocate doing anything about it, and go all silent.
I think the key words in your statement above are “action point” it is ACTION that the modern Labour Party seems to have some allergic reaction to.
For goodness sake Greg, Norman Kirk wasn’t satisfied to just rail on about how awful French nuclear testing at Muruoa atoll was, (he could have done), he did something about it, he sent a gruddy great warship there to protest against it.
Greg your party will have a chance to redeem itself on the 16th of August in Auckland’s Aotea Square.
Will the Labour Party rally their members to turn up?
Will the Labour Party take up their invited place on the official speakers platform?
Will Labour join Mana and the Greens in calling for the closure of the Israeli embassy?
I know you won’t answer Greg, but the whole country will get to see your answer on the day.
[lprent: You appear to be harassing and haranguing one of my authors again because they don’t think exactly the same as you do. I really don’t have time for it at present. I’m trying to move the server.
Banned 7 weeks. ]
Ta. She was getting rather tiresome …
So I gather.
The server is now at its new (ie cheaper) home. It was going to be the backup server, but when I tested the UFB and looked at the costs, it turned out to be better here and to make the AWS system the backup.
Thanks. Seemed like a smooth ride to the new home to me.
Frightening to see many right wingers yesterday and today calling for discussion on when genocide is permissible. This is in relation to Gaza.
A real step backwards in my view.
Are you ready for the next monumental government fuckup in IT?
When are we going to accept that it’s just to risky and expensive to have private contractors doing the government’s IT work?
What is the solution then? Bill Bennett clearly didn’t offer one. Just scaremongering.
The main IRD tax system, called FIRST, is many decades old, and from what I’ve seen difficult to maintain – the code is COBOL and finding experts in that area gets more difficult each year – and law changes are difficult to implement, see Kiwisaver and Student Loans. Support by third parties might stop.
So at some point the system has to be replaced.
Some areas within IRD are already off the main tax system, for example the Kiwisaver administration, which interestingly runs on SAP. Did you read anywhere, that this project was over budget, over time or didn’t meet the expectation of the client/IRD?
There are thousands of SAP projects around the world and – of course – the failures get a lot more press than the successes (even if you work within the industry).
As far as I know, the only other software option for the FIRST replacement is Oracle. The project to move student loans within IRD to Oracle was, after spending significant amount and efforts, cancelled.
Over the years I’ve been involved in many projects like this one. The success/failure simply depends on (high level):
Quality, expertise of the System Implementer (SI),
Business input (here not only IRD, but also the government for example by simplifying the framework, like tax laws)
Over the years both points might have gone a bit “downhill”, because of (supposedly) cheaper off-shore models, like customer-specific development in India, and larger scopes and complexities, like more sophisticated products, more customer channels etc.
A government IT department tasked with supplying all government departments with their IT needs. This would have a number of advantages:
Everything you’ve said would make no difference. See below. It’s not the issue.
Everything you say there reinforces what I said. A continual small iterative process would remove the major failures and the government, as a whole, is large enough to support a dedicated IT department.
Why speak about something you have no actual experience in?
The reason these projects fail, and the police system is a good example, is because the ‘customer’ requires changes after the project has started.
If you had some clue, you’d know this is what happened with the police system. Every time this happens, the bug/issue rate soars.
Projects should be agreed upon and delivered, then changes made.
The police project were making changes every single month, hence the massive delay with nothing working.
From what I’ve seen, I’d say this is happening in most govt projects.
What you say is true. But that’s the nature of big long projects. The answer is – don’t have big long projects. They are too complex and requirements will always change if a project is dragging out 4, 5, 6 years long. Governments change, Ministerial heads change, of course there will be requirements changes.
Simplifying our tax system down would also be very beneficial.
The specific answer is to use a development methodology that de-risks big long projects.
Big problems require big complicated solutions by their very nature. Big complicated solutions take a long time to write.
Agile methodologies de-risk long projects by (effectively) breaking them up into many many many small projects. That way if one small project fails, you find out about it early and have a chance to determine why it failed and what needs to be done differently to ensure that future projects don’t fail.
now that’s talking sense. (Wouldn’t hurt to have a whole lot of the capabilities in house either as opposed to knocking on Accenture’s door every time etc…)
it also helps to have IT project managers rather than working parties on the govt side, and ministers who read the fine print before signing go-live authorisation. And the ministers should know that “mission critical” is important.
http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/television-new-zealand-calling-to-have-mike-hosking-dropped-from-moderatingthe-political-debates#share
Here it is again. Please sign and send it on! Many thanks.
How dishonest, or at best unartful, can Q + A become ?
Shearer interviewed on Gaza. That was his billing. Gaza.
The Panel – Robinson, Farrar, Reid.
Reid addresses Shearer’s Gaza comments.
Farrar disagrees. Not sure with whom or about what precisely.
Robinson barely acknowledges Gaza. What ? Supposedly she’s there to offer response to Shearer’s comments, on Gaza. The headline under which Q + A billed him.
But no. She and Farrar committedly engage one another in lively depiction of Shearer as leadership aspirant. So quickly and so thoroughly that you’d think it was planned. Wood chirps in merrily – about Shearer as leadership aspirant.
This perfectly reflects (1) the bankruptcy of Q + A as but a Sunday morning shill show for National Party status-quoism, and (2) the never spoken springboard of western media editorial that Palestinians matter less. The murder figures ? Profess horror and move on. Robinson of course is worse. She doesn’t even profess horror.
Reid’s identification of Robinson as “spin-woman”. Spot on !
Reid is one of the few authentic political commentators in NZ. The Robinsons and the Millers, Wood et al are pure frippery. Delivered with (mock) solemnity as to suggest authority. Except for Wood whose number is the perpetually affixed condescending smile, tending to smirk.
Glad I didn’t watch Q and A North……………..have given up on it.
I will encourage you to sign the above petition if you haven’t. We need to take every opportunity to tell it like it is about the MSM!
Disgusting that they spun Shearer on Gaza into leadership (non) issue.
it was so so boring..
..parkyn is perhaps the most wooden interviewer around..
..(which perhaps helps form my view he should be fronting a handyman-show..)
..and one who always seems to be playing catch-up..to be not quite up to speed..
..to not have much of a grasp of nuance/big-picture stuff..
..(seriously..!..wood and hand-tools are his true calling..)
..and speaking of ‘wood’..parkyn and the compere together..talking..is hard to watch/teeth-grinding television..
..i/you actually feel embarrassed for them..
..but all in all..if you could put q&a into a pill..
..you wd solve the nations insomnia problems..
..(and it most certainly is not addictive..)
..tho’ i did like it when reid called wood a ‘poverty-denier’..
+1
I had anticipated the pundits having to create a new narrative about Labour’s polling, but they skirted that; Robinson even resorted to the old ‘polls bounce around’ defence.
i think we should all make an effort to weave ‘poverty-denier’ into the lexicon..
.it crystalises some wordy verbiage/arguments..
..into two words..
..arguably one word..if wed with/by the hyphen..
..and lets’s use the hypen more..people..!..it is such an expressive piece of punctuation..
..and hardly anyone uses it enough..
..you can also use it as a form of methadone..
..as you wean yrslf from the (ever-wretched/cringing) comma..
Q and A, particularly when they have half -wit, biased, pro-Right wing, pro-National, anti-Labour, anti-Cunliffe commentators like Clair Robinson, turns into a time wasting unfair gossip session rather than a genuine balanced political programme. Reid HAD to pull the other two twits in line for their uncalled for anti Cunliffe comments and he did! Reid is good. Farrar is ok and tolerable. But Robinson is a completely biased irritating idiot.
I think Wood and Christie are the most useless political journalists in NZ.
Clearly got there because they won’t ask difficult questions.
The basic problem is that these buggers are paid huge salaries and begin to love National and the right wing agenda for their own selfish reasons.
Claire Robinson. eck.
Haven’t been able to watch all the way through it yet. But this rehash of Labour leadership in the election campaign- following on from Mallard’s fucking “David Cunliffe is the Labour leader. David Cunliffe is the Labour leader.”
Cunliffe hasn’t been able to unite all the caucus groups yet, but if it comes out that Grant Robertson isn’t doing all he can to stomp on this in the run up to the election, well, I guess my disappointment in him allowing Shearer to become leader the first time will only be amplified enormously.
in reply to Clem : Farrar is good at what he does, and not a twit unless it seems very very necessary. As for the rest…eck.
Well, when one side is dominating…
Or am I being completely sucked into a National play to make what is an enormous strength for Labour- a moral foreign policy with an experienced minister- about the leadership?
Got as far as Reid- love it!
“Spin-woman and poll man” I would love someone to make this cartoon and run it regularly on this site, with Robert Reid as the ‘Stan Lee’ creator of.
Flag-burning is an outrage, scream the extreme right.
Burning children, bombing hospitals? Not a problem.
Mediawatch, Radio NZ National, Sunday 3 August 2014
If you have a taste for the moronic, the insane and the disturbing, then you may well be familiar with the public utterances of one Dennis Prager. This fellow is a deranged lunatic who has achieved a cult status in the United States simply because he is so stupid. In appearance and style, he is like one of the bizarre occasional eccentrics in The Simpsons, or perhaps one of the deluded characters dreamed up and perfected by Steve Coogan or Ricky Gervais. In fact, Prager is so unintentionally hilarious that he might even have been dreamed up by Peter Cook himself. Dennis Prager is to public discourse as Binyamin Netanyahu is to statesmanship, and Lance Armstrong is to sportsmanship: he is a mockery, an insult, a vexation, a screaming nutjob who reads nothing and knows nothing. He is, in other words, the American version of errrrr, ummmmm, Leighton Ummmm, errrrrrr, uuuummmmm, Smith.
So who better to learnedly discuss the massacre in Gaza? Dennis Prager was the guest of NewstalkZB’s drivetime shockjock Larry “Lackwit” Williams last Monday 28th July. He was in vintage form. “Looking at things from my perspective, which I think is the position of moral clarity,” he explained to the head-nodding Lackwit, all of the conflict in the world comes down to “West versus non-west, weak versus strong, white versus non-white.” Prager raved on for a long time in this erudite manner. Not once was the stream of lunacy challenged by Lackwit Williams.
In fact, throughout the week, Lackwit Williams treated his listeners to his own views on the conflict. They were, as you might expect, pretty much identical to Dennis Prager’s, except that Williams is not as absolutely depraved as Prager; he did acknowledge that Israel had committed atrocities. Not that that little quibble was going to derail his prepared speech….
LARRY WILLIAMS: The bombing of Gaza is just appalling…. but while it is unforgivable, it is also unforgivable that Hamas uses human shields.
That’s a lie, of course, straight from the Israeli government’s propagandists. It has been refuted time and again, including by the comprehensive U.N. inquiry into the 2008-9 massacre in Gaza. Not that Larry Lackwit Williams, or Cameron Slater, or any of the other “friends of Israel” that infest the media would care about that.
On Maori TV, Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson was vapouring about how she finally was forced to think about what was happening to the people of Gaza by the sight of UN spokesman Chris Gunness breaking down on camera. “It takes a middle class white guy to cry before we start taking notice,” she barked. “What does that say about us?”
Of course, seeing that she hadn’t taken any notice of the suffering of Gaza’s people before last week, it hardly comes as a surprise to find that she has not taken any notice of the shameful quality of “reporting” of the massacre by the likes of CNN, ITV and the British state broadcaster. Asked what she had to say about TV3 reporter Mike McRoberts’ deservedly praised performance in Gaza, she hesitated for a while, in order to make it clear she was thinking deeply about what she was about to say. Then she spoke. “He has done a pretty good job,” she said, carefully. “But I’m not sure I would have sent him, when the media organizations TV3 is lined up with would have handled it thoroughly anyway.”
So there we are: this is the standard of media commentary we are served up day after day, week after week. Unhinged lunatics from the farthest fringes of the right wing in the United States, Larry “Lackwit” Williams and his silly ignorant guests on The Cauldron, and a media “expert” (Janet Wilson) who obviously has not watched any of the media she is paid to comment on.
Of course, to the extremists, there was only one issue during the protest marches against the Israeli aggression in Gaza. It wasn’t the bombing of schools and hospitals and the killing of men, women and children. They applaud all that. What exercised these moral leaders was the outrageous sight of an Israeli flag being burned. I sent the following email to Wallace Chapman…..
It’s not “unfathomable” that the right focuses on flag-burning
Dear Wallace,
On Mediawatch this morning, Colin Peacock claimed that the obsession of the extreme right with flag-burning is “unfathomable”. Actually, it’s perfectly logical. It’s a chance for the likes of Cameron Slater, Larry Williams and Paul Henry to distract from the issue, which is the burning of people, schools and hospitals in Gaza.
As Laila Harre showed when she silenced Paul Henry’s objections by insisting that he focus on the issue of the protests—the ongoing death and destruction being inflicted on the citizens of Gaza—the extreme right has no coherent answer when it is presented with the facts.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
“On Maori TV, Bill Ralston’s ghastly wife Janet Wilson was vapouring about how she finally was forced to think about what was happening to the people of Gaza by the sight of UN spokesman Chris Gunness breaking down on camera. “It takes a middle class white guy to cry before we start taking notice,” she barked. “What does that say about us?”
Ghastly is right! Speak for yourself, Jan, not ‘us’. Unless by ‘us ‘ you mean vapid, shrill righties, in which case go ahead.
+1
A little story about the wife, Janet Wilson and hubby, Bill Ralston.
Once upon a time (maybe 10 or 12 years ago now) there was a dairy in the locality where I live. It was just and ordinary dairy (or so I thought) and one quiet Sunday afternoon I was sitting nearby in my car when I saw the above loving couple having what appeared to be a very earnest discussion or domestic dispute outside the dairy in question. Eventually the problem (whatever it was) was solved and loving wife disappeared inside the dairy. Hubby wandered self-consciously off in the opposite direction and I was left wondering what it was all about because their demeanour appeared cagey -almost clandestine. Several months later the dairy in question was raided by the police for illegal party drugs. The penny dropped.
Thanks for that very revealing insight, Anne. That marriage has been a tormented one for a long time….
Anne, this type of distasteful slur belongs on whaleoil.
I agree. Anne, not cool nor fair!
@Ergo Robertina
Distasteful slur? – rubbish! It was an interesting and humorous aside about two well known people prompted by their names being mentioned by Tigger @ 8.1. Are you inferring I made it up? I don’t do lies like the “piece of smelly blubber” you refer to.
And thanks North and Chooky below. Good to have some reasoned commenters around at times like this. Perhaps the others had a heavy weekend. 🙂
WTF is wrong with you, woman?! Antisemitism and now sleeze? Wouldn’t you be more comfortable on the far right?
Popsickle……keep your sick “anti-semite” intimidation to yourself. Sad old tory masquerading as a progressive you.
+100 Anne…we need to have realism brought to some television icons ..
Probably been mentioned befor, BUT, on my drive back from this mornings veg market among the nests of election billboards i got this message, ”Vote Positive”,
Ok, i will look for the positive party on my ballot papers in September, because at 40K which was the speed i was driving at that’s the message i got from the billboard along with a splash of color which might or might not have been a picture of ‘happy families’,
Obviously, because i know it is, i can identify the ‘vote positive’ billboard as a Labour one because of ‘prior knowledge’, my point being, that those armed with NO prior knowledge wont have a clue considering the ‘cluster’ of messages that are on offer at the two nests of billboards i have so far seen in this electorate,
Are Labour shy or something??? what’s wrong with Big Red BillBoards that Yell in Big White Letters, VOTE LABOUR,
To be noticed in a crowd you have to be bold and loud…
Three weeks ago I emailed via the Labour Party website to ask about their welfare policy, do they have one and when will it be released. I was informed the next day my email would be forwarded to Sue Moroney (Welfare spokesperson) “for her consideration”. I love that, apparently a straightforward, simple question needs to be “considered”. I have had no reply from ANYONE.
I would love to be generous and say that the email genuinely got lost, but it wasn’t. Labour has a welfare policy all right and that’s to totally avoid the subject. That’s been obvious for years, continuing the cuts of the 1990s, their deafening silence in “opposition” to the last 6 years of NACT cruelty, and more recently their refusal to engage in the subject when questioned in the media or blogs, here included (DCs question time for example).
Labour are in total agreement with National over welfare (read:benefit) policy and their attitude towards those of us who have no choice but to be dependent on it. The only difference is that National don’t pretend to hid their distain and we know exactly. where we stand with them.
Long term beneficiaries realised many years ago that Labour are no longer our friend and we changed our votes accordingly. Now it’s up to us to inform others we know on benefits, or who’s jobs aren’t safe and might be having to run the WINZ gauntlet in the near future, that while we need a Left Government to vote Greens or Mana. Labour don’t want our vote, they’ve done everything short of actually saying it our loud, and if we can get more Green/IMP MPs in Government at least we might stand a chance of stopping our situation getting worse.
Labour IS a very caring but also a very responsible party.
Labour do have a well thought out financially and socially manageable fair and reasonable welfare policy for beneficiaries, for families, for students, for super annuitants, for children, for mothers, for the poor, for the sick, for the homeless, for the unemployed etc. There aren’t unlimited funds to give unlimited rock-star assistance that you and I may desire. No responsible party can do that. For you to say that the Labour party is akin to the National party in its welfare policies is a lie.
Remember that it is a balancing act that needs public support too to be in a position to form a government to make the necessary changes. What use of having utopian wishes without the majority public votes and without being fair to the workers and everyone else in society too?
I think your plug for the greens and Mana is obvious, but completely unfair in your blatant attempt to diss the Labour party in this context.
P.S :
Just go to the Labour party website (google is your friend, even if you are a Labour foe) and READ their policies before firing off time wasting emails around or posting unjust comments here.
Have you contacted them before Kaye? Maybe they know you are not a friend. As Clem says, you can go to the website and find out anything you want for yourself. Why should Labour – who are in campaign mode and have been for some time now – waste precious time on someone who is too lazy to find out for him/herself.
According to the Labour website, this is a list of all the announced policies. Perhaps you could find the welfare policy for us Anne, because I can’t see it.
I think DC said at the last Q and A that Labour would announce welfare policy soon. That was a month or so ago.
Hi Weka – I’ve noticed your absence – Welcome back! 🙂
I have also searched for the Labour party’s welfare policy and it doesn’t appear to be there (apart from the Best Start policy). The Greens and Mana are quite clear on their welfare policies. I haven’t looked up the Internet Party’s policy yet.
One thing I am glad of is that so far unemployed people have not been used as a political football. Long may that last.
I very much appreciated Mr Cunliffe’s comments on the Q&A:
This is a heartening signal – yet, yes, it isn’t policy – which as Weka conveyed Mr Cunliffe wrote on the same Q&A session: “I’m not going to announce our welfare policy here.”
Thanks bl 🙂
I don’t think Labour and National treat beneficiaries the same, although I can understand why Kaye feels like they do. However, Labour have an appalling history of welfare policy and implementation and despite some of the good things they have done that Anne refers to, they still suck for a supposedly left wing party. The only way that you can say that Labour have good welfare policy is by comparing them to NACT.
I too hope that Cunliffe’s Labour will pull something out of the hat before the election. I won’t be surprised if that something is fairly mediocre and designed to not give the impression that Labour are soft on bludgers. It also greatly concerns me that Labour’s welfare focus is so hugely on job creation to the point where they seem incapable of talking about people who don’t/can’t/shouldn’t work in paid employment. I will be very interested to see what they do with the shit being done to solo parents currently. Will Labour reinstate the right to stay at home and raise your kids, or will they continue with policy that says that solo parents need to be punished and bullied into work?
As far as I can tell DC believes that the solutions are in job creation. I’ve yet to see anything definitive about who should be expected to work.
And there has been nothing from Labour to make up for Shearer’s painter on the roof fiasco.
+1 Weka. I can’t understand why anyone dependent on welfare assistance would vote Labour.
I agree with mostly all of what you say here.
Labour are actually doing what I thought they should do – keeping very low key re welfare. I can see, however, that leaves those on welfare worried that they are going to be ‘just as bad as National’ and not reverse draconian approaches National have introduced. It is a bit frustrating because I can just imagine what shite Labour are going to get if they release anything of substance re welfare – and if they don’t they will get shite from potential supporters.
It seems like a terribly no win situation they are in.
Personally, I would prefer that they keep fairly low key on welfare -[ yet I can see there is a problem with trust for many. ] I would rather Labour went low key and got in and lost some of the welfare vote to Mana than come out fighting and get completely obliterated by the predictable vitriol that would set in from National and our uncaring Media and end up not getting in at all.
I realise this is a pretty sadly, fearful and conservative approach. 🙁
It could be that a strong message could be sent out to New Zealanders that welfare improvement is much needed (as it is) and a shift in peoples’ attitudes occurred however I would assume this would have been better started way earlier and Cunliffe hasn’t been leader long enough to have taken that approach. 🙁
At what point then should Labour actually reform welfare in a good way?
Labour won’t be as bad as National. I’ve argued pretty strongly on ts in the past that it does a big disservice to characterise Labour in this way, because it hides the reality that Labour hide behind their welfare lite reform that fiddles a bit and makes some things better but doesn’t change anything substantial (the hard core call this National stab us in the front, Labour stab us in the back). Based on previous Labour govts, what I expect is that a few of the harsher things Bennett has done will be rescinded, but many things will just have the hard edges sanded off them but essentially left in place. The culture within WINZ will swing back towards being human towards beneficiaries, but such change takes time and will never reach all staff and all offices. And they won’t make up for the shit entrenched in policy and legislation. I can’t see Labour doing much about the extreme institutional dysfunctionality of WINZ unless there is a distinct shift left. No-one will want to touch that.
Perhaps it needs to come from an organised ‘people pressure’? That way Labour can’t be ‘blamed’. It can be ‘sold’ as Labour being responsive to public pressure?
If Labour are going to make changes they need to address attitudes first. I think Cunliffe is doing well in that respect. If he keeps pushing the line that all people need to have a share in our country’s wealth and of fairness and also values and if his government actively creates jobs, then people have to start seeing that those on welfare are actually more victims of the system than ‘bludgers’. I really don’t think that is the case in most peoples’ minds yet, although I am open to arguments on that matter!
For people on invalids these concerns I have shouldn’t be such an issue – changes should be made straight away. I also think that treating those in relationships differently than single people needs to go straight away – this should actually save money on the ridiculous investigations that must go on all over this country. It could also be sold as ‘keeping families together’ because I feel quite certain that welfare for couples must split rather a lot up.
+1
@ Anne
That is a bit rough. They should have at least told Kaye they hadn’t released it yet. Kaye is showing interest and democratic responsibility in contacting Labour to find out what they are offering. If we all did that, then our democracy would be achieving more sound results!
@ Kaye
Good one for your efforts Kaye! 🙂
Hope Labour’s poor response/non-response doesn’t put you off completely – I wrote to them asking about their stance on broadcasting a few weeks ago and got an extremely quick reply – surprisingly so. They only told me that there was a policy release in the pipeline – no details, which is what they should have done for you too – hopefully they will…eventually. Good communication is very important. 🙂
Can’t agree with you there blue leopard.
Have a read of Kaye @10. He/she was being provocative, judgmental and in the case of the following quote from the same post :
totally wrong.
The facts are far more likely to be… they are saving the Welfare policy package in order for it to have maximum impact, and to reduce the ability of National and the MSM being able to distort, misrepresent and generally pillory the policy as well as the beneficiaries themselves.
We’ve seen more than enough of the deplorable discrediting tactics coming from the Tories and the MSM in recent times without having the very people Labour wants to help ensuring they succeed.
Btw, I was a beneficiary in the 1990s – the Christine Rankin era – and I know all about the bullying, humiliation and thuggery that took place at the time. And Helen Clark’s Labour government took immediate steps to remove Rankin and overturn the culture of bullying etc. that prevailed.
@ Anne,
Yes, I have commented in other threads I, too, have been on welfare when the government has changed. There is a noticeable difference between the two parties – one is much more likely to get off welfare under Labour because there is more assistance to help you do that – generally more helpful and less hostile under Labour.
[There is such a difference I have to admit to having a few moments of feeling sorry for WINZ staff with the latest round of draconian changes! They are encouraged to establish a rapport with you and then suddenly they have to change their entire attitude and leave you stranded when National do their shite. It can’t be very good working conditions at WINZ. Not easy to just quit either – considering the dreadful levels of unemployment – that they know all about!]
I, therefore, also get annoyed when people say Labour and National are ‘just the same’. [Not saying there is not room for improvement re Labour!] However, Labour should be organised and communicative with people writing in to find things out about their policies. If only to say ‘we haven’t released the policy yet’. It makes a big difference if one gets quick and friendly response.
@clemgeopin
I have been to their website. I looked, and I’ve been looking regularly for months. If there’s something there I can’t find it. If it is there can you please link it for me? If they have a policy then there’s a lot of us who would like to study it so we can make an informed vote. Why is it so hard to even get an answer from them about their policy??
btw,a welfare policy isn’t just about money, it’s about how people are treated by the system and the community as a whole. I’d like to know if a Labour govt would reverse the general cruelty that anyone unfortunate enough needing WINZ assistance now has to deal with, for example. You know, consider us as human beings. The fact that they’ve been incredibly quiet about this is telling. Get my point? I’m happy to stand corrected of course. Believe it or not I’ve been looking for reasons to vote Labour, I used to. I’m not a member of Greens/Mana and until this year I’ve never remotely engaged in anything political and never thought I’d ever be posting on blog sites but this is something I feel very strongly about so I’m putting it out there.
And I’m not the only person with these views who’s commented on the Standard in the last few months.
Took me 1 minute to find this page:
https://www.labour.org.nz/policy
Searching for the word “welfare” gives no results. However the very top of the page says this:
So you’ll just have to wait.
Labour are obviously not going to tell random people that email them the date on which they are going to announce particular policies, because that would allow their political opponents to arrange how they are going to respond, by example by releasing their equivalent policies on the same day, or the day before, to ensure they get total media coverage.
Labour’s policies will be based on its Policy Platform – which is on the official NZLP website.
If you just google NZ Labour Party Policy Platform, you should be able to get to it easily.
The Policy Platform has a series of Values which Labour will base its various policies on.
Start at page 25 and go on from there. Here is an example :
5.12 Chance and misfortune mean that some people struggle even in ‘the good times’. Security, mutual responsibility, and fairness demand that those adversely affected should not depend on charity and the stigma that carries, or be subject to humiliation or meaningless ‘make work’ to survive.
This indicates to me that Labour does care about how people are treated by the beaurocratic system set up under National, and intend to do something about it.
The Policy Platform goes on to say –
As a matter of principle and sound social and economic investment, Labour is committed to banishing child poverty in New Zealand. The solutions are not simple, and the goal cannot be achieved immediately. We will co-ordinate and monitor its approach across all of government and policy……..
“..The solutions are not simple, and the goal cannot be achieved immediately..”
..yes you can…it’s called a universal basic income..
..paid for by a financial transaction tax on the banksters/capital gains tax/land tax/whatever….
..and some serious clawing back of the inequality-gulf delivered to us by 30 yrs of neo-liberalism..
..these are the same incrementalist promises that were made before the clark govt got elected..
..then we had nine yrs of boom-times..
..and an ignoring/breaking of those promises..
..what makes now any different..?
..aspirational-waffle is just that…
..history has shown/proven it means nothing..
Yep, its also called a comprehensive food in schools program and an equally comprehensive rebuild of the States Housing stocks so that the lowest income working families, those who are the last to be hired and the first to be fired, are all housed at 25% of their household income,
There is a point of measurable poverty judged in dollar terms, everyone who lives at that measurable point should be eligible to be paying no more than 25% of their income as rent,
That’s what i am voting for…
HI Kaye,
I seem to remember Marion Street and another Labour MP, may have been Sue Moroney had been working on this very issue, i.e. the issue of how people are treated when they go into WINZ ………..looking at changing the culture, so people are treated with dignity and respect………I think they may have done this in association with the young woman who spoke up so bravely about her experience with Nelson WINZ. Correct me if my memory doesn’t serve me well.
I don’t think they have released their welfare policy yet. If it’s not on their website then this is likely the case.
The one thing we know is in Best Start, parents of new infants including those on benefits will be entitled to that $60.00 a week.
“..The one thing we know is in Best Start, parents of new infants including those on benefits will be entitled to that $60.00 a week…”
and that is very good..
..and we need more solid/concrete poverty-busting policies like that…
..for all those aside from newborns..
..who are living in the miseries that are poverty…
“I seem to remember Marion Street and another Labour MP, may have been Sue Moroney had been working on this very issue, i.e. the issue of how people are treated when they go into WINZ ………..looking at changing the culture, so people are treated with dignity and respect………I think they may have done this in association with the young woman who spoke up so bravely about her experience with Nelson WINZ. Correct me if my memory doesn’t serve me well.”
They were doing some work via the website. As a beneficiary there is no way that I would have answered their survey. It was unsafe, asking people to give details about negative experiences and identifying details with absolutely no information about how that would be used, or how the safety of those beneficiaries would be safeguarded. Made me trust Labour even less than I did before when it comes to WINZ issues. What do you think happens to beneficiaries who make complaints about WINZ who happen to reside in areas that have WINZ offices with vindictive and petty staff? Remember what happened to the two Nelson women on the DPB who spoke out about National removing the training incentive allowance? Paula Bennett dragged them through the media, including revealing confidential information from their files, and then told the Privacy Commissioner to get stuffed when they ruled against her breaching the privacy rights of those two women.
This is why I and others want to know what Labour intend to do, not just some nice sounding values stuff.
“The one thing we know is in Best Start, parents of new infants including those on benefits will be entitled to that $60.00 a week.”
That’s not welfare policy, that’s social security. What’s at issue here is how beneficiaries, ie clients of WINZ, are treated and supported.
@Kaye:
Kaye, I have no idea why they did not reply to you. They should have. I am guessing that perhaps they get thousands of emails and letters daily from supporters, enemies, press, other parties, MPs, campaign workers, campaign personnel, etc etc with suggestions, queries, criticisms etc etc that they are simply unable to respond due to lack of time, personnel and resources. Perhaps they only answer very urgent/essential messages. I do know that for a major political party, the Labour party barely has enough funds and donations to manage a general election, unlike some other parties. Added to that, there seems to be a strong MSM unfair crusade dissing tide against it and its leader. That is why I get irritated when posters supporting other progressive minor parties too try to diss it. Sorry for being short in my reply if you were not one of those.
At least they replied to you saying they have sent your query to Sue Moroney, their welfare spokesperson. By the way, I have NOTHING to do with the party itself, except it is the party I like and will most certainly be voting for it.
Do post here when you find out what their ‘welfare’ policies are.
Also, can you state clearly what exactly you want to see in a welfare policy? I am curious to know.
Cheers!
Some info that might help you before you get the actual welfare policy which is yet to be released it seems:
[1] Labour values:
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/
[2]Labour policies:
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/policies
[3] Already ANNOUNCED policies:
https://www.labour.org.nz/policy
Will Labour restore benefits to the inflation adjusted levels of pre-1990 benefit cuts?
Will Labour remove the institionalised prejudice inherent in its Working for Families policy?
Will Labour reintroduce a hardship grant that allows beneficiaries under significant financial duress to get adequate assistance?
What specifically will Labour do to reverse the bene bashing meme that has been allowed to arise both within govt and within NZ society? (that Labour has participated in in the past btw)
What will Labour do to reverse the bene bashing culture within WINZ?
What will Labour do to turn WINZ into a functional bureaucracy as opposed to the dog’s breakfast it has become in the past 25yrs? (including under Labour’s watch in that past)?
Which of National’s draconian welfare Acts and policies will Labour repeal or significantly ammend in its first term?
You can understand why some beneficiaries aren’t holding their breath about change under a Labour govt.
I suggest you send them an email.
Are you taking the piss?
Yes, just a nip. What made to think of my drink?
Israel’s interest in Gaza Oil and Gas
http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?273262-Armed-robbery-in-Gaza-Israel-US-UK-carve-up-the-spoils-of-Palestine-s-stolen-gas
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article39050.htm
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/israel-wants-palestine-s-water-and-gas-1.1364615
http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/gaza-marine-offshore-field
http://www.globalresearch.ca/war-and-natural-gas-the-israeli-invasion-and-gaza-s-offshore-gas-fields/11680
You use the same search techniques here as those applied to your wisdom on vaccinations.
Gaza could have developed the gas with Israel cooperation if Hamas had not taken power. There were plans well developed with Israel’s cooperation. But why would Israel boost the resoucres of Hamas? If Gaza residents nominate rational representatives who support Israel’s right to exist and give up on the terror, they will get their gas.
Hamas was the democratic choice of the Palestinians ..or dont you believe in democracy for the Palestinians?
….would you like the Israelis to dictate to the Palestinians on their own land and take over Gaza?
…and take over their oil and gas rights as well?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_legislative_election,_2006
I am sure Hitler used a similar rationale for those naughty people who opposed him
..the French did not lie down and take it from Hitler…there was resistance …so why should the Palestinians take it from the Israelis?…..really the West has to support the Palestinians otherwise they are acquiescing to a new Fascist Nazi force in the world
Because in 1939 the French were the good guys and in 2014 Hamas are the bad guys? Had you considered that difference just for a start? Or are you still addled from the influence of the anti-vaccine nutters?
A geo-politics lesson from SSLands, i laughed out loud, did you read it off of the back of a big mac’s napkin,
With all the ever changing world of good guys/badguys, ie: al Quaeda now part of the ISIS alliance fighting in Syria, how ever do you keep up…
It’s easy, bad12. Whoever the U.S. supports at a given moment are the good guys at that moment.
No further analysis required.
Because in 1939 the French were the good guys and in 2014 Hamas are the bad guys?
During World War II, people like you called the French Resistance the bad guys.
I’d recommend you to read a few books, but I don’t think you’re either serious enough or bright enough.
srylands …how do you feel about this?…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/jul/31/un-spokesman-chris-gunness-breaks-down-during-aljazeera-interview-video
An interesting article in the Guardian – http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/03/why-do-we-still-honour-free-market-intellectuals-northern-rock
with a line that I thought ought to be pondered by Trevor, Phil and Annette….
“…even years on and rightwing intellectuals still cannot accept that their certainties no longer make sense. Like old men at a bar, they block out the present and relive the moment when they were young and filled with audacious vigour…”
@Sanctuary
Singing – Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance for ever and a day…..
Now they are filled with audacious vinegar. It preserves specimens well.
New Poll Shock! Labour up to 36%, National plummet to record low of 2%. IMP/Greens to form next Government?
http://insightnz.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/the-voice-of-a-nation-insiders-2014-poll/
That would wipe out all the Nat MPs except…. except for …. poor old John. How sad.
These kind of polls are good for a laugh, but all I’d take from is it that Nat supporters haven’t seen the email telling them to get onto it and vote ASAP. That and there are 6 Colonservative folk who were voting when they should have been in church. Colin knows your names, people. He Sees All.
i see united future got one vote..
..that’d be dunne…
Weird bit of mail today. Blue card with a picture of John Key strangling a kiwi while a bunch of dickheads stand around laughing.
… almost as though they are advertising themselves honestly….very strange indeed….
Key seems to have gone quiet lately. Wonder what’s coming??
Agree Ffloyd @ 15………I was commenting on this today………..English answering on his behalf in the final session of Parliament for the year and what a truly disgraceful performance it was dodging and fudging questions on child poverty……….
Then Joyce coming in. National’s strategy seems to be talk loud and over others, dick around about statistics and then say we are doing that already. Laugh at opponent in an attempt to ridicule and discredit them……………..
I have thought for some weeks Key looks tired and ???? possibly unwell? Could we see his resignation soon? If it is just after the election, it would demonstrate just how much National hold the NZ public in.
Learning more of his spin lines and trying to improve his brain fades and golf strokes.. And oh, perhaps the recent secret visitor, the FBI big guy, may have given him some urgent home work to do.
We’ve noticed that too Ffloyd! Not on tv news for DAYS, so very unusual! Not in Parliament for the last day either – something is definitly UP!
Maybe he’s sick? or in rehab?
I think Clem’s on to it. Also the discovery there was a secret visit from an NSA engineer last year advising the GCSB how to intercept the Southern Cross cyber-optic cable. I doubt Key wants to be interviewed about it.
It’s all happening… more dots to join…. slowly unwinding.
Yep thats the best guess so far
Enoying this game though
He’s on the wagon since his Hawaiian holiday – so should be feeling Spritely.
Well he is able to type as he is the only person to respond positively to jonah’s tweet
Other thoughts about where key may be
At the crosby textor finishing school
Or
Dotcom really does have something and he’s done a runner 😉
A Reminder, The InternetMana Roadshow is in Wellington tomorrow night from 6 o’clock,
Mac’s event center is the venue and that’s located down the bottom of Taranaki Street,(right down near the wharf),
Be there….
I don’t see information on google about where Internet Mana are going in their six week meeting schedule which started mid July.
here you are..
..it kicks off on wed in nelson..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/the-internetmana-party-sth-island-road-tour-itinerary/
(and i mean..why wd u go to google..b4 checking whoar..?..eh..?..
..tsk..!..tsk..!..)
@ philip ure 4.49
And I thought you were just a pretty face – then I looked at your logo!
Thanks.
Cuckoo study – please report sightings
Michael Anderson, a postdoctoral fellow at Massey University, is interested in finding out more about the arrival dates of our two species of migratory cuckoos: the Long-tailed Cuckoo and Shining Cuckoo. If you hear or see one of these birds, please help by reporting it using one of the Google forms:
Long-tailed Cuckoo spring migration form http://goo.gl/ClBMWZ
Shining Cuckoo spring migration form http://goo.gl/CDjbuh
I am pleased to report that I have spotted a cuckoo, in a locality renowned for its tolerance of cuckoos….
http://www.3news.co.nz/Christine-Rankin-to-stand-in-Epsom/tabid/1607/articleID/355263/Default.aspx
then of course there is the big-breasted cuckoo..
..otherwise known as the brownlee..
..it is known/notorious for flying in thru the exit door…
Love it, Morrissey and Phil …. + + 100%
Prime News just had an article extracted from TV1’s Q&A where David Shearer didn’t rule out challenging for the leadership..it really makes me wonder about these guys and whether they have any political extinct at all. The fact that he answered that particular question in that way would disqualify him straight away in my humble opinion.
-he didn’t rule out challenging again until after the election..
..and that that piece of selective/message-pushing/gotcha! bullshit was chosen from that whole interview..(which was an ok outing for shearer..)
..is just the latest example of the most woeful examples/attempts of/at ‘journalism’ that are such a feature of prime news..
..a total ‘rag’ of a news channel…
i didn’t see Shearer ‘not rule out anything’, words to the effect that the only thing on His mind was the election i think was the gist of it,
Just more blind media manipulation/spin trying to twist the mind of the gullible,
Don’t buy into it…
@ Sarrbo 5.55
Political “extinct” or instinct? While wondering which it occurred to me that this is clever satire. Are they ex or in? Is politics itself? And does anyone in Lab-our care, or is it all ‘our’ scientific experiment on the mumblers to see how much bullshit we can swallow?
I am astounded that all commentators at The Standard are silent on the great Jonah Lomu urging his admirers to vote National.
https://twitter.com/JONAHTALILOMU/status/495059431894155265
🙄 The resident under-bridge dweller pushes its luck, 🙄 🙄 🙄 …
Why would they comment on it? He can endorse whomever he likes. In any case, Lomu’s a wealthy man – of course he’s backing National. For the wealthy, it’s either National or ACT, and ACT is a basket case.
Another successful purchase.
/
Who is Jonah Lomu???
As a famous sports figure liked by the country Lomu should have better sense than supporting any political party and its leader, especially a crooked one like National party and its dodgy leader, Key!
Lomu has now come across as a right wing political pawn and a politically naive fool!
Some context would probably help.
League player? Actor? Radio announcer? Married to someone with plastic surgery?
Please advise how shallow your hero worship is?
I haven’t bothered watching or following sport, most TV, or many aspects of popular culture for the last 20 years. The vacuous mindset and allusions that you display are usually not worth following.. But hey, we must feel charitable for those afflicted with such addictions.
“The vacuous mindset and allusions that you display are usually not worth following.”
Were you replying to me?
If so, what are you referring to?
srylands. I vaguely remember that Lomu was some kind of league player? Maybe rugby?
Anyway, for me it is a state of who frigging cares.
He played rugby union and was supposed to win the world cup in South Africa, but the South Africans poisoned our rugby heroes (at least that’s what the coach claimed) and South Africa won. He then got kidney disease and had to stop playing.
I have no idea why anyone should give his political preferences any time at all.
He sure was a player too! Now Key is wooing him instead!
@ lprent 7.38
I said to mickeysavage yesterday how it would be good to start off comments in the manner I have in this one, because you can nail who and what is being replied to. Nuff said.
And tell me Rylands, how did Jonah’s followers respond to that tweet?
wow – that’s encouraging
‘
Meh! Just a rinse’n’repeat CrosbyTextor gimmick from last election when it was Michael Jones. At least this time Jonah’s followers have put a flea in his ear.
Sorrylands a millionaire and serial philanderer who has damaged his health eating burgers with high salt trans fats refined carbohydrates bludging on the health system what role model for the right personal resposibilty and all.
He should be encouraging people to vote ACT.
Then he could go round to Dirty old Don,s place for tea discuss old flames philandering techniques and share a corned beef and frozen pea dinners!
Not the first All Black to be a Tory. One even became a NAct MP, but we shouldn’t talk about him. Doesn’t surprise me at all. At the All Black level it’s all corporate and they suck off the government tit. He’s just thinking them for all the corporate welfare.
Lomu is a sometimes official/sometimes unofficial rep of the NZRU. We’ve seen the stake in the ground from the NZRU, it’s on the cover of the Rugby News.
Yep. And I’m officially off rugby. The sport of those who support the elites. And it damages bodies.
Me too. I am a rugby fan and have been since my dad used to wake me up in the middle of the night in the ’70s to watch All Black test matches in Europe.
The two incidents, Rugby News cover, and Lomu’s bought and paid for endorsement have really shaken me.
Thing is, at junior level it is not about elites at all, it’s about every kid, decile 1 to 10, no matter what the background. This is our patch, and why rugby should be totally left alone by politicians.
It hasn’t been.
Oh, I grew up in a rugby family, but, (as far as I can guess) my parents voted National.
I used to like going to watch club rugby, and to the main match at Eden Park on Saturdays when i was growing up. But as a teenager, I went off it for years – for political reasons (mainly feminist ones – socially conservative and patriarchal values dominated rugby circles). But after ’81, I gradually got back to watching it….. off it again now.
I played cricket, rugby, and league when I was a kid. My interest waned when I stopped playing. I never watched them on TV. After all we had Eden park down the road and it didn’t cost much to go and watch a game.
After I moved cities, joined the army, started working as a barman, and did university (all at the same time), my interest completely died. There were more important and interesting things to do. And that was before I got seriously into programming.
It is quite prudent to avoid following and advocating representative sports.
Most often it is about people impeding other people from achieving their goals (or Try’s).
These days the sports persons are earning MILLIONS of dollars in fees and sponsoring, as well as sports has become corrupt and very suspect with match fixing and entwined with corporate crooks and tie wearing gangs from the gambling dens.
Every time I look at a game on TV now, I wonder how many millions have passed hands and if the results are genuine ones or just make-believe genuine looking stunts for gullible arm chair screaming suckers around the world including me!
a rugger bugger
Shanghai Pengxin, the controversial Chinese buyer of the massive Lochinver Station, was recently given conservation land by the Government, including parts of the Rakaia riverbed.
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Govt-gave-Shanghai-Pengxin-conservation-land/tabid/1607/articleID/355268/Default.aspx#ixzz39JLdw9y7
Yes, saw that on the News Tautoko Viper. What the hell is all that about?
Why is the government giving conservation land away? What arrangements do they have in place with Shanghai Pengxin?
And that precious and sensitive land and river bed land belongs to all of us, did they not think to ask us first?
‘
Disgusting. Look what else is coming down the pipeline from National Ltd™’s “Sale Of The Century”
http://www.linz.govt.nz/overseas-investment/decisions
Disgusting……………. and bewildering…………..There’s more
From the linz link:
http://www.linz.govt.nz/overseas-investment/decisions/decision-summaries/201320055
“Decision
Consent granted
Section 12(b) Overseas Investment Act 2005
Decision date 1 April 2014
Investment
An overseas investment in sensitive land, being the Applicant’s acquisition of rights or interests in up to 100% of the shares of China Merchants Pacific (NZ) Limited which owns or controls a freehold interest in approximately:
4.5112 hectares of land at Chatham Hill, Gulf Harbour; and
10.9114 hectares of land at Matua Road, Huapai.
Consideration $55,520,300
Applicant
China Merchants Properties Development Limited
Chinese Government, China, People’s Republic of (100.0%)
Vendor China Merchant Holdings (Pacific) Limited
Chinese Government, China, People’s Republic of (82.44%)
Various overseas persons (17.56%)
Background
The transaction reflects an intragroup transfer, which results in an increase in China Merchant Group Limited’s ultimate control of the target China Merchants Pacific (NZ) Limited from 82.44% to 100%. The rationale is to transfer the target’s property development activities from the Vendor (whose core business is developing toll roads) to the Applicant whose core business aligns with those activities.
The overseas investment transaction has satisfied the criteria in section 16 of the Overseas Investment Act 2005. The ‘benefit to New Zealand’ criterion was satisfied by particular reference to the following factors:
Overseas Investment Regulations 2005
28(c) – Affect image, trade or international relations
28(e) – Previous investments
28(f) – Advance significant Government policy or strategy”
Tolls roads brought to you by the Chinese Government! Criterion 28 (f) “Advance significant government policy or strategy indeed!” Stephen Joyce you are everywhere.
The forest sell off was too much WTF to start with and it’s getting late so will park this until tomorrow. Seems 12 hectares of conservation handed over to Shanghai Pengxin is the tip of the iceberg
‘
Don’t you just love that 28(f) catch all? Thing is, the National Ltd™ government’s policy and strategy to sell off everything has never been made clear to the New Zealand public. Its starting to become more and more apparent though but, alas, too late.
+100 Blip and Rosie
…lets hope this becomes a BIG Election issue( Winnie was on the case this morning) ….Chinese corporate buy up of New Zealand land….China could buy New Zealand up millions of times over
….John Keys NACT govt is selling New Zealand and New Zealanders OUT!
My thought exactly Chooky (see below)
You know, once, a long time ago Rhinocrates expressed his shock and surprise at something appalling in the Nat Govt’s long list of “shocking and appalling things we do to NZ”.
He expressed his surprise by saying “Well! my flabbers are well and truly gasted!” I’ll never forget that great line and this is one of those times where that line can be brought into use, again.
PS: Good links you provided yesterday re Jewish peace rallies held in NY and Tel Aviv in support of Palestine. No time to reply as I only got to Open Mike later in the evening. Onya Chooky.
Lol on Rhinocrates….and thanks I always appreciate your comments as well…they are always well balanced and penetrating and humane and sensitive
😀
I wonder if ministerial funds were used Judith Collins Jenny Shipley most likely involved.
This is the sort of corruption we read about happening in China every day.
Steven Joyce and Nick Smith are more than likely involved.
with all these extravagant expenses National MP are running up at the taxpayers expense!
Brain Fade Keys PROMISE of more accountability seems to be fading like his memory!
BLiP and tricledrown.
Is it too late? It’s too late to stop the applications that have been approved but is it too late to halt further “investments” that are not in the public’s interest?
Could the very deep well of darkness be exposed to the light of day by researchers for the opposition parties, pronto, before the election?
Agree Steven Joyce (especially roads and other infrastructure) and Nick Smith (forests)will more than likely be involved. They are agents of team knock off the lot. This could be a scandal of Collins’ proportions.
Are we “Little China” or are we “Little America”? Make your mind up Key.
Green Party launch “Election priority for students” on Tuesday 2pm, University of Auckland.
Well, if it’s true that Donna Awatere Huata is advising Internet Mana, then all I can say is Go Kelvin!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/food-wine/news/article.cfm?c_id=206&objectid=11302811
That article actually says “It’s notable that one former MP, convicted fraudster Donna Awatere Huata, is back on the fringes of the Internet-Mana alliance.” It doesn’t mention “advising” at all, so I doubt your good faith in making your comment.
Given who the author is, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone from the mighty Whalespew army had seen Awatere in Rotorua, and everyone knows Annette Sykes is from there!!
the rest of the article stinks, too.
The bleating of a privileged dickhead.
Googling Huata +Internet Party is kind of interesting.
Oops….
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/israel-intelligence-eavesdropped-on-phone-calls-by-john-kerry-a-984246.html
I continue to be disappointed with Labour. Now the dismaying news that they plan to “replace Careers New Zealand with a new agency to oversee a national careers strategy”.
“Funding for the Agency would be $17 million over four years…”
What the actual hell.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/election-2014/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503581&objectid=11303469
Funding for Careers New Zealand right now is $15 million PER YEAR. That’s $60 million over the last four years. Funding for the agency has been flat for nearly 6 years thanks to our idiotic National govt, which has resulted in a steadily reducing reach and staffing level as inflation cuts into their ability to perform.
Careers NZ ALREADY HAS a national careers strategy. What they need is MORE funding, resources and assistance to achieve it.
Instead, they talk of replacing a perfectly good agency, squandering resources and effort, and replacing it with a body with a quarter of the funding!
Has Labour gone mad??
Very disappointed.
Warsaw ghetto Mark II.