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!
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 27 were:1. The Minister for Ford Rangers strikes againTransport Minister Simeon Brown was again the busiest of the Cabinet ministers this week, announcing an ...
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhereAny place is betterYesterday’s newsletter, Trust In Me, on the report of abuse in state care, and by religious organisations, between 1950 and 2019, coupled with the hypocrisy of Christopher Luxon ...
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
Te Rangi e tu nei (The sky above us) Te Papa e takoto nei (The land beneath us) Tatou katoa te hunga ora (To us all the living) Tena koutou katoa (Greetings) ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
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‘
Labour and National Party activists and politicians must have a much higher tolerance level for genocide than most people.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-02082014/#comment-859197
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….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22032013/#comment-607420
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.