First post for me on The Standard, but am surprised that Tim Barnett has been able to censor what is and what isn’t posted on this site. Is this an indication of what we are going to see in the future? Not sure that I am comfortable with such suppression of free speech.
The concern with Slater and Farrar was that they were working in a clandestine way, receiving privileged information, probably often illegally, attacking other people and politicians.
What the Standard has done is in no way comparable. A request was made to remove information. Lprent has clearly (very clearly) detailed both that request, and his acceptance. If others want to be titillated by a regretted action that has been apologised for, then they are free to use Google or Slater and Farrar.
It’s not really a case of puppets. Those trying to seize the action as yet another example of “Gotcha” politics, are better described as muppets.
Well the action quite clearly shows influence by the Labour Party over this blog that can not be denied. So who to say that information isn’t past and attacks aren’t made. We just take your word for it I assume?
His word, and the result of the official investigations that are no doubt warranted and you’ll be presenting evidence to. No? No police complaint? Nothing for the SFO to worry about?
Careful, comrades, Beverley Wakem’s about to kick the door down.
So being civil and responding positively to a request Cancerman now means that the standard is a labour party blog and involved in dirty politics?
Do you read Cancerman, can you read? I mean what’s my politics – ask any labour person my position?
Have you read anyone else here and their opinions – Oh lets say Karol or Phillip Ure.
How about Iprent himself? Labour party hack you think?
Odd, what an odd comment you have made cancerman – it seem to me to reek of desperation. Of an individual who does not like or struggles with polite or civilised society. Or you’re a person who is feeling a little gun shy about voting for a government actively involved in the perversion of politics, morality and the decent society.
How can it be that a polite request, made to a reasonably fair minded individual, is somehow turned into a grand conspiracy?
Is politeness, now nothing more than something else the right can attack the left on?
Yes, that’s what everyone complains about, isn’t it. No? What’s that you say? In Greymouth?
Now I remember, it isn’t that the National Party has puppets, it’s the things it uses them for that are currently under investigation by at least three independent agencies including the SIS, Ombudsman and Police.
On balance, I think putting the post up in the first place was a mistake: it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, do we really want politicians families to be fair game?
Politics being war by other means I think it’s worth recalling how we treat soldiers who shoot civilians.
PS: yes, yes, I know, we give them medals and a lecture tour, I was speaking hypothetically.
You need to remember that Labour was led into the last election by a Statesman. The type of message that was censored is not befitting for a Statesman led party. Please understand that censorship is for your own good
Music4menz, censorship is when an official agency rules that the publication of certain material is illegal.
No such edict is in force or even enforceable, Open Mike being what it is. No information is suppressed, being in the public domain elsewhere.
In any case, speech at The Standard isn’t “free” – it costs money to host the site and we inhabitants are subject to its rules and our modern Robespierre, Lprent.
You do remember what happened to Robespierre don’t you?
Presided over the Reign of Terror and was then deposed and guillotined.
Surely there is a better comparison? I see him as Christopher Robin, presiding over the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood.
..A new study may have you rethinking your eating habits..”
Or not 🙂
Phillip, I cant see that happening at my house anytime in the near or even long distant future.
Im still trying to reconcile the local YMCA gym advertising how bad plastic water bottles are, while they have large vending machines full of the stuff in the front foyer.
And Im not sure if me driving to the gym each day is kosher either. 🙂
You have just reminded me that I need to start writing some more posts on climate change. In particular the probable time line and effects of the rapid melting of the WAIS that the drilling over the last few years revealed.
On climate change: I saw this on Al Jazeera this morning. Thousands of walrus’s corwding on to the shore on Alaska’s coast. usually they seek ice covered places to go ashore, but that is becoming harder for them to find.
Pacific walrus that can’t find sea ice for resting in Arctic waters are coming ashore in record numbers on a beach in north-west Alaska.
An estimated 35,000 walrus were photographed on Saturday about five miles north of Point Lay, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
[…]
In recent years, sea ice has receded north beyond shallow continental shelf waters and into Arctic Ocean water, where depths exceed two miles and walrus cannot dive to the bottom.
The World Wildlife Fund said walrus had also been gathering in large groups on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea.
“It’s another remarkable sign of the dramatic environmental conditions changing as the result of sea ice loss,” said Margaret Williams, managing director of the group’s Arctic program.
“The walruses are telling us what the polar bears have told us and what many indigenous people have told us in the high Arctic, and that is that the Arctic environment is changing extremely rapidly and it is time for the rest of the world to take notice and also to take action to address the root causes of climate change.”
Jeez, looks like I’ve innocently upset a few very thin skins here.
Why do these types personally attack everyone they dissagree with and
call them names. (Kind of childish way to discuss an issue isn’t it?)
Perhaps any one of you could explain the difference between AGW and
climate change ?
That is a simple question.
Now I would not call ‘McFlock’, ‘dv’, or even ‘Iprent’ ignorant or stupid so let
us see if any one of them could prove it and answer that one simple
question.
By the way. I would have no difficulty to explain the difference and will do
so for you if none of you are capable.
The fact that you are asking a question to which you claim to already know the answer demonstrates that you are not interested in a genuine discussion.
So I could talk about how AGW is a type of CC, but really you don’t give a shit. Because you’re a moron.
BTW, I don’t personally attack everyone I disagree with. Just fucking morons whose egos write cheques that their braincell can’t cash.
You are right, I do know the answer to that question.
The reason that I asked it was to see if you or dv or Iprent knew the
answer.
So, according to you, I don’t give a shit, I’m a fucking moron, and a bit of extra abuse regarding my ego and braincell thrown in for extra emphasis.
Charming, You seem to be a real prince.
PS. I’ve never ever personally abused anyone on this blog.
I did suggest to weka that the term anthropogenic global warming had
been replaced by climate change and got abused by you and abused and threatened by Iprent for my trouble.
You are right, I do know the answer to that question.
No you don’t. That’s obvious from ignorant comments and I’m not going to bother to try and enlighten you as it’s obvious that you’ll continue denying reality because it goes against your beliefs.
I never said you knew the answer to your question.
If you think treating everybody like fucking morons (by making idiot statements and wanking with passive-aggressive questions that you believe you know the answer to) gives you the moral or intellectual advantage over someone honest enough to point out precisely why you are a fucking idiot and which specific comments you wrote demonstrate that you are patently uninterested in good-faith discussion of an issue, then your compass is broken.
But these are all pretty long cycles. There are shorter climate change events related to plume events from the earths radioactive core causing larger sustained volcanic events (like the Deccan traps).
Similarly short unsustained volcanic events around subduction zones causing ash triggered climate changes, which rarely persist for more than teeny numbers of years – typically 3-4 years.
Of the various very short-term (decades) and long term (hundreds of millions of years) solar cycles.
But AGW refers to climate change that is both short-term and sustained which is highly abnormal in the geological record and typically associated with large diebacks in the biotic parts of the climate system (large meteorite impacts mostly).
For instance the slow cooling of the northern hemisphere in the initial industrial era due to dust (approx 1850-1950) that cause regional effects.
But in less than 150 years we have seen some marked changes in the whole earth’s heat balance that are on the scale of the interglacial changes (they’re warming the entire earth’s oceans) but are happening in a fraction of the usual geological process times. These are (>95% confidence) attributed to changes in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere with the human introduction of greenhouse gases.
So having given you this extremely basic primer for a moron, could you please look down the links and get your useless brain aware of geological timescales. Then it might be worth training you to up to primary school level.
Now, far be it from me to resort to the same level of nasty personal abuse and threats that i have copped from Iprent and others on this site today so…
excuse me if I ask……
Did Tim Barnet OK your 9.49 effort yet Iprent ?
You may have to withdraw it if Tim doesn’t like it.
You still can’t resist calling me a ‘moron’ and referring to my ‘useless brain’
I gotta go,
G’nite all.
I leave it to all readers of the above to make up their own minds.
PS I do give Iprent a tick for not banning me forever from this site in spite of his threat.
Onya Iprent 4 that.
Just because he is not able to debate the issue without resorting to personal invective does not mean that he may not have a cogent point. Duh! What !
Thing is, based on the above exchanges…….
What is his point ?
The question was always quite simple.
He will be seeking wise counsel from Tim Barnet for some guidence.
Nope it just expresses what I think about you. It was quite pointed abuse
That you are quite stupid and and obviously quite ignorant on earth sciences is to me perfectly obvious. No more and no less.
I even thanked you for reminding me that I have a role in helping to educate those unfortunates who don’t understand the science. When I read your comment I could the weight of unfulfilled duty from my earth science degree calling to me to clear the weight of your ignorance.
BTW: I’d suggest you read the policy on the site about what is permissible and expected before I get around to doing a moderating sweep. My moderating personality tends to get irritated about people telling other people how they should behave on this site. That is the moderators job.
Hi Draco T Bastard, hope you are having a nice evening.
So, you too jump on the personal abuse wagon and accuse me of ignorance.
And, in your mind I am denying reality . How so ?
Are all the correspondents on this site incapable of discussion ?
I suggested that the term AGW had been superseeded by the term climate change.
Is that wrong ?
Look at the vituperate reaction that has provoked on this blogsite.
It’s staggering.
You join in with glee and tell me what I think and that you wont bother to reply to what you think I think. Jeez.
So why post anything ?
Why waste your time.
Do you know the answer to the question ?
Are you able to address the question without resorting to childish personal abuse simply because I had the temerity to pose it ?
Here is your chance to show you have something about you.
That is because we have seen far too many idiots like yourself coming through who haven’t bothered to examine the evidence. Instead you seem to think that your close examination of your pubic hairs whilst wanking is as important as being less self-indulgent and bothering to learn enough to make intelligent conversation.
Are you getting the point yet? We have heard all this before from other morons. You appear to be both stupid and ignorant. It simply isn’t worth the effort of explaining how and why you are.
Please check out my primer that I carefully wrote and linked for you. Then ask some intelligent questions rather than sending the blood to the wrong organ.
“idiots like you”
“other morons”
“examinine your pubic hairs” and
“wanking”
“You appear stupid and ignorant”
” It simply is not worth the effort explaining”
and yet you can’t help explaining.
Then you call for “intelligent questions”
Just silly.
Maybe a huge intellect like, say, Drako T Bastard
can explain your point for you.
I was listening to the Kathryn Ryan interview with Robbie Deans yesterday, Ive always been a Dean’s fan since the 80’s when he competed with Alan Hewson (who couldn’t tackle to save himself).
Deans reckoned that the critics affect the family/partners the hardest because they have no control, which brought me back to Karen Price’s enlightening tweets on the internal workings of the Labour Party.
But is David Cunliffe the Robbie Deans of NZ politics. Steve Tew (ABD perhaps) is to Robbie Deans what the ABC’s are to David Cunliffe.
Will Tim Barnett haul her in for a bollicking for washing clean linen in public?
This abuse of Twitter by the leading light of Robertson’s team will bring the party into disrepute.
Good to see someone standing up and doing something, thanks CV.
”This is dirty tricks and dirty politics in Dunedin South,” she told the Otago Daily Times this week.
Ok, so now ‘dirty politics’ is any time a political opponent opposes you in ways you disapprove of? Thanks Clare, we really needed a career politician on the left to render the concept of Dirty Politics that much less relevant 🙄
Every time I have seen anything from Curran, she has been shooting Labour in the foot. When we actually have an investigative journalist who actually has uncovered real dirty politics, and NAct has tried to change the definition away from their organised filth, why is a Labour MP giving credibility to the NAct story?
Go get her CV. Time for a team that cares about more than their seats in parliament.
Aha… thanks NaPSS. Guyon Espinor mentioned it this morning.
Clare Curran has yet another “moaning, whining, public tanty”.
There’s a clear pattern developing here. The moaners and attackers bellowing to the media are former ABCers. What does it mean? Is someone coordinating them, or are they merely copying the ‘Dirty Politics’ meme – that is, accuse those who you attack… of doing the attacking!
We should all write to the Gen Sec asking that she gets some form of “counselling”. Perhaps she should be asked to pay Tat’s Labour membership fees for the next ten years?
I wonder if she is calling on the Editor of the OTD to practice the same type of leadership that she exercised when in control (with Grant R) of the Red Alert?
There is a very sexy picture of Tat there also. A real vote catching photo!
@ Not a PS Staffer
That’s interesting. Oh good new people joining up to the Party. Ooh the Party in Dunedin didn’t know if they really wanted them. Joining up like that theywould presumably have also been able to vote for the leader. Tat Loo definitely has a good head for strategy and policy. Not one to stay sitting on the whoopee cushion, though he might play a trick with it on one of the other sitting MPs.
I hope that some of you will enjoy this awesome lecture from John Perkins about the secret history of American Empire. John Perkins wrote “Confessions of an economic hitman” and in this lecture given at the Marlboro College in 2009 he tells his student audience about the history of the World Bank and the IMF and how they perform their “Duties”. It is part of my series about the Washington consensus and how John Key and ex-World Bank second in command Graeme Wheeler fit into the system and also how it connects with the policies put into place here in New Zealand.
The Washington Consensus, A Backgrounder And Yes, It Is Being Implemented In New Zealand Right Now http://wp.me/p638n-4w8
Lets be honest. The Robertson and Cunliffe debate is simply personality politics. Call it for what it is, and vote accordingly.
It’s really nothing to do with “left” and “centrist” and “core values” and “neo-liberal” and “traitorous”. And I can confidently assert this, because the debate is all about these labels and not about policy substance.
I am not sure there is anything simple about the situation Labour is currently finding itself in in terms of Labour’s caucus.
Likely there is a component of “personality politics.
What I have been reminded of is how powerful the phenomena of “group think” is. How people feel uncomfortable when they don’t concur with the dominant opinion that a group appears to hold.
And given the issues that some in the Labour caucus are so vocal about I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t what is going on around DC.
A personal anecdote to illustrate. Some twenty years ago or so I was the leader of a smallish team in a work place of 30. I had to select a small group of colleagues to attend a conference. We travelled to the conference and all bar one of them bunked off virtually for the whole event. I expressed my displeasure to one on the plane going home. When I next went into work (I was part time) out of the staff of 30 (ish) only two people spoke to me.
They then sabotage everything I tried to do. It was a very unpleasant experience. Fortunately I left and when on to a much, much better job and career wise I have never looked back.
I hope people on this site will forgive me for a personal anecdote, but I can’t help beut wonder (and it is only speculation) that a similar thing hasn’t happened to DC.
“It’s really nothing to do with “left” and “centrist” and “core values” and “neo-liberal” and “traitorous”. And I can confidently assert this, because the debate is all about these labels and not about policy substance.”
Do you mean the debate here? Because there was been lots around left vs neoliberal. Or do you mean between DC and GR?
It’s unfortunate that most of the MSM seem focussed on the invidivuals rather than what this represents in terms of left and neoliberal.
I guess the time is coming for DC to stand up and declare where he really intends to head (if he wins). Second chance won’t become a third one. Make or break time.
I am not sure there is anything simple about the situation Labour is currently finding itself in in terms of Labour’s caucus.
Likely there is a component of “personality politics.
What I have been reminded of is how powerful the phenomena of “group think” is. How people feel uncomfortable when they don’t concur with the dominant opinion that a group appears to hold.
And given the issues that some in the Labour caucus are so vocal about I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t what is going on around DC.
A personal anecdote to illustrate. Some twenty years ago or so I was the leader of a smallish team in a work place of 30. I had to select a small group of colleagues to attend a conference. We travelled to the conference and all bar one of them bunked off virtually for the whole event. I expressed my displeasure to one on the plane going home. When I next went into work (I was part time) out of the staff of 30 (ish) only two people spoke to me.
They then sabotaged everything I tried to do. It was a very unpleasant experience. Fortunately I left and went on to a much, much better job and career wise I have never looked back.
I hope people on this site will forgive me for a personal anecdote, but I can’t help beut wonder (and it is only speculation) that a similar thing hasn’t happened to DC.
I have always been aware of how “group think” operates and I speak up and resist it everytime I get a sniff of it.
I think that most are buying into a presidential like system as promoted by the main stream media. David Cunliffe did in my opinion do a reasonable job during the election campaign, as would have any of the other candidates for labour leadership in the last few years. There does how ever seem to be a disconnect between the labour party hierarchy and the caucus. Before we deal with the more important issues of party structures and personnel, this leadership issue needs to be resolved to get the media to change focus.
Why do political parties (and I’m talking all of them here) buy into the “Presidential” system that suits the MSM?
For some parties there is no alternative (WinstonFirst, DunneFirst, ActFirst and ConservyLoons). Another Party (DirtyJohn) has one orator who outshines everybody else in the caucus, and they gain advantage in keeping the less able away from public scrutiny.
But Labour , could, if it so chose, set it’s own path during an election. Refuse to make the Leader the sole spokesperson. Refuse to participate in Leader’s debates, if these are the only Air time available (They actually told us nothing, apart from the fact that Cunliffe is a very good debater, and Key is lovable or hateable depending on your political views.)
Bring out, and emphasise the team. Less convenient for MSM, but make that their problem. Bring out the Shadow Minister of Health to talk health issues, Education to talk Education issues, and the Finance spokesperson to provide the “gotcha” details on Fringe Benefit Tax. Show the Leader of the Party as exactly that …..somebody who can lead a competent team. Rather than someone simply selected as the best debater.
I suggest that this may work well for either Cunliffe or Robertson, or actually any other leader.
Thank you for your post, for you provide an excellent example of what the debate is unfortunately about. And which leaves me to conclude it’s not really of substance and more about the personalities of the contenders.
I’ll look further into your statements. Full of emotion, but basically a lot of hot air. I assume, suspect, you’ve got some ideas of substance lurking underneath, but until Labour activists start articulating what those are, instead of throwing around labels, the movement is doomed to not achieve what is possible.
~~~~
..it is entirely about the battle for the direction of the labour party.. ..does it..under robertson..continue to cling to the neo-liberal policies of the last 30 yrs..
..or does it..under cunnliffe…embrace progressive-polices focusing on poverty-busting etc..
“clinging to” emotive bullshit “neo-liberal policies of the last 30 years” meaningless claptrap, needing substance “embrace progressive policies” emotive bullshit “focussing on poverty-busting” Wow. The nearest we have come to something of substance. But still absolutely no details. No evidence of what your hero has done, or said he will do, that your villain will not also do.
I personally think that inequality and doing something about poverty are issues that are of the highest priority. The very highest. But if anybody is trying to persuade me that one candidate is better than another on the basis of one being good (“embraces progressive”) and not bad (“clinging to neo-liberal”) I’d suggest a course in Sales 101. It’s not that your answer is necessarily wrong. It’s just the justification that is absent. Totally missing in action.
~~~~
..the personality stuff is just a distraction…….and the right/corporate-media know what a crossroads this is………(hence their vicious-firestorm of a hate-campaign against cunnlife………they are terrified of the idea of a real labour party……
..one shed of its’ neo-liberal aberrations..)………and they also know what they want………and that is robertson..and neo-lib……….and just that fact should be enough to disqualify robertson..
Please just read this again, and again, and again. It’s absolute nonsense. At it’s very best, it’s drivel. It’s easier to say nothing with blank lines. It’s like a TV advertisement for hair shampoo. Trying to convey something?? by repetition. But repetition of a pile of crap, simply makes a bigger pile.
If these are reasons why you have a hero, and the other one is a villain, I suggest you change shampoos. Or preferably work at a shampoo factory for a week, to get the real detail on the ingredients in each shampoo.
~~~~
….(and i have figured out why a joke like nash is there..he is there to make robertson look less neo-lib than he is..)
When two people sit around, and have a common understanding of a problem, it’s ok to chew the fat, and say what you think. But all I understand from this statement (and I understand it well) is that you dislike Nash (intently). And that gets us where, precisely? Is this meant to be another argument that your hero should be elected, and your villain not be elected? I don’t think so.
Re my earlier comment about group think and the “personality issues”. I think this is (ie. group think) probably a factor, but just one factor.
I think the other issues are, Who will best represent the party? Who is geniune and capable about reversing policies that have hurt so many NZders, particularly Labour constitutiuants? Rogernomics or call it what you will has been so damaging for so many in NZ. My vote will go to someone who I believe has the will, the determination and knowledge to reverse this.
At the leadership campaign meeting I went to last year when the candidates were asked what they would like to be known for, DC that was what he wanted to be known for, i.e reversing Rogernomics.
Another significant issue is of course “Who will best achieve election success for the Party?” (Although your “Who will best represent the Party?” possibly covers this.)
My concern is that the leader may represent the party’s objectives very well, but his (or her) personal characteristics may turn voters off. I’m not thinking homosexuality here as much as perceptions of sincerity, drive, arrogance, empathy etc. These are all valid concerns along with the issues that you have raised.
Dita starts off with frustrating references to “progressive” values. (Everybody in the Labour Party probably has a reasonable understanding of the term, in their own heads at least. The label may even mean the same thing to most in the Party, but possibly not. But outside the Party in Voter-land, it probably means little.)
But then Dita immediately redeems herself, and actually starts specifying what progressive means. She picks issues such as “free basic education, a fairer tax system, protecting our ecosystem, better workers and human rights, and a strong health system that does not discriminate between rich and poor”
These are the things that will appeal to potential voters. They are not detailed policies, but they are a clear vision… She promotes a path: “In following the path of defining a set of core values and sticking with them even when the prevailing conservative chorus is decrying them” She gives good specific advice on how to work with other parties who have specific policies in common.
..apologies for not presenting a full poverty-busting poverty-program..
..but hey..!..a financial transaction tax on the banksters wd be a good start..
..to get that poverty-busting (’emotive’ i know..but there you go..!..)..to get that underway..
…heard of that..?
..can i suggest you google ‘neo-liberal-‘…?..(that may help enlighten you there..)
..’shampoo-references pass me by..
..i am part of the shampoo-free movement..
..haven’t piled that muck on my hair for years..
(and yes..thick/luxuriant/shiny enough to make dunne turn green with envy..)
..and seeing as you ask..
..and aide from nash being such good buddy/buddies with the denizens of the far-right..as in slater/lusk etc..
..(you quite relaxed about that..?..)
..there is the small fact that he is currently walking around trying to peddle the bullshit that he won the seat of napier because of his all-round skills..
..(going so fucken far as to offer to show other labour candidates ‘how’..(!)..)
..whereas the facts of the matter are that nash got no more votes in ’14 than he did in ’11..
..and the only reason he won napier..
..is because garth mcvicar stood for the conservatives..
..and hived over 4,500 votes from the national candidate..
..had he not done that..nash wd have lost..
..so yes..that he seems to be basing everything ‘good’ about him on what is a pile of stinking/steaming bullshit..
Would Mr. Botany (B.) be more politically correct?
~~~
..apologies for not presenting a full poverty-busting poverty-program…..
..but hey..!..a financial transaction tax on the banksters wd be a good start..
..to get that poverty-busting (‘emotive’ i know..but there you go..!..)..to get that underway..…heard of that..?..
I did not claim that “poverty-busting” was emotive. In fact I singled what you wrote there as the best part of your whole post. Seems like we (may) share a common vision of what we think has to be achieved?
~~~~
..and the only reason he (Nash) won napier….is because garth mcvicar stood for the conservatives….and hived over 4,500 votes from the national candidate….had he not done that..nash wd have lost….
More lies from Key and Joyce around their Convention Centre deal… bet their own blind trusts are filled with Sky City shares … even Herald allows it to seem suspect as a hotel “slips” on to land for convention centre only …
The public purse ripped off by sale of TVNZ land for peanuts below commercial value; lovingly sponsored by Key and Joyce .. now the truth outs .. and it seems Joyce lied in the House as well … ho hum, just another day at the office …
(Apologies if this has already been discussed) From yesterday’s Gordon Campbell article on Scoop:
“…………the chances of the TPP countries pulling a deal together in the next three years are slim. One chronic reason being, the Obama administration has no authority to conclude this deal even if member countries could agree on the content – which they don’t. The US currently lacks the Trade Promotion Authority for Obama to clinch the terms of the deal.”
So if the TPP is really on it’s last legs as the article suggests, we do at least have three years grace at best, with our pro TPP government sidelined perhaps?
yes great news Rosie!…i heard it the other day on the radio i think…and was relieved at the reprieve…but you can never rule them out pulling something out of the hat at any moment when you least expect it
It’s been on the rocks for at least the last 2 years. That hasn’t stopped various countries and governments from parroting on that they’re working towards the agreement, though.
Basically it just seems like a waste of taxpayer funds and an excuse to go on overseas trips.
I have heard such comment previously Lanthanide but was reluctant to focus too much energy on it, for the reason Chooky gives above:
“but you can never rule them out pulling something out of the hat at any moment when you least expect it”.
All those overseas trips you mention had to be justified so perhaps governments put on a brave fake face in an effort to avoid embarrassment. These are the cowboys of the wild new frontier of global corporate control, taking it further than ever before, they’ve got a reputation to protect. Just a thought.
Lots of airpoints and hotel reward points accummulated for those overseas jetsetting negotiations can now be used to take the family on holiday. Nice job if you can get it.
so what is their next move in your opinion?…is this just a pretend “off the table”…while they regroup covertly and present us all with a fait accompli ?
TPP won’t go away, and the accummulation of airports and hotel reward points won’t end.
TPP will keep coming back, again and again. And it must be opposed again and again. It was being pushed at us as the MAI more than ten years ago. Now, we are battling against the TPP and it won’t stop coming at us more strongly, with another acronym change if that is what it takes to try to dupe people again.
travellerev. There’s really no need for the rolly eyes. Truth is, I don’t really know what to “believe”.
I don’t think anyone can relax until it’s well and truly buried. I think if it does go then as Kiwiri suggests, it’s will come back again and again – just in a different format. I’m sure the global corporate powers have many masks and disguises for their intentions.
People can say what they like, just not under the banner of a Labour supporting site.
Reactionary posts are not supporting Labour, if anything they support National by dividing people……very convenient for National that the left do feel free to have robust debates, when done on Twitter or blogs too easy to misconstrue, escalate by MSM and cause fractures.
For people to suggest this is supression is worrying, almost looking for another battle, rather than focussing on issues that matter?
If a “Labour Supporting Site” is simply an extension of the official Labour Party site, it becomes simply a propaganda site. That’s fine, but contributions would quickly dry up
Robust debates are, or should be, the life blood of all political parties. The benefits far outweigh the possible concerns that others may misconstrue from such discussions. This is politics after all: Those on the other side of every fence are only too keen to misconstrue.
Ideas are born of robust debate. The strength of this site, that I quickly discovered, is the relative tolerance to such robustness (I’ve been labelled a troll on a couple of occasions here; a badge I’ll wear with pride, as it seems to me the unsupported labelling was more a reflection of the accuser than anything else)
The discussions here have substance …. and a common vision with intelligent disagreement can only be respected.
If you want to reflect on alternatives, have a quick look at the drivel that takes place in the discussions on kiwiblog. Lots and lots of comments, but childish substance. Even Farrar is desperately trying to get more intelligent discussion by promoting extra “assistance” and saying that he will accept guest posts from those who disagree with him. (It will never work for Farrar, unless he actually relinquishes most of his personal power, and adopts a format more similar to the Standard)
“Ideas are born of robust debate” absobloodyluetely, in an environment that seeks to generate growth and meetings of minds, which social media is not, especially in a tribal climate generated and supported by a right wing MSM
Lots of truth there. But social media is here, and to stay. I envisage that as time goes on, social media will become more mature and effective, as people learn what works best and what doesn’t.
Social media does provide an environment where there is “robust” discussion (One or three of my posts have been very blunt). Far more “robust” than in a face to face meeting would ever generate. I can see both advantages and disadvantages with that. It also allows for the participation of many more people with ideas
I wasn’t too sure about your comment on social media debate being influenced by a right wing MSM. The discussion here is very different than MSM news and opinion, and seems to have formed it’s own style reasonably independently?
xox
I used to give credibility to Dr Bryce Edwards blog but he seems to have lost his ‘ balance’ the closer he gets to the MSM. Funny that. Do others at TS feel the same?
On the trail of active businesses keeping the NZ economy going and what sector, there is an Insight on Sunday on Radionz with Wallace Chapman on the thoroughbred industry. I heard a trailer this morning and I think they feel neglected, not taken seriously and they employ 33,000 people. Let’s hear it for the gee gees!
Sunday 5/10 at 8.12 a.m. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight
The heady days when horse racing was king, are gone.
People are discovering new ways to spent their entertainment dollar and the thoroughbred industry is now having to share the gambling pie with others like lotto and the casinos.
Racing, along with greyhounds and trotting, still manages turnover nearing two billion dollars and contributes to about one percent of the country’s gross domestic product, but many in the industry say it is getting harder to make a living.
Radio New Zealand’s Waikato reporter, Andrew McRae talks to all parts of the thoroughbred racing industry from trainers and owners, through to the breeders and jockeys about how it can try to keep pace with its competitors.
I tried to get some stats on employment in dairying but it’s hard to find for a newbie. There are more details from the dairy companies on cows, opportunities finance, yield of milk and money. Simple employment does not rate highly.
Some of the pdfs don’t convert to my old Firefox very well. There are all sorts of symbols in the headings.
Stats NZ is like following a will of the whisp. Every time I got into an area which I think could answer the simple? question of the annual count of employment in the dairy industry. I was directed to some program that would provide it if I pressed this button and spent 10 minutes reading about it.
And of course there is the proviso of how they changed the employment count in 2003 to give a broad brush over all employment presumably. Until 2003, statistics used full-time equivalent (FTE) persons engaged as the business-size measure. From 2003 onwards, FTE was replaced by employee count (EC). Business demography statistics showing EC are available for 2000 onwards.
I think this means in reality, in use, that they can then count someone doing 1 paid hour per week in employment statistics, but that will require probably an hour’s study on how to use their tables and find definitions.
An interesting statistic from Min for Primary Industries: New Zealand dairy production has risen 77 percent over the past 20 years … Sources: Statistics New Zealand, DairyNZ, Fonterra Co-operative Group, and MPI. … The parties to the Accord agreed to work together to achieve clean healthy …
I suspect the problem has more to do with employment and earnings. When you look at the Labour MPs most of them would struggle to earn 70k a year let alone what an MP makes
So these MPs are making more money then they ever have before so its only natural that they want to protect the money because they know when they leave they won’t have the same power, unfluence or pay packet
I mean would T. Mallard or C. Curran get paid in the private market anything like they’re getting now?
I see the main issue with the left is that they’re creating policies that appeal to the party members not the public.
Great if you want to be a niche party, not so good if you want to be a major party.
I agree with you about the labour Mps, which is why they’re so hard to pry off the trough, politics is as good as it gets so they’re not going anywhere without a fight.
they’re creating policies that appeal to the party members not the public
hahaha. try again. your framing there is misleading, mischievous as well as malicious.
let’s see what those policies are that appeal to party members not the public? abandoning the call for GST to be removed from fresh fruit and vegetables? increasing the super age?
How much would Paula Bennett be able to earn? She’s pretty much as useless as Mallard or Curran, as are plenty of other Tories. The only way any of them make heaps is when they’re appointed to bullshit positions as a political reward.
In a victory for local residents opposed to the mine and Auckland Coal Action, The proposed excavation of the Mangatangi coal mine by Glen Coal ltd. just south of the city, at Mangatawhiri has been put on indefinite hold.
Dita de Boni
‘Time for Labour to embrace the left.
Instead of trying to appeal to ‘middle New Zealand’, the party should proudly stand by progressive values…….
I am convinced that the Labour party of today has the same problem. And the advice from well-wishers and nefarious right-wing commentators alike – to “appeal to middle New Zealanders” – is, I believe, misguided.
The fact of the matter is that “middle New Zealand” currently prefers John Key. They want tax cuts, they want a prime minister they could have a beer with. God alone knows why, but their ideal female politician is Judith Collins, Hekia Parata and Maggie Barry (the “Hyacinth Bucket” model).
And they don’t care that dirty politics seeps out of every pore of the current administration.
So be it. Labour, at present, cannot sway these people and is not in good enough shape to take on the right-wing smear machine. But to my mind, it doesn’t have to – right now. It needs to reclaim and reaffirm that it stands for genuine left-wing values and ignore the critics – critics that are often non-voters, or non-Labour voters, egged on by opponents.’
John Key is the type of person I least like having a beer with. He would insist on being the centre of attention and make puerile wisecracks. He’s the sort of guy who would have been better off not drinking in a public bar when they had heavy glass jugs. Something has changed drastically with middle NZ, and I don’t like it. Some people say that social attitudes have changed for the better, but when you see the Rawshark emails and chats, you realise that for a lot of movers and shakers on the right, this is only lip service.
AN ALERT – Lecture coming up 15 October Auckland. Wednesday 15 October, 6.30pm
Maidment Theatre
Alfred Street
The University of Auckland
The Maidment Bar will open from 5.30pm
The 2014 Bruce Jesson Lecture
Mike Joy – Paradise Squandered; New Zealand’s Environmental Asset Stripping
New Zealand’s lakes, rivers and most of our groundwater are in a critical state. Decades of misguided regulation and a free-for-all on diffuse pollution have encouraged agricultural intensification and driven our increasing reliance on imported feed and fertiliser.
The inevitable consequences have been devastating environmental impacts as well as increasing economic and biosecurity risks.
The solutions are many but require a paradigm shift; a move away from dependence on imported feed and fertiliser to keeping nutrients on farm and adding value to products, and strong leadership to move away from short-term thinking that accepts the massive ecological debt we are running up.
Mike Joy MSc(Hons), PhD in Ecology is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at the Ecology Group-Institute of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North. He has received a number of awards, including the Ecology in Action award from the New Zealand Ecological Society; an Old Blue award from the Royal Forest and Bird protection Society; Environmental New Zealander of the Year from North and South magazine and the Manawatu Evening Standard Person of the Year.
Presented by Politics and International Relations and the Bruce Jesson Foundation
Wednesday 15 October, 6.30pm
Maidment Theatre
Alfred Street
The University of Auckland
The Maidm
Except that ACTs currently in power and has been in power previously whereas the Greens have never been in power, in fact they’re the only party that’ve never had an mp in government
Fact is the Greens are nothing less then a disapointment
Both him and Dunne were reported as being over the $500K mark on Campbell live once all their perks and bonus salaries were added up. Nice work if you can get it. Over a million dollars for one party that polled 0.22% and one that polled 0.7%.
I’d say the Greens could learn something from them but I think they prefer to be martyrs rather then try to ackshully get something done for their voters
Chris Trotter’s latest missive stopped me in my tracks. I felt like I could have written the article from start to finish. ( If I could write)
A brilliant summary of how people like me still haven’t forgiven or forgotten.
I wonder where Jason Ede and Cathy Odgers are? Have they eloped? Are they helping out at Whaleoil? Or the new “moderators” at kiwiblog? I hope their disappearance is not creating any sort of holdup on the inquiries that have started.
Fuck Russel Norman (I say that as a long time GP member and voter). “Crazies”? Really?
“I mean we had enough trouble with John Key standing up every day telling all his nonsense about us and on the other had we had to deal with these crazies. Having them on the radio and tv all the time talking their nonsense, it was like ‘Oh god,’ it did make it incredibly difficult to change the Government at that point because a lot of people who might have voted for Labour went ‘Oh god, if a vote for Labour means a vote for Dotcom and Harre, I’m not going to do that,'” he says
i think the Greens lost votes in the last week because it was said by a television reporter ( rightly or wrongly) that Norman was making overtures and was seeking a coalition with Nactional !
…Unconscionable!…people were confused and shocked…it seemed like an opportunistic betrayal by the Greens who were signalling Labour would not win in their opinion ,so they were ready to do deals with the Nactional which represents BIG BUSINESS and is the biggest violator of the environment!
+1
Good comment Chooky. Sometimes I think we the ordinary people here have a more honest and clearer view of things than some of these stupid ego driven smart arse dumb political ‘leaders’.
+1
You can take the boy out of Brisbane, but you can’t take Brisbane out of the boy. I have to wonder how much his growing up in a white supremacist monoculture made him unable to understand Maori at all. I can’t think why else he would call them crazies, especially when they have a similar political alignment to his party.
I also think he can go and fuck himself, and Metiria should speak for the Greens. I was going off Norman anyway, with all his talk of fiscal responsibility.
lol….unfortunately for Starbucks New Zealanders have gotten used to good coffee….only young teenagers and Americans like Starbucks
my friend took me to Palm Beach and I was shocked to find only a Starbucks coffee shop….i refused to drink the coffee she bought me ….but bought her a cake with green icing …she refused to eat her cake….she reckoned the cakes were made from ingredients in rocketry (she looked up the listed ingredients of Starbucks cakes on her laptop and pronounced they were also used in rocket fuel or some such)….ONLY IN USA!
With speculation mounting that he will contest Labour’s leadership, Napier MP STUART NASH will go one on one with Sean Plunket tonight.
PLEASE NOTE — TONIGHT’S SHOW WILL BE AT THE LATER TIME OF 10 30.
And we’re surrendering. Tonight we have pundits! BILL RALSTON and BRIAN EDWARDS to take an informed but light hearted look back at the campaign.
(And yes, we know Brian is a friend of David Cunliffe and a long time Labour advisor and supporter and we also know that Bill worked on the National campaign. That’s why we invited them!)
It most definitely is not!
Just take a look at their policies. Which of these do you honestly think are ‘neo liberal’ policies?
*100,000 new, affordable homes
*Free healthcare to under 13s, pregnant women and over 65s
*Raising the minimum wage to $16.25
*Ensure every rental is warm and dry
*Everything paid for, plus we’re in surplus
*Ensure all Kiwis under 20 are in work, education or training
*Best Start for Kiwi kids
*Reduce unemployment to 4% in our first term
*Lower class sizes
*Extend paid paternal leave to 26 weeks
*Ensure that all our rivers and lakes are clean
*Lowering power bills
*Convert the dole to apprenticeships
*Protecting our land from speculators
*Christchurch recovery policy
*Capital gains tax excluding family home
*Increase tax to 36c/$ for incomes above $150,000
* investments to upgrade regional economies and create jobs
*Auckland and Christchurch city Rail Link
*Public Service Television Station
*Ban shark finning , animal testing of cosmetics, synthetic highs.
* New ministry for children
*Restore Adult and community education
*Kiwi assure insurance
*Marine reserves
*Abolition of secondary tax
*Inquiry into wages and collective bargaining
*Review of spy laws.
I think it is time the Left recognized we need a single Left party. It will require a huge amount of compromise on policies and organization. Can we do it or do we individually prefer to remain in the political wilderness?
why bother with MMP then? A single left party would homogenise left wing politics and disenfranchise more people. It might win Labour the govt, but what would be the point?
What a different election it would have been if instead of just National there was a farmers party, a small business party, and a real estate developers party.
with one monolithic left wing party we’d have a left version of National, locking NZ into a centrist/rightist govt long term. So again, what would be the point? Power at all costs?
Here’s another idea. How about Labour try being a left wing party and seeing if the non-vote comes out again. We’re running out of time though, because not voting will become a hard habit to break.
The rich countries like these kinds of wars: defense companies get richer as expensive ordinance gets blown up. But no troops on the ground to come home in coffins.
Sorry, Key. We are cannon fodder so if you send our SAS, send body bags, too.
FRIDAY, OCT 3, 2014 10:25 AM NZDT
The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies
Fraud, financial mismanagement, lousy results: Reports highlight awful charter schools and people are catching on
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, July 5 through Sat, July 11, 2020Editor's ChoiceThink Covid-19 Disrupted the Food Chain? Wait and See What Climate Change Will DoThe pandemic has revealed deep flaws in the ...
The Council of Disobedient Women There is a regular segment in the Speak Up For Women podcasts called “Absolutely Blasted Mad Moment of the Week”. Each podcast the speaker and the host discuss a recent event that is the most insane thing they have seen in the gender critical space ...
Todd Muller - Dishonest National Party leaderIt seems that dishonest Todd Muller is, like many right-wing politicians, entirely morally bankrupt. I mean just look at the National Party’s leaking omni-shambles over the last week or so. They’ve imploded in a spectacular display of backfiring dirty politics, the likes of which ...
MONDAY JULY 13Bodyguard (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). It's the final; if you haven't seen this already on Netflix, get ready, the ending is batshit.Unforgotten (Vibe, Sky 006, 8.30pm). I wonder if Sanjeev Bhasksar's character has got rid of that damn backpack in the third season of this cold case drama? Although, come ...
TUESDAY JULY 14Yorkshire Airport (Prime, 7.30pm). Bloomin’ ’eck, behind the scenes at Leeds Bradford Airport. Apparently, there is plenty of “northern charm”, although reaction in the UK ranged from “brilliant” to “patronising”. It is narrated by Hugh Dennis, whose middle name might be “Arch”.WEDNESDAY JULY 15Queen: Live at Wembley (Prime, ...
Simon Bridges must be the unluckiest person in New Zealand politics. When he was elected as leader of the National party, he also became Leader of the Opposition – a position, he was entitled to assume, that would require him to “oppose”. But the government he set out to oppose ...
This is a re-post from The Guardian by Damian Carrington Spreading rock dust on farmland could suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed global analysis of the technique. The chemical reactions that degrade the rock particles lock the greenhouse gas into ...
Check out Speak Up For Women’s new podcasts: Episode 3 In this episode Speak Up For Women spokeswoman Ani O’Brien (@aniobrien) is joined by Beth Johnson (@beth_nosnhoj) to discuss the proposal from Statistics NZ to change standard data collection policy to “gender by default” rather than sex. They discuss why the ...
During a recent public consultation on the future of Archives New Zealand, a key report was suppressed. The Ombudsman has ruled that the refusal was unjustified. Sadly, the consultation was over by the time of the the decision has been made. However, the law on the use of the ...
National MP - Michael WoodhouseUnbelievable! Michelle Boag also sent National’s Michael Woodhouse confidential emails about COVD-19 patients, and he continued to publicly attack the Government over these very same breaches of privacy.This is the biggest political self-own since the Act Party’s David Garrett admitted in Parliament that he used a ...
Transcript: National Party policy announcement on roads – 8 July, 2020 Muller: Good afternoon everybody. Thank you for coming. Reporter 1: Is Hamish Walker a racist? Muller: Hang on… you haven’t even said good afternoon to me yet. Reporter 1: Good afternoon Mr Muller. Is Hamish Walker a racist? ...
Back in April, I wrote about trials in Iran of a fixed-dose combination of two existing anti-viral drugs used to treat hepatitis C – sofosbuvir and daclatasvir – that could point to an effective treatment for Covid-19 symptoms.At the time, data from those trials was not available outside the hospitals ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Anja Mizdrak, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael BakerThe pandemic-related lockdown is possibly the most dramatic public health intervention in NZ history. It helped achieve the elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 virus in NZ. But it was also associated with 548 fewer total ...
Reprehensible: There is much that could be said about Michael Woodhouse, but what would be the point? Any man who willingly involves himself in a situation as reprehensible as the one depicted in the above photograph has already vouchsafed all that decent people need to know about his character. That there have ...
As the debate over assisted dying rages in the run-up to the referendum at the election on September 19, a persistent problem continues to dog the discussions. That is to say, a prominent spokesperson for a particular group takes a strong public stand in opposition without acknowledging that they don’t ...
No Other Suspects? The mainstream news media was willing to print and broadcast harsh Opposition criticism of the Government, even though they knew that the source of the leaked information was a National Party MP. Even though, by pushing the story up towards the top of every news bulletin they were ...
Sacrificial Lamb: If the stories about Mr Taogaga and the unauthorised release of confidential medical data had been deliberately orchestrated by Labour’s political opponents, their deflection of the news media’s attention away from the Prime Minister’s address to the Labour Party Congress could hardly have been more successful.THE LABOUR PARTY ...
The East is Rent: The consequences of unleashing the young against the old; of elevating ideological rigor above reasoned debate; and of setting the present against the past; was a decade of unprecedented social stress and tension, interspersed with explosions of murderous mob violence and tragic material destruction. More than ...
The Green Party of Aotearoa-New Zealand could go from helping Jacinda Ardern run the country, to being turfed out of Parliament altogether in ten weeks. And that could see the end of Labour in government. Without them, Labour would likely have to do what no party has done since the ...
Remember the government's tyrannicalTerrorism Suppression (Control Orders) Bill? Remember how it was rammed through Parliament, with a four-day submission period and a select committee process that was a democratic fraud? At the time, the government gave the impression that there was an urgent need for this legislation, that a ...
Attack journalist - Tova O'BrienWe all know that much of the mainstream media in New Zealand is terribly biased. They are in effect another branch of the National Party, and can often be even more prejudiced than their right wing bosses.In fact many right wing politicians moonlight as journalists and ...
Former National Party President - Michelle BoagAfter the complete botch job Hamish Walker made of leaking the private details of COVID-19 patients to the mainstream media last week, the best-case scenario for Todd Muller and the National Party would be if the news cycle went quiet about their involvement.But unfortunately ...
One of the challenges of working on illegal wildlife markets, is you don’t really have scope to talk about your research into illegal wildlife markets. There is some stuff though that willbe coming out on Asiatic black bears in China, and before Covid19, I was delving more into rhinos. Which ...
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...
Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters The massive dust storm that formed over the Sahara Desert in mid-June invaded the southeastern U.S. June 25-28, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution, low visibility, and colorful sunsets. The air pollution event over parts of Texas and the Gulf ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
James Higham, University of OtagoUnprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
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A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill (David Carter) Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill (Louisa wall) Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (Judith ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
The Green Party is today unveiling part one of its plan for a fossil-fuel free Aotearoa, including an immediate ban on new industrial coal boilers. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio is pleased to announce the inaugural launch of Kiribati Language Week as part of the 2020 Pacific language Weeks programme. “I am so pleased that this year we are able to provide resourcing support to the Kiribati community in Aotearoa which will ...
Wildlife institutions affected by a loss of visitor revenue during the COVID-19 lockdown are set to receive government support with nearly $15 million of funding available announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “Eco-sanctuaries, zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, and wildlife rescue, hospital and rehabilitation facilities provide crucial support for the recovery ...
The Government is expanding and accelerating frontline mental health and wellbeing services at tertiary education institutes (TEI) to help students manage ongoing stresses related to COVID-19. “The lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students. Many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their ...
The Minister of Police says a major operation against the Mongrel Mob in Waikato will make a big dent in drug harm and violent offending linked to organised crime networks. “Senior leadership of the Waikato Mongrel Mob has been taken out as a result of Operation Kingsville, which resulted in ...
The Government is extending the border exception criteria to enable some offshore victims and support people of the Christchurch mosque attacks to attend the sentencing of the accused beginning on 24 August2020, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “We want to support our valued Muslim brothers and sisters who were directly ...
A project to support volunteer efforts to look after streams and rivers is getting a boost thanks to support from DOC’s Community Conservation Fund announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “The government is backing efforts to look after waterways with $199,400 for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust from ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter today announced that funding for the COVID-19 Community Fund for women and girls will be doubled, as the first successful funding applications for the initial $1million were revealed. “Women and girls across the country have suffered because of the effects of COVID-19, and I ...
The Government’s books were better than forecast with a higher GST take as the economy got moving again after lockdown, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Crown Accounts for the 11 months to the end of May indicate the year end results for tax revenue will be stronger than forecast. ...
A plan to revitalise New Zealand’s strong wool sector and set it on a new, more sustainable and profitable path was unveiled today by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. The newly-released report - Vision and Action for New Zealand’s Wool Sector - was developed by the Wool Industry Project Action Group ...
Community efforts to create a Predator Free Whangārei will receive a $6 million boost, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced today. The new funding, through Government company Predator Free 2050 Ltd, will create around 12 jobs while enabling the complete removal of possums over ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that the New Zealand Government is reviewing the settings of its relationship with Hong Kong. “China’s decision to pass a new national security law for Hong Kong has fundamentally changed the environment for international engagement there,” Mr Peters said. “New Zealand remains deeply ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced details of a multimillion-dollar investment in Whangārei for infrastructure projects that will help it recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 200 jobs are expected to be created through the $26 million investment from the Government’s rejuvenation package ...
Following a second incident in which a person escaped from a managed isolation facility, security is being enhanced, including more police presence onsite, Minister Megan Woods said. “The actions of some individuals who choose to break the very clear rules to stay within the facilities means that more resourcing is ...
Waste reduction and recycling programmes in Kaipara are set to get a boost with Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage today announcing a $361,447 grant from the Ministry for the Environment’s Waste Minimisation Fund (WMF) Sustainable Kaipara. “The new funding will allow Sustainable Kaipara to partner with local schools, kura, community ...
The Government will support the Southland economy in the wake of multinational mining company Rio Tinto’s decision to follow through with its long signalled closure of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. “This day has unfortunately been on the cards for some time now, but nevertheless the final decision is a ...
New tools being developed to help boost Aotearoa’s Predator Free 2050 effort were unveiled today by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. A new rat poison, a camera with predator recognition software to detect and report predators, a new predator lure and a ...
The Coalition Government has approved the purchase of a fleet of Bushmaster vehicles to replace the New Zealand Army’s armoured Pinzgauers, Defence Minister Ron Mark has announced today. The new fleet of 43 Australian-designed and built Bushmaster NZ5.5 will provide better protection for personnel and improved carrying capacity. “The age ...
The Government’s three prevention frameworks to reduce family violence in Aotearoa were launched this week by Associate Minister for Social Development Poto Williams. The frameworks were developed in partnership with communities around New Zealand, and build on the work the Government has already begun with its new family violence prevention ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
A new Green Party announcement heralds a fast-exit out of fossil fuels through a massive state housing solar panel installation programme, a ban on new coal boilers, and the shifting of a target for renewable energy Solar panels and batteries would be installed in 30,000 State homes to create a "virtual power plant" if ...
As yet more male-led festival lineups are announced, Shaquille Wasasala, aka halfqueen, writes an open letter to the industry.To those whose career it is booking talent for music festivals, punters, and people who listen to music.As a DJ and artist who exists at many intersections that directly inform my lens ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Dunedin writer Victor Billot pens topical verse every Sunday. This week: disgraced MP Hamish Walker.Showing promise The MP for Clutha-Southland did, it is true, post on Facebook that he had been door knocking in Mataura when he hadn’t. He lied. The MP for Clutha-Southland did, it is ...
It’s one of the most commonly used weedkillers in the world, but pressure to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate could force us to come up with alternatives quickly. Listen to the full episode of Two Cents Worth below. Subscribe to Two Cents' Worth for free on Apple ...
The Covid-19 crisis has exposed gaps in the funding of early education that we should be bold in responding to, writes Sue Cherrington of Victoria University of Wellington Early childhood education has been in the media a great deal over recent weeks, initially with positive but increasingly with negative news reports. ...
It’s an economic theory that advocates tout as a solution to governments’ debt crises, but critics warn is a recipe for hyperinflation. Either way, modern monetary theory is getting a lot more attention in the era of Covid-19.Two big economic ideas have captured the popular imagination during the Covid-19 pandemic: ...
For one hour a week the supermarket lights are dimmed and the music stops. And it’s a kind of triumph, writes Michelle Langstone.I thought there’d been a power cut. The lights were out at the entrance, so you arrived into a kind of gloom. There was no music, and no ...
It’s no secret that New Zealand’s Covid-19 response was one of the world’s most effective. But to get an idea of how eagerly parts of our economy have rebounded post lockdown, take a look at our electricity demand data.Despite an impending wave of unemployment and looming fiscal challenges down the ...
In the second in the Spnioff’s Last on the list series, Dave King explains what inspired him to stand for the Act Party in Manurewa. At 20th spot on the list, if David Seymour’s party can win around 16% of the party vote, King is parliament bound.It wasn’t that long ...
Basketball is growing massively in popularity around the country, led by thousands of youngsters picking up the game every day. To The Line looks at what it’s like for New Zealand high school kids with hoop dreams.If there’s been a narrative rumbling away in the sports pages, it’s that of ...
Unbelievable. A first-rank world leader picks a needless fight with blameless allies, thus imperiling their unity. But that’s General de Gaulle for you.Impressive work, even by his standards. In 1967, Canada was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge (their Gallipoli – except that they ...
From RNZ Saturday Morning Described by a Guardian reviewer as “superb hate-reading”, writer and columnist Anand Giridharadas‘s latest book Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World investigates the hypocrisy of billionaire “do-gooders”. He questions how and why we have become reliant on the philanthropy of the super-rich ...
The Professional Hunting Guides Association is welcoming the High Court decision on DoC’s controversial tahr campaign. The High Court in Wellington was asked on Wednesday by the Tahr Foundation for a judicial review of DoC’s plan to kill thousands ...
With the 2020 general election nearly three months away, a new campaign is asking voters to vote in line with the future. Vote Climate 2020 aims to highlight the opportunity to build momentum behind climate change, ensuring climate justice is a key election ...
“ACT will target the gangs by hitting them where it hurts – their pockets,” according to ACT Leader David Seymour and Firearms Spokesperson Nicole McKee. “New Zealanders deserve to be safe and secure, but violent gangs are a scourge on our ...
Waffles don’t need to be sweet – these cheese and onion numbers make an excellent savoury breakfast with an egg, or an equally tasty dinner with leftover mince.It’s easy to default to sweet breakfasts without thinking. At least that’s the case in our household, as porridge or bircher muesli is ...
The government is revitalising the wool sector, splashing out on freshwater restoration projects, relieving student stress and showing kindness to Muslims by extending the border exception criteria. It is also increasing its support (in announcements from two separate Green Party Ministers) for women and for wildlife institutions. And it is ...
People have called it for it be pulled from the service, but the escapist fantasy of 365 Days is nothing new, writes Alie Benge.To every generation, a bullish alpha-male psychopath is born, and is for someone reason considered a romantic hero. We’ve been through a lot this year, and instead ...
As Aucklanders reluctantly adjust to the inconvenient practice of water conservation, a drought-savvy Northlander shares the tips and temperament needed to get through the dry times.Auckland’s water shortage was recently reported on The Project, and viewers were earnestly exhorted to fill their dishwashers completely before turning them on. My husband ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk A request by the Philippines’ biggest radio and TV network for a new franchise has been rejected by a congressional committee in a vote that will go down in history as a flagrant violation of the country’s constitution, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The Paris-based media ...
Hamish Walker's privacy leak debacle dominated the news this week, but it's not the first time a southern MP has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, writes Daisy Hudson. ...
Let’s not allow the focus on big-budget infrastructure projects to detract from the vital role public transport will play in revitalising our cities in a post-Covid world, says Greg Pollock.The recent match between the Blues and the Hurricanes was one of the world’s first major post-lockdown sporting fixtures. It was ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
In the heart of Christchurch is a Designated Character high school. What makes it unique? And should there be more like it? Frank Film visits Hagley College Paddy Grant was a 27-year-old truck driver when he rocked up to Christchurch’s Hagley High School, as it was then known. It was ...
"After he calms down we share the pie and talk about how hard the years since the show have been for him": a short story by Wellington writer Jordan Hamel. Every morning it’s the same. Cling wrap on the toilet seat, a pop up snake in my can of breakfast ...
Childcare centre closures have left families and staff out in the cold. In some cases, they were given just three days’ notice, Laura Walters reports Staff and families of Auckland’s Discoveries Educare branches feel blindsided by the sudden closure of the early childhood education centres. The Ministry of Education has ...
Controversy and the America's Cup go hand-in-hand and the latest edition is no different with Emirates Team New Zealand at the centre of financial mismanagement allegations. Extra Time unpicks the debate and ponders what does the latest Cup drama mean? And should we care? A study has revealed racial bias ...
Over the decades, Mike Fox has witnessed the housing market progressively tilt towards larger, more expensive homes. Without a major overhaul of the current regulatory processes, he says, things will never change.It’s one of the biggest problems our country faces – we cannot produce the affordable housing that’s so desperately ...
So-called dirty deals have been roundly denounced over the years. Hayden Donnell argues that they need to be normalised, and even embraced, in September’s election.Just before the 2011 general election, Patrick Gower was confronted with a political act so stomach-churning, it forced him to abandon his trademark reserve. John Key ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Victoria has recorded 288 new COVID-19 cases since yesterday, the largest daily increase we’ve seen so far. This big jump must have the Victorian government and health authorities very concerned, especially since nearly ...
The controversial 101 East episode Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown on 3 July 2020. Video: Al JazeeraPacific Media Watch Newsdesk Malaysian police summoned six Al Jazeera media workers today for questioning relating to an investigation for defamation and violation of Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA), reports IFJ Asia-Pacific. ...
Analysis - A National MP destroys his career, the government explains how someone with Covid-19 could walk around a supermarket and the closure of Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is announced. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Abrar Ahmad Chughtai, Epidemiologist, UNSW Australia’s chief medical officer Paul Kelly today recommended people in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire wear masks when leaving the house: […] If people have symptoms and they need to go for a test, for example, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rochelle Wynne, Director, Western Sydney Nursing & Midwifery Research Centre, Western Sydney University Over the past week, we’ve seen a spike in the number of COVID-19 infections among health-care workers in Victoria. This includes a doctor at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, one ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Paddy Nixon and Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan discuss the week in politics including the return to lockdown in Victoria, National Cabinet setting to slow the flow of Australian’s ...
We prefer our heroes untarnished. And few match the heroism of Winston Churchill. But a recent report in the Times reminds us of the inevitability of human frailty and the consequences of keeping it under wraps.During the second world war, Britain’s greatest single loss of life at sea was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ou Yang, Research Fellow, University of Melbourne Donald Trump has ordered US federal agencies to bypass environmental protection laws and fast-track pipeline, highway and other infrastructure projects. Signing the executive order last month, the US president declared regulatory delays would hinder “our ...
SAFE CEO Debra Ashton says "The NZDIA has done the right thing, and we’re glad to see Bertram has been held to account over his actions. He should take this as an opportunity to right his wrongs and show that he takes animal welfare seriously." ...
Takuta Ferris, Te Tai Tonga candidate for the Māori Party, is urging government to place whānau first in the wake of announcements around Tiwai Point. “The declaration that one of the region's major employers the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter is closing ...
Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. This month, we’re joined by The Spinoff’s managing editor, mall rat and self-confessed food philistine Duncan Greive.On this month’s Dietary Requirements, the gang’s back in the studio, and ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Chart 1: United States and Australia rising. Chart by Keith Rankin. These charts look at Covid19 incidence in China (the most important first-wave country, with a limited second wave), Italy (the lead second-wave country), and USA and Australia (second-wave countries – drawing their caseload from Europe ...
The Government must listen to the Muslim community to rectify its failure to act in the past, says the Human Rights Commission. The Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand (IWCNZ) submission to the Royal Commission of Inquiry was released this week. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, President, Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics. Senior Research Fellow, Moral philosophy, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Law Futures Centre., Griffith University Earlier this week, 150 high-profile authors, commentators and scholars signed an open letter in Harper’s magazine ...
You can’t keep a good woman down and Helen Clark is no exception. Her new appointment, as co-chair of a review of how the World Health Organisation handled the coronavirus pandemic, will test her formidable political skills. Sitting with her is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian president, who handled the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Connor, Lecturer, James Cook University While many people may enjoy a game of backyard cricket, only a few go on to become elite professional batsmen in Australia. Cricket batting is example of what human skills can achieve. The fastest bowling delivery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee Baumgartner, Professor of Fisheries and River Management, Institute for Land, Water, and Society, Charles Sturt University This article is a preview of Flora, Fauna, Fire, a multimedia project launching on Monday July 13. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native ...
CEAC review of pre-election National’s “outline plan” just sent to us by Todd Muller 9/7/20 was actually his speech about his plan and was described as ‘an outline’. So in our review of National Party response to A Greener, Smarter Future; climate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Podger, Honorary Professor of Public Policy, Australian National University In Hidden Hand, China scholars Clive Hamilton and Marieke Ohlberg examine the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in Europe and North America in a similar way to how Hamilton dissected the CCP’s influence ...
“I can see why people are fed up, many are wondering how to clothe and feed their kids, or how they are going to pay their rent next week and still others are wondering what has happened to our beautiful Kiwi Way of Life. Well no party in parliament ...
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk Sixty press freedom groups and civil society organisations, journalism institutions, filmmakers, and other supporters have formed a coalition in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines, united around the call to #HoldTheLine. Today the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for ...
National MP Michael Woodhouse also received Covid-19 patient emails from Michelle Boag, and deleted them when he realised she was implicated in a separate email scandal. National Party leader Todd Muller says no further MPs in his party received confidential information from Michelle Boag, after revelations today that Michael Woodhouse also ...
The government is extending border exceptions to allow overseas victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks and their support people to attend the shooter's sentencing. ...
Ever wanted to be Iron Man? Sam Brooks prefers Pepper Potts, but he had a great time stepping into the iron suit anyway.The first few moments of Iron Man VR are where it plays its hand, confidently and assuredly. You hold your palms out in front of you, and Iron ...
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Open mike is your post.
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First post for me on The Standard, but am surprised that Tim Barnett has been able to censor what is and what isn’t posted on this site. Is this an indication of what we are going to see in the future? Not sure that I am comfortable with such suppression of free speech.
How is it suppression of free speech?
He probably asked nicely and lprent responded by respecting the request. Sounds pretty reasonable all round to me.
It was a polite request and lprent decided to take it down. There was no censorship involved.
And everyone complains Slater/Farrer are puppets of the National Party. Just more effective puppets it seems.
@ Cancerman (1.2.1)
The concern with Slater and Farrar was that they were working in a clandestine way, receiving privileged information, probably often illegally, attacking other people and politicians.
What the Standard has done is in no way comparable. A request was made to remove information. Lprent has clearly (very clearly) detailed both that request, and his acceptance. If others want to be titillated by a regretted action that has been apologised for, then they are free to use Google or Slater and Farrar.
It’s not really a case of puppets. Those trying to seize the action as yet another example of “Gotcha” politics, are better described as muppets.
Agreed. Strange to equate the unpublishing of a post with the smearing of innocent people using beehive sourced information.
Well the action quite clearly shows influence by the Labour Party over this blog that can not be denied. So who to say that information isn’t past and attacks aren’t made. We just take your word for it I assume?
His word, and the result of the official investigations that are no doubt warranted and you’ll be presenting evidence to. No? No police complaint? Nothing for the SFO to worry about?
Careful, comrades, Beverley Wakem’s about to kick the door down.
If we asked you to stop being an asshole, and you agreed because you thought it was a reasonable request, would that be censorship or influence?
lprent appears to have decided that Barnett made a reasonable request. His autonomy and the autonomy of this blog is in no way compromised by that.
So being civil and responding positively to a request Cancerman now means that the standard is a labour party blog and involved in dirty politics?
Do you read Cancerman, can you read? I mean what’s my politics – ask any labour person my position?
Have you read anyone else here and their opinions – Oh lets say Karol or Phillip Ure.
How about Iprent himself? Labour party hack you think?
Odd, what an odd comment you have made cancerman – it seem to me to reek of desperation. Of an individual who does not like or struggles with polite or civilised society. Or you’re a person who is feeling a little gun shy about voting for a government actively involved in the perversion of politics, morality and the decent society.
How can it be that a polite request, made to a reasonably fair minded individual, is somehow turned into a grand conspiracy?
Is politeness, now nothing more than something else the right can attack the left on?
Yes, that’s what everyone complains about, isn’t it. No? What’s that you say? In Greymouth?
Now I remember, it isn’t that the National Party has puppets, it’s the things it uses them for that are currently under investigation by at least three independent agencies including the SIS, Ombudsman and Police.
On balance, I think putting the post up in the first place was a mistake: it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, do we really want politicians families to be fair game?
Politics being war by other means I think it’s worth recalling how we treat soldiers who shoot civilians.
PS: yes, yes, I know, we give them medals and a lecture tour, I was speaking hypothetically.
Polite request…Yeah Right!
You need to remember that Labour was led into the last election by a Statesman. The type of message that was censored is not befitting for a Statesman led party. Please understand that censorship is for your own good
Music4menz, censorship is when an official agency rules that the publication of certain material is illegal.
No such edict is in force or even enforceable, Open Mike being what it is. No information is suppressed, being in the public domain elsewhere.
In any case, speech at The Standard isn’t “free” – it costs money to host the site and we inhabitants are subject to its rules and our modern Robespierre, Lprent.
You do remember what happened to Robespierre don’t you?
Presided over the Reign of Terror and was then deposed and guillotined.
Surely there is a better comparison? I see him as Christopher Robin, presiding over the residents of the Hundred Acre Wood.
I see him more as Kermit the frog presiding over a bunch of …think I’ll leave that bit out, not sure what his sense of humour is like at the moment 🙂
Where have all the Kactus Kate posts on Whalespew gone? Who censored them and suppressed her free speech?
“..If You Stop Eating Beef – But Still Eat a Lot of Dairy – You Won’t Help Climate Change..
..A new study may have you rethinking your eating habits..”
(cont..)
http://www.alternet.org/food/eating-less-meat-more-dairy-climate-change
..A new study may have you rethinking your eating habits..”
Or not 🙂
Phillip, I cant see that happening at my house anytime in the near or even long distant future.
Im still trying to reconcile the local YMCA gym advertising how bad plastic water bottles are, while they have large vending machines full of the stuff in the front foyer.
And Im not sure if me driving to the gym each day is kosher either. 🙂
@ tlh..
i crack up at the auto-eroticists who drive their bike-laden s.u.v.’s to ponsonby..
..park up..unload their expensive-toys..
and make their lycra-clad way up and down ‘p’-road…
Likewise, eating industrial grains and beans courtesy of Monsanto doesn’t help with AGW either.
It’s not what you eat, it’s how it’s grown that makes the difference.
Get with the programme weka.
AGW was dropped ages ago, it’s, “climate change” these days.
That’s because the globe is not warming and anyone who has heard of stuff
like, say, the ice ages for e.g. cannot deny that the climate does change.
People are not sucked into AGW any more.
Much easier to spook the sheeple with just ‘climate change.’
Do you recall Miss Clark scoffing accross the parliament at the, “Climate change
deniers.”
This is just as effective in shutting down your opponents as labelling them racists or homophobes and so on.
You have just reminded me that I need to start writing some more posts on climate change. In particular the probable time line and effects of the rapid melting of the WAIS that the drilling over the last few years revealed.
Thank you… Your ignorant stupidity was inspiring
On climate change: I saw this on Al Jazeera this morning. Thousands of walrus’s corwding on to the shore on Alaska’s coast. usually they seek ice covered places to go ashore, but that is becoming harder for them to find.
The Guardian report on it:
Iprent…,
I guess from your post above that you dissagree with me about AGW and climate change.
Thats fine, but why do you need attack me personally ?
Do you find that tactic lends some weight to your opinion ?
Use of childish invective like calling me ignorant and stupid reveals more about your character than anything else.
When someone is insensible to logic, one might as well call them the moron that they are.
It won’t change their opinions or undeserved sense of mental adequacy, but it can be fun.
I thought Lpent was gentle with you crick
Jeez, looks like I’ve innocently upset a few very thin skins here.
Why do these types personally attack everyone they dissagree with and
call them names. (Kind of childish way to discuss an issue isn’t it?)
Perhaps any one of you could explain the difference between AGW and
climate change ?
That is a simple question.
Now I would not call ‘McFlock’, ‘dv’, or even ‘Iprent’ ignorant or stupid so let
us see if any one of them could prove it and answer that one simple
question.
By the way. I would have no difficulty to explain the difference and will do
so for you if none of you are capable.
‘Much easier to spook the sheeple with just ‘climate change.’
‘This is just as effective in shutting down your opponents as labelling them racists or homophobes and so on.
OH I am sorry those comments were meant as intelligent discussion about a serous issue.
The fact that you are asking a question to which you claim to already know the answer demonstrates that you are not interested in a genuine discussion.
So I could talk about how AGW is a type of CC, but really you don’t give a shit. Because you’re a moron.
BTW, I don’t personally attack everyone I disagree with. Just fucking morons whose egos write cheques that their braincell can’t cash.
Hi McFlock,
You are right, I do know the answer to that question.
The reason that I asked it was to see if you or dv or Iprent knew the
answer.
So, according to you, I don’t give a shit, I’m a fucking moron, and a bit of extra abuse regarding my ego and braincell thrown in for extra emphasis.
Charming, You seem to be a real prince.
PS. I’ve never ever personally abused anyone on this blog.
I did suggest to weka that the term anthropogenic global warming had
been replaced by climate change and got abused by you and abused and threatened by Iprent for my trouble.
Can any of you answer the question or not ?
No you don’t. That’s obvious from ignorant comments and I’m not going to bother to try and enlighten you as it’s obvious that you’ll continue denying reality because it goes against your beliefs.
I never said you knew the answer to your question.
If you think treating everybody like fucking morons (by making idiot statements and wanking with passive-aggressive questions that you believe you know the answer to) gives you the moral or intellectual advantage over someone honest enough to point out precisely why you are a fucking idiot and which specific comments you wrote demonstrate that you are patently uninterested in good-faith discussion of an issue, then your compass is broken.
If you want an answer to simple questions, then why don’t you try wikipedia.
Start here AGW
What you should be looking at is timescales. Most background climate change is done on long time scales.
For instance with the houndreds of millions of years ofcontinental drift of Antarctica into the southern polar region from the Cretaceous to the Quaternary that lead to the formation of the southern polar icecap and the circumAntarticia ocean and atmospheric currents that keep it as a fridge for the globe. Or the Milankovitch orbital cycles that operate over 10s-100s or thousands of years and which appear to be closely related to Quarternary glaciation cycles.
But these are all pretty long cycles. There are shorter climate change events related to plume events from the earths radioactive core causing larger sustained volcanic events (like the Deccan traps).
Similarly short unsustained volcanic events around subduction zones causing ash triggered climate changes, which rarely persist for more than teeny numbers of years – typically 3-4 years.
Of the various very short-term (decades) and long term (hundreds of millions of years) solar cycles.
But AGW refers to climate change that is both short-term and sustained which is highly abnormal in the geological record and typically associated with large diebacks in the biotic parts of the climate system (large meteorite impacts mostly).
For instance the slow cooling of the northern hemisphere in the initial industrial era due to dust (approx 1850-1950) that cause regional effects.
But in less than 150 years we have seen some marked changes in the whole earth’s heat balance that are on the scale of the interglacial changes (they’re warming the entire earth’s oceans) but are happening in a fraction of the usual geological process times. These are (>95% confidence) attributed to changes in the composition of the earth’s atmosphere with the human introduction of greenhouse gases.
So having given you this extremely basic primer for a moron, could you please look down the links and get your useless brain aware of geological timescales. Then it might be worth training you to up to primary school level.
Now, far be it from me to resort to the same level of nasty personal abuse and threats that i have copped from Iprent and others on this site today so…
excuse me if I ask……
Did Tim Barnet OK your 9.49 effort yet Iprent ?
You may have to withdraw it if Tim doesn’t like it.
You still can’t resist calling me a ‘moron’ and referring to my ‘useless brain’
You just can’t help yourself can you.
Quite sad.
What’s sad is that you keep coming back to make moronic statements and snide innuendo.
Cricko: Thats fine, but why do you need attack me personally ? and PS. I’ve never ever personally abused anyone on this blog.
Cricko’s subsequent personal attacks on others:
Thinned skinned
Childish
Sad
Beholden to a Labour party puppet master
etc.
I gotta go,
G’nite all.
I leave it to all readers of the above to make up their own minds.
PS I do give Iprent a tick for not banning me forever from this site in spite of his threat.
Onya Iprent 4 that.
Just because he is not able to debate the issue without resorting to personal invective does not mean that he may not have a cogent point. Duh! What !
Thing is, based on the above exchanges…….
What is his point ?
The question was always quite simple.
He will be seeking wise counsel from Tim Barnet for some guidence.
We await a decision from Tim.
We’re not the ones being muzzled by Labour. Good being their lapdog eh? Sure your brain can get around that.
Nope it just expresses what I think about you. It was quite pointed abuse
That you are quite stupid and and obviously quite ignorant on earth sciences is to me perfectly obvious. No more and no less.
I even thanked you for reminding me that I have a role in helping to educate those unfortunates who don’t understand the science. When I read your comment I could the weight of unfulfilled duty from my earth science degree calling to me to clear the weight of your ignorance.
BTW: I’d suggest you read the policy on the site about what is permissible and expected before I get around to doing a moderating sweep. My moderating personality tends to get irritated about people telling other people how they should behave on this site. That is the moderators job.
Hi Draco T Bastard, hope you are having a nice evening.
So, you too jump on the personal abuse wagon and accuse me of ignorance.
And, in your mind I am denying reality . How so ?
Are all the correspondents on this site incapable of discussion ?
I suggested that the term AGW had been superseeded by the term climate change.
Is that wrong ?
Look at the vituperate reaction that has provoked on this blogsite.
It’s staggering.
You join in with glee and tell me what I think and that you wont bother to reply to what you think I think. Jeez.
So why post anything ?
Why waste your time.
Do you know the answer to the question ?
Are you able to address the question without resorting to childish personal abuse simply because I had the temerity to pose it ?
Here is your chance to show you have something about you.
You have the Open mike. Go for it.
That is because we have seen far too many idiots like yourself coming through who haven’t bothered to examine the evidence. Instead you seem to think that your close examination of your pubic hairs whilst wanking is as important as being less self-indulgent and bothering to learn enough to make intelligent conversation.
Are you getting the point yet? We have heard all this before from other morons. You appear to be both stupid and ignorant. It simply isn’t worth the effort of explaining how and why you are.
Please check out my primer that I carefully wrote and linked for you. Then ask some intelligent questions rather than sending the blood to the wrong organ.
One last observation.
Read your risible effort @ 9,54 again.
You cite.
“idiots like you”
“other morons”
“examinine your pubic hairs” and
“wanking”
“You appear stupid and ignorant”
” It simply is not worth the effort explaining”
and yet you can’t help explaining.
Then you call for “intelligent questions”
Just silly.
Maybe a huge intellect like, say, Drako T Bastard
can explain your point for you.
Go Drako………………eh!
[proceeds to list half a dozen examples of personal opinion, not a single example of citation to be seen]
I love it when idiots try to fake intelligence by using words bigger than they are. And then accuse others of being silly.
Who needs Drako when you have McFlock ?
See 12.41 am
Gee, McFlock great post, you can really sting. Not.
What was that old saying about comming unarmed to a battle of wits ?
I had great fun tonight,
hope you did too.
(and guess what. I did not need to resort to personal invective once to do you like a dogs dinner.)
Calling names….call me an idiot….that the best you have ?
That your argument ?
Pathetic.
The best I have? Nah.
But the unadorned truth is sufficient.
Btw, you might want to avoid pwned statements. Even if they are performance-art tributes to the great Surrealists.
“..It’s not what you eat, it’s how it’s grown that makes the difference..”
bullshit..!..complete and utter self-defending/justifying bullshit..
..did you even read the link..?
..another ‘green’ totally relaxed about both animal-exploitation/cruelty..
..and the burning of the planet..
..just so they can chew on animal-flesh and/or bye-products…
..can’t interfere with that..!
..their ‘green’ doesn’t go quite as far as that..
..i wonder just how..in their own minds..
..they can consider themselves ‘green’ in any way..
..animal-eating-green:..the walking-oxymoron..
I was listening to the Kathryn Ryan interview with Robbie Deans yesterday, Ive always been a Dean’s fan since the 80’s when he competed with Alan Hewson (who couldn’t tackle to save himself).
Deans reckoned that the critics affect the family/partners the hardest because they have no control, which brought me back to Karen Price’s enlightening tweets on the internal workings of the Labour Party.
But is David Cunliffe the Robbie Deans of NZ politics. Steve Tew (ABD perhaps) is to Robbie Deans what the ABC’s are to David Cunliffe.
Just a thought.
Naughty Colonial Viper!
Upsetting Clare Curran! Butter wouldn’t melt on her mouth.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/318024/curran-alleges-dirty-politics#comment-63063
Will Tim Barnett haul her in for a bollicking for washing clean linen in public?
This abuse of Twitter by the leading light of Robertson’s team will bring the party into disrepute.
Good to see someone standing up and doing something, thanks CV.
”This is dirty tricks and dirty politics in Dunedin South,” she told the Otago Daily Times this week.
Ok, so now ‘dirty politics’ is any time a political opponent opposes you in ways you disapprove of? Thanks Clare, we really needed a career politician on the left to render the concept of Dirty Politics that much less relevant 🙄
Not wanting to stae the obvious but its things like this that reinforce the notion that Labour are nowhere near ready to lead the country
You’d think an MP would realise that
+100 weka
Every time I have seen anything from Curran, she has been shooting Labour in the foot. When we actually have an investigative journalist who actually has uncovered real dirty politics, and NAct has tried to change the definition away from their organised filth, why is a Labour MP giving credibility to the NAct story?
Go get her CV. Time for a team that cares about more than their seats in parliament.
Aha… thanks NaPSS. Guyon Espinor mentioned it this morning.
Clare Curran has yet another “moaning, whining, public tanty”.
There’s a clear pattern developing here. The moaners and attackers bellowing to the media are former ABCers. What does it mean? Is someone coordinating them, or are they merely copying the ‘Dirty Politics’ meme – that is, accuse those who you attack… of doing the attacking!
Giving it back double.
We should all write to the Gen Sec asking that she gets some form of “counselling”. Perhaps she should be asked to pay Tat’s Labour membership fees for the next ten years?
As a well intentioned Labour Party member with a history of effective community activism…yup…get in touch and count me as ‘in’ Tat. Cheers.
Ditto.
Will do.
Good luck CV, always a struggle swimming against the Curran
Poor Clare is getting a trouncing on-line at the OTD (Otago Daily times).
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/318024/curran-alleges-dirty-politics#comment-63063
I wonder if she is calling on the Editor of the OTD to practice the same type of leadership that she exercised when in control (with Grant R) of the Red Alert?
There is a very sexy picture of Tat there also. A real vote catching photo!
@ Not a PS Staffer
That’s interesting. Oh good new people joining up to the Party. Ooh the Party in Dunedin didn’t know if they really wanted them. Joining up like that theywould presumably have also been able to vote for the leader. Tat Loo definitely has a good head for strategy and policy. Not one to stay sitting on the whoopee cushion, though he might play a trick with it on one of the other sitting MPs.
I hope that some of you will enjoy this awesome lecture from John Perkins about the secret history of American Empire. John Perkins wrote “Confessions of an economic hitman” and in this lecture given at the Marlboro College in 2009 he tells his student audience about the history of the World Bank and the IMF and how they perform their “Duties”. It is part of my series about the Washington consensus and how John Key and ex-World Bank second in command Graeme Wheeler fit into the system and also how it connects with the policies put into place here in New Zealand.
The Washington Consensus, A Backgrounder And Yes, It Is Being Implemented In New Zealand Right Now http://wp.me/p638n-4w8
+1 Ev
Lets be honest. The Robertson and Cunliffe debate is simply personality politics. Call it for what it is, and vote accordingly.
It’s really nothing to do with “left” and “centrist” and “core values” and “neo-liberal” and “traitorous”. And I can confidently assert this, because the debate is all about these labels and not about policy substance.
6@ boldsirbrian………….
I am not sure there is anything simple about the situation Labour is currently finding itself in in terms of Labour’s caucus.
Likely there is a component of “personality politics.
What I have been reminded of is how powerful the phenomena of “group think” is. How people feel uncomfortable when they don’t concur with the dominant opinion that a group appears to hold.
And given the issues that some in the Labour caucus are so vocal about I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t what is going on around DC.
A personal anecdote to illustrate. Some twenty years ago or so I was the leader of a smallish team in a work place of 30. I had to select a small group of colleagues to attend a conference. We travelled to the conference and all bar one of them bunked off virtually for the whole event. I expressed my displeasure to one on the plane going home. When I next went into work (I was part time) out of the staff of 30 (ish) only two people spoke to me.
They then sabotage everything I tried to do. It was a very unpleasant experience. Fortunately I left and when on to a much, much better job and career wise I have never looked back.
I hope people on this site will forgive me for a personal anecdote, but I can’t help beut wonder (and it is only speculation) that a similar thing hasn’t happened to DC.
.
@anker (6.1)
I am not sure there is anything simple about the situation Labour is currently finding itself in in terms of Labour’s caucus.
and ……. What I have been reminded of is how powerful the phenomena of “group think” is
Yes. Great post; Relevant anecdote
However, looking at the above quotes together ………
Labour Caucus. It’s easy to throw stones there
Bloggers at the Standard. It’s harder to self reflect here
“It’s really nothing to do with “left” and “centrist” and “core values” and “neo-liberal” and “traitorous”. And I can confidently assert this, because the debate is all about these labels and not about policy substance.”
Do you mean the debate here? Because there was been lots around left vs neoliberal. Or do you mean between DC and GR?
It’s unfortunate that most of the MSM seem focussed on the invidivuals rather than what this represents in terms of left and neoliberal.
I guess the time is coming for DC to stand up and declare where he really intends to head (if he wins). Second chance won’t become a third one. Make or break time.
6@ boldsirbrian………….
I am not sure there is anything simple about the situation Labour is currently finding itself in in terms of Labour’s caucus.
Likely there is a component of “personality politics.
What I have been reminded of is how powerful the phenomena of “group think” is. How people feel uncomfortable when they don’t concur with the dominant opinion that a group appears to hold.
And given the issues that some in the Labour caucus are so vocal about I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t what is going on around DC.
A personal anecdote to illustrate. Some twenty years ago or so I was the leader of a smallish team in a work place of 30. I had to select a small group of colleagues to attend a conference. We travelled to the conference and all bar one of them bunked off virtually for the whole event. I expressed my displeasure to one on the plane going home. When I next went into work (I was part time) out of the staff of 30 (ish) only two people spoke to me.
They then sabotaged everything I tried to do. It was a very unpleasant experience. Fortunately I left and went on to a much, much better job and career wise I have never looked back.
I hope people on this site will forgive me for a personal anecdote, but I can’t help beut wonder (and it is only speculation) that a similar thing hasn’t happened to DC.
I have always been aware of how “group think” operates and I speak up and resist it everytime I get a sniff of it.
I think that most are buying into a presidential like system as promoted by the main stream media. David Cunliffe did in my opinion do a reasonable job during the election campaign, as would have any of the other candidates for labour leadership in the last few years. There does how ever seem to be a disconnect between the labour party hierarchy and the caucus. Before we deal with the more important issues of party structures and personnel, this leadership issue needs to be resolved to get the media to change focus.
@ Jim (6.2.1)
That’s a really good point Jim.
Why do political parties (and I’m talking all of them here) buy into the “Presidential” system that suits the MSM?
For some parties there is no alternative (WinstonFirst, DunneFirst, ActFirst and ConservyLoons). Another Party (DirtyJohn) has one orator who outshines everybody else in the caucus, and they gain advantage in keeping the less able away from public scrutiny.
But Labour , could, if it so chose, set it’s own path during an election. Refuse to make the Leader the sole spokesperson. Refuse to participate in Leader’s debates, if these are the only Air time available (They actually told us nothing, apart from the fact that Cunliffe is a very good debater, and Key is lovable or hateable depending on your political views.)
Bring out, and emphasise the team. Less convenient for MSM, but make that their problem. Bring out the Shadow Minister of Health to talk health issues, Education to talk Education issues, and the Finance spokesperson to provide the “gotcha” details on Fringe Benefit Tax. Show the Leader of the Party as exactly that …..somebody who can lead a competent team. Rather than someone simply selected as the best debater.
I suggest that this may work well for either Cunliffe or Robertson, or actually any other leader.
It’s an idea anyway?
you are wrong brave-brian..
..it is entirely about the battle for the direction of the labour party..
..does it..under robertson..continue to cling to the neo-liberal policies of the last 30 yrs..
..or does it..under cunnliffe..
..embrace progressive-polices focusing on poverty-busting etc..
..the personality stuff is just a distraction..
..and the right/corporate-media know what a crossroads this is..
..(hence their vicious-firestorm of a hate-campaign against cunnlife..
..they are terrified of the idea of a real labour party..
..one shed of its’ neo-liberal aberrations..)
..and they also know what they want..
..and that is robertson..and neo-lib..
..and just that fact should be enough to disqualify robertson..
..(and i have figured out why a joke like nash is there..he is there to make robertson look less neo-lib than he is..)
.
@ phillip ure (6.3)
Thank you for your post, for you provide an excellent example of what the debate is unfortunately about. And which leaves me to conclude it’s not really of substance and more about the personalities of the contenders.
I’ll look further into your statements. Full of emotion, but basically a lot of hot air. I assume, suspect, you’ve got some ideas of substance lurking underneath, but until Labour activists start articulating what those are, instead of throwing around labels, the movement is doomed to not achieve what is possible.
~~~~
..it is entirely about the battle for the direction of the labour party.. ..does it..under robertson..continue to cling to the neo-liberal policies of the last 30 yrs..
..or does it..under cunnliffe…embrace progressive-polices focusing on poverty-busting etc..
“clinging to” emotive bullshit
“neo-liberal policies of the last 30 years” meaningless claptrap, needing substance
“embrace progressive policies” emotive bullshit
“focussing on poverty-busting” Wow. The nearest we have come to something of substance. But still absolutely no details. No evidence of what your hero has done, or said he will do, that your villain will not also do.
I personally think that inequality and doing something about poverty are issues that are of the highest priority. The very highest. But if anybody is trying to persuade me that one candidate is better than another on the basis of one being good (“embraces progressive”) and not bad (“clinging to neo-liberal”) I’d suggest a course in Sales 101. It’s not that your answer is necessarily wrong. It’s just the justification that is absent. Totally missing in action.
~~~~
..the personality stuff is just a distraction…….and the right/corporate-media know what a crossroads this is………(hence their vicious-firestorm of a hate-campaign against cunnlife………they are terrified of the idea of a real labour party……
..one shed of its’ neo-liberal aberrations..)………and they also know what they want………and that is robertson..and neo-lib……….and just that fact should be enough to disqualify robertson..
Please just read this again, and again, and again. It’s absolute nonsense. At it’s very best, it’s drivel. It’s easier to say nothing with blank lines. It’s like a TV advertisement for hair shampoo. Trying to convey something?? by repetition. But repetition of a pile of crap, simply makes a bigger pile.
If these are reasons why you have a hero, and the other one is a villain, I suggest you change shampoos. Or preferably work at a shampoo factory for a week, to get the real detail on the ingredients in each shampoo.
~~~~
….(and i have figured out why a joke like nash is there..he is there to make robertson look less neo-lib than he is..)
When two people sit around, and have a common understanding of a problem, it’s ok to chew the fat, and say what you think. But all I understand from this statement (and I understand it well) is that you dislike Nash (intently). And that gets us where, precisely? Is this meant to be another argument that your hero should be elected, and your villain not be elected? I don’t think so.
Re my earlier comment about group think and the “personality issues”. I think this is (ie. group think) probably a factor, but just one factor.
I think the other issues are, Who will best represent the party? Who is geniune and capable about reversing policies that have hurt so many NZders, particularly Labour constitutiuants? Rogernomics or call it what you will has been so damaging for so many in NZ. My vote will go to someone who I believe has the will, the determination and knowledge to reverse this.
At the leadership campaign meeting I went to last year when the candidates were asked what they would like to be known for, DC that was what he wanted to be known for, i.e reversing Rogernomics.
@anker (6.3.1.1)
Thoughtful comment.
Another significant issue is of course “Who will best achieve election success for the Party?” (Although your “Who will best represent the Party?” possibly covers this.)
My concern is that the leader may represent the party’s objectives very well, but his (or her) personal characteristics may turn voters off. I’m not thinking homosexuality here as much as perceptions of sincerity, drive, arrogance, empathy etc. These are all valid concerns along with the issues that you have raised.
And I appreciate your reference to policies.
A reference to a NZ Herald article, by Dita de Boni, has already been made – Time for Labour to embrace the left
Dita starts off with frustrating references to “progressive” values. (Everybody in the Labour Party probably has a reasonable understanding of the term, in their own heads at least. The label may even mean the same thing to most in the Party, but possibly not. But outside the Party in Voter-land, it probably means little.)
But then Dita immediately redeems herself, and actually starts specifying what progressive means. She picks issues such as “free basic education, a fairer tax system, protecting our ecosystem, better workers and human rights, and a strong health system that does not discriminate between rich and poor”
These are the things that will appeal to potential voters. They are not detailed policies, but they are a clear vision… She promotes a path: “In following the path of defining a set of core values and sticking with them even when the prevailing conservative chorus is decrying them” She gives good specific advice on how to work with other parties who have specific policies in common.
Good stuff. Worth reading the full article.
shit..!..bold-brian..
..apologies for not presenting a full poverty-busting poverty-program..
..but hey..!..a financial transaction tax on the banksters wd be a good start..
..to get that poverty-busting (’emotive’ i know..but there you go..!..)..to get that underway..
…heard of that..?
..can i suggest you google ‘neo-liberal-‘…?..(that may help enlighten you there..)
..’shampoo-references pass me by..
..i am part of the shampoo-free movement..
..haven’t piled that muck on my hair for years..
(and yes..thick/luxuriant/shiny enough to make dunne turn green with envy..)
..and seeing as you ask..
..and aide from nash being such good buddy/buddies with the denizens of the far-right..as in slater/lusk etc..
..(you quite relaxed about that..?..)
..there is the small fact that he is currently walking around trying to peddle the bullshit that he won the seat of napier because of his all-round skills..
..(going so fucken far as to offer to show other labour candidates ‘how’..(!)..)
..whereas the facts of the matter are that nash got no more votes in ’14 than he did in ’11..
..and the only reason he won napier..
..is because garth mcvicar stood for the conservatives..
..and hived over 4,500 votes from the national candidate..
..had he not done that..nash wd have lost..
..so yes..that he seems to be basing everything ‘good’ about him on what is a pile of stinking/steaming bullshit..
..i will yell out alarms about him..
..and point out what a joke he is..
@ phillip ure (6.3.1.1.1.1)
shit..!..bold-brian..
Would Mr. Botany (B.) be more politically correct?
~~~
..apologies for not presenting a full poverty-busting poverty-program…..
..but hey..!..a financial transaction tax on the banksters wd be a good start..
..to get that poverty-busting (‘emotive’ i know..but there you go..!..)..to get that underway..…heard of that..?..
I did not claim that “poverty-busting” was emotive. In fact I singled what you wrote there as the best part of your whole post. Seems like we (may) share a common vision of what we think has to be achieved?
~~~~
..and the only reason he (Nash) won napier….is because garth mcvicar stood for the conservatives….and hived over 4,500 votes from the national candidate….had he not done that..nash wd have lost….
Yes.
Cheers,
Mr. Botany (B.)
More lies from Key and Joyce around their Convention Centre deal… bet their own blind trusts are filled with Sky City shares … even Herald allows it to seem suspect as a hotel “slips” on to land for convention centre only …
The public purse ripped off by sale of TVNZ land for peanuts below commercial value; lovingly sponsored by Key and Joyce .. now the truth outs .. and it seems Joyce lied in the House as well … ho hum, just another day at the office …
Corrupt crims, all of them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11335925
A light at the end of the tunnel?
(Apologies if this has already been discussed) From yesterday’s Gordon Campbell article on Scoop:
“…………the chances of the TPP countries pulling a deal together in the next three years are slim. One chronic reason being, the Obama administration has no authority to conclude this deal even if member countries could agree on the content – which they don’t. The US currently lacks the Trade Promotion Authority for Obama to clinch the terms of the deal.”
http://gordoncampbell.scoop.co.nz/2014/10/01/gordon-campbell-on-the-last-rites-for-the-tpp/
So if the TPP is really on it’s last legs as the article suggests, we do at least have three years grace at best, with our pro TPP government sidelined perhaps?
yes great news Rosie!…i heard it the other day on the radio i think…and was relieved at the reprieve…but you can never rule them out pulling something out of the hat at any moment when you least expect it
@ Chooky (8.1)
I agree. Great news. (with your reservations).
Almost what I feared most from this Government.
The TPPA almost seemed to be the price “we” are being asked to pay, simply to permit another photo opportunity for Dirty John on the golf course.
It’s been on the rocks for at least the last 2 years. That hasn’t stopped various countries and governments from parroting on that they’re working towards the agreement, though.
Basically it just seems like a waste of taxpayer funds and an excuse to go on overseas trips.
I have heard such comment previously Lanthanide but was reluctant to focus too much energy on it, for the reason Chooky gives above:
“but you can never rule them out pulling something out of the hat at any moment when you least expect it”.
All those overseas trips you mention had to be justified so perhaps governments put on a brave fake face in an effort to avoid embarrassment. These are the cowboys of the wild new frontier of global corporate control, taking it further than ever before, they’ve got a reputation to protect. Just a thought.
Lots of airpoints and hotel reward points accummulated for those overseas jetsetting negotiations can now be used to take the family on holiday. Nice job if you can get it.
Wow, people really believe it’s off the table? 🙄
so what is their next move in your opinion?…is this just a pretend “off the table”…while they regroup covertly and present us all with a fait accompli ?
TPP won’t go away, and the accummulation of airports and hotel reward points won’t end.
TPP will keep coming back, again and again. And it must be opposed again and again. It was being pushed at us as the MAI more than ten years ago. Now, we are battling against the TPP and it won’t stop coming at us more strongly, with another acronym change if that is what it takes to try to dupe people again.
travellerev. There’s really no need for the rolly eyes. Truth is, I don’t really know what to “believe”.
I don’t think anyone can relax until it’s well and truly buried. I think if it does go then as Kiwiri suggests, it’s will come back again and again – just in a different format. I’m sure the global corporate powers have many masks and disguises for their intentions.
People can say what they like, just not under the banner of a Labour supporting site.
Reactionary posts are not supporting Labour, if anything they support National by dividing people……very convenient for National that the left do feel free to have robust debates, when done on Twitter or blogs too easy to misconstrue, escalate by MSM and cause fractures.
For people to suggest this is supression is worrying, almost looking for another battle, rather than focussing on issues that matter?
@ Whateva next? (9)
If a “Labour Supporting Site” is simply an extension of the official Labour Party site, it becomes simply a propaganda site. That’s fine, but contributions would quickly dry up
Robust debates are, or should be, the life blood of all political parties. The benefits far outweigh the possible concerns that others may misconstrue from such discussions. This is politics after all: Those on the other side of every fence are only too keen to misconstrue.
Ideas are born of robust debate. The strength of this site, that I quickly discovered, is the relative tolerance to such robustness (I’ve been labelled a troll on a couple of occasions here; a badge I’ll wear with pride, as it seems to me the unsupported labelling was more a reflection of the accuser than anything else)
The discussions here have substance …. and a common vision with intelligent disagreement can only be respected.
If you want to reflect on alternatives, have a quick look at the drivel that takes place in the discussions on kiwiblog. Lots and lots of comments, but childish substance. Even Farrar is desperately trying to get more intelligent discussion by promoting extra “assistance” and saying that he will accept guest posts from those who disagree with him. (It will never work for Farrar, unless he actually relinquishes most of his personal power, and adopts a format more similar to the Standard)
“Ideas are born of robust debate” absobloodyluetely, in an environment that seeks to generate growth and meetings of minds, which social media is not, especially in a tribal climate generated and supported by a right wing MSM
@ whateva next? (9.1.1)
Lots of truth there. But social media is here, and to stay. I envisage that as time goes on, social media will become more mature and effective, as people learn what works best and what doesn’t.
Social media does provide an environment where there is “robust” discussion (One or three of my posts have been very blunt). Far more “robust” than in a face to face meeting would ever generate. I can see both advantages and disadvantages with that. It also allows for the participation of many more people with ideas
I wasn’t too sure about your comment on social media debate being influenced by a right wing MSM. The discussion here is very different than MSM news and opinion, and seems to have formed it’s own style reasonably independently?
xox
I used to give credibility to Dr Bryce Edwards blog but he seems to have lost his ‘ balance’ the closer he gets to the MSM. Funny that. Do others at TS feel the same?
in my time of observing edwards-the-younger he has said one thing only that made sense..
..he said that labour policy was national-lite..
..and that labour need to move more left..
..most of the time he is a craven apologist for the status quo..
..and one whose ambition to be a talking-head on media is palpable..
..it almost throbs…that ambition,.
Translation: Hes written something I don’t agree with
Yes he’s changed.
The job at the Herald has had an effect.
On the trail of active businesses keeping the NZ economy going and what sector, there is an Insight on Sunday on Radionz with Wallace Chapman on the thoroughbred industry. I heard a trailer this morning and I think they feel neglected, not taken seriously and they employ 33,000 people. Let’s hear it for the gee gees!
Sunday 5/10 at 8.12 a.m. http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight
The heady days when horse racing was king, are gone.
People are discovering new ways to spent their entertainment dollar and the thoroughbred industry is now having to share the gambling pie with others like lotto and the casinos.
Racing, along with greyhounds and trotting, still manages turnover nearing two billion dollars and contributes to about one percent of the country’s gross domestic product, but many in the industry say it is getting harder to make a living.
Radio New Zealand’s Waikato reporter, Andrew McRae talks to all parts of the thoroughbred racing industry from trainers and owners, through to the breeders and jockeys about how it can try to keep pace with its competitors.
I tried to get some stats on employment in dairying but it’s hard to find for a newbie. There are more details from the dairy companies on cows, opportunities finance, yield of milk and money. Simple employment does not rate highly.
Some of the pdfs don’t convert to my old Firefox very well. There are all sorts of symbols in the headings.
Stats NZ is like following a will of the whisp. Every time I got into an area which I think could answer the simple? question of the annual count of employment in the dairy industry. I was directed to some program that would provide it if I pressed this button and spent 10 minutes reading about it.
And of course there is the proviso of how they changed the employment count in 2003 to give a broad brush over all employment presumably.
Until 2003, statistics used full-time equivalent (FTE) persons engaged as the business-size measure. From 2003 onwards, FTE was replaced by employee count (EC). Business demography statistics showing EC are available for 2000 onwards.
I think this means in reality, in use, that they can then count someone doing 1 paid hour per week in employment statistics, but that will require probably an hour’s study on how to use their tables and find definitions.
An interesting statistic from Min for Primary Industries: New Zealand dairy production has risen 77 percent over the past 20 years … Sources: Statistics New Zealand, DairyNZ, Fonterra Co-operative Group, and MPI. … The parties to the Accord agreed to work together to achieve clean healthy …
http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/opinion/10573887/Left-rendered-irrelevant
– A good, thought-provoking piece
I agree with everything he write.
The left is completely out of touch with middle NZ and there’s nothing any party on the left can do to remedy that.
The problems are far too systemic.
I suspect the problem has more to do with employment and earnings. When you look at the Labour MPs most of them would struggle to earn 70k a year let alone what an MP makes
So these MPs are making more money then they ever have before so its only natural that they want to protect the money because they know when they leave they won’t have the same power, unfluence or pay packet
I mean would T. Mallard or C. Curran get paid in the private market anything like they’re getting now?
I see the main issue with the left is that they’re creating policies that appeal to the party members not the public.
Great if you want to be a niche party, not so good if you want to be a major party.
I agree with you about the labour Mps, which is why they’re so hard to pry off the trough, politics is as good as it gets so they’re not going anywhere without a fight.
they’re creating policies that appeal to the party members not the public
hahaha. try again. your framing there is misleading, mischievous as well as malicious.
let’s see what those policies are that appeal to party members not the public? abandoning the call for GST to be removed from fresh fruit and vegetables? increasing the super age?
I wonder if maybe the answer is to dro the pay down to 70K for MPs and 150K for the PM
Take the money out of it and you’ll get people doing it for and staying in longer for the right reasons…maybe
Or give them the kind of National golden parachutes to kamikaze their parliamentary careers.
Who in all seriousness would take on on Labours dead wood? Goff maybe but thats about it
How much would Paula Bennett be able to earn? She’s pretty much as useless as Mallard or Curran, as are plenty of other Tories. The only way any of them make heaps is when they’re appointed to bullshit positions as a political reward.
warning..!.it is far-right foamer..du fresne…
‘
“Dear Matafele Peinem, we won’t let you down”
Just in
In a victory for local residents opposed to the mine and Auckland Coal Action, The proposed excavation of the Mangatangi coal mine by Glen Coal ltd. just south of the city, at Mangatawhiri has been put on indefinite hold.
Excellent to hear some good news, thanks Pat.
Dita de Boni
‘Time for Labour to embrace the left.
Instead of trying to appeal to ‘middle New Zealand’, the party should proudly stand by progressive values…….
I am convinced that the Labour party of today has the same problem. And the advice from well-wishers and nefarious right-wing commentators alike – to “appeal to middle New Zealanders” – is, I believe, misguided.
The fact of the matter is that “middle New Zealand” currently prefers John Key. They want tax cuts, they want a prime minister they could have a beer with. God alone knows why, but their ideal female politician is Judith Collins, Hekia Parata and Maggie Barry (the “Hyacinth Bucket” model).
And they don’t care that dirty politics seeps out of every pore of the current administration.
So be it. Labour, at present, cannot sway these people and is not in good enough shape to take on the right-wing smear machine. But to my mind, it doesn’t have to – right now. It needs to reclaim and reaffirm that it stands for genuine left-wing values and ignore the critics – critics that are often non-voters, or non-Labour voters, egged on by opponents.’
Read the rest.
A great article.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11335076
Dita has absolutely nailed it.
@ paul..
..”Maggie Barry (the “Hyacinth Bucket” model)..”
(heh..!..)
John Key is the type of person I least like having a beer with. He would insist on being the centre of attention and make puerile wisecracks. He’s the sort of guy who would have been better off not drinking in a public bar when they had heavy glass jugs. Something has changed drastically with middle NZ, and I don’t like it. Some people say that social attitudes have changed for the better, but when you see the Rawshark emails and chats, you realise that for a lot of movers and shakers on the right, this is only lip service.
This is what victory looks like
http://aucklandcoalaction.org/
AN ALERT – Lecture coming up 15 October Auckland.
Wednesday 15 October, 6.30pm
Maidment Theatre
Alfred Street
The University of Auckland
The Maidment Bar will open from 5.30pm
The 2014 Bruce Jesson Lecture
Mike Joy – Paradise Squandered; New Zealand’s Environmental Asset Stripping
New Zealand’s lakes, rivers and most of our groundwater are in a critical state. Decades of misguided regulation and a free-for-all on diffuse pollution have encouraged agricultural intensification and driven our increasing reliance on imported feed and fertiliser.
The inevitable consequences have been devastating environmental impacts as well as increasing economic and biosecurity risks.
The solutions are many but require a paradigm shift; a move away from dependence on imported feed and fertiliser to keeping nutrients on farm and adding value to products, and strong leadership to move away from short-term thinking that accepts the massive ecological debt we are running up.
Mike Joy MSc(Hons), PhD in Ecology is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Environmental Science at the Ecology Group-Institute of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmerston North. He has received a number of awards, including the Ecology in Action award from the New Zealand Ecological Society; an Old Blue award from the Royal Forest and Bird protection Society; Environmental New Zealander of the Year from North and South magazine and the Manawatu Evening Standard Person of the Year.
Presented by Politics and International Relations and the Bruce Jesson Foundation
Wednesday 15 October, 6.30pm
Maidment Theatre
Alfred Street
The University of Auckland
The Maidm
thanks greywarbler
ACT: another one bites the dust.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10576531/ACTs-Jamie-Whyte-quits-as-leader
Yep ACT got a poor result and the leader quits and doesn’t try to run again…theres a lesson there somewhere
Cool. In your world, 0.7% and being forced onto welfare is merely a “bad” result.
Its better then 10% and no MPs in government (and none in nearly 25 years since being formed)
Um, 10% gets you 12 or so MP’s. But that’s not going to be an issue for National’s Epsom franchise cum charity outreach program anytime soon 🙂
edit ; I see what you did there! Colour me green with envy at your sly wit.
Except that ACTs currently in power and has been in power previously whereas the Greens have never been in power, in fact they’re the only party that’ve never had an mp in government
Fact is the Greens are nothing less then a disapointment
Wow. Rimmer will now get an extra $155,700 as party leader, seeing as he has taken over. (Based on 2011 figures)
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2011/0410/latest/DLM4148103.html
Both him and Dunne were reported as being over the $500K mark on Campbell live once all their perks and bonus salaries were added up. Nice work if you can get it. Over a million dollars for one party that polled 0.22% and one that polled 0.7%.
You can get it, you just need enough people to think your party is worth voting for
In the case of Act and UF neither party got enough votes because no one thought that they were worth voting for but they still got it.
I’d say the Greens could learn something from them but I think they prefer to be martyrs rather then try to ackshully get something done for their voters
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/10576464/R-D-grants-stupid-taxpayer-subsidies-Sam-Morgan
– Morgan reiterated that profitable companies did not need grants, and if a company was not profitable, it had no prospect of paying tax.
But he then confessed his companies Xero, Sonar6 and Outsmart had also received grants.
“Maybe I should just shut-up.,” he tweeted.
“Seems like this grant lark is actually awesome for me.”
Or don’t accept the grants instead?
Or we could just be far more open about the fact that private success comes only with government subsidies.
He just seems like an ungreatful prat and as loopy as his old man…
Chris Trotter’s latest missive stopped me in my tracks. I felt like I could have written the article from start to finish. ( If I could write)
A brilliant summary of how people like me still haven’t forgiven or forgotten.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/
Trotters perceptive
Actual link
I wonder where Jason Ede and Cathy Odgers are? Have they eloped? Are they helping out at Whaleoil? Or the new “moderators” at kiwiblog? I hope their disappearance is not creating any sort of holdup on the inquiries that have started.
Mr. Botany (B.)
lol Jamie Whyte’s resigned.
I would say “good riddance”, but he was active for such a short time and had such little effect that nobody will really notice.
Yep, despite his strong appeal to the incest demographic, it turned out not to be all Whyte on the night.
+1 Te Reo Putake. Ouch, now my side hurts.
Fuck Russel Norman (I say that as a long time GP member and voter). “Crazies”? Really?
“I mean we had enough trouble with John Key standing up every day telling all his nonsense about us and on the other had we had to deal with these crazies. Having them on the radio and tv all the time talking their nonsense, it was like ‘Oh god,’ it did make it incredibly difficult to change the Government at that point because a lot of people who might have voted for Labour went ‘Oh god, if a vote for Labour means a vote for Dotcom and Harre, I’m not going to do that,'” he says
http://www.waateanews.com/waateanews?story_id=ODAwNg%3D%3D
i think the Greens lost votes in the last week because it was said by a television reporter ( rightly or wrongly) that Norman was making overtures and was seeking a coalition with Nactional !
…Unconscionable!…people were confused and shocked…it seemed like an opportunistic betrayal by the Greens who were signalling Labour would not win in their opinion ,so they were ready to do deals with the Nactional which represents BIG BUSINESS and is the biggest violator of the environment!
+1
Good comment Chooky. Sometimes I think we the ordinary people here have a more honest and clearer view of things than some of these stupid ego driven smart arse dumb political ‘leaders’.
+1
You can take the boy out of Brisbane, but you can’t take Brisbane out of the boy. I have to wonder how much his growing up in a white supremacist monoculture made him unable to understand Maori at all. I can’t think why else he would call them crazies, especially when they have a similar political alignment to his party.
I also think he can go and fuck himself, and Metiria should speak for the Greens. I was going off Norman anyway, with all his talk of fiscal responsibility.
Advice from Starbucks veteran:
And this guy would know after having:
lol…Starbucks is disgusting
the one in dunedin gave away free coffees when it opened.
It lost a bunch of prospective customers that way.
lol….unfortunately for Starbucks New Zealanders have gotten used to good coffee….only young teenagers and Americans like Starbucks
my friend took me to Palm Beach and I was shocked to find only a Starbucks coffee shop….i refused to drink the coffee she bought me ….but bought her a cake with green icing …she refused to eat her cake….she reckoned the cakes were made from ingredients in rocketry (she looked up the listed ingredients of Starbucks cakes on her laptop and pronounced they were also used in rocket fuel or some such)….ONLY IN USA!
Just received via email:
PRIME TIME WITH SEAN PLUNKET
TONIGHT AT 10 30
With speculation mounting that he will contest Labour’s leadership, Napier MP STUART NASH will go one on one with Sean Plunket tonight.
PLEASE NOTE — TONIGHT’S SHOW WILL BE AT THE LATER TIME OF 10 30.
And we’re surrendering. Tonight we have pundits! BILL RALSTON and BRIAN EDWARDS to take an informed but light hearted look back at the campaign.
(And yes, we know Brian is a friend of David Cunliffe and a long time Labour advisor and supporter and we also know that Bill worked on the National campaign. That’s why we invited them!)
If Nash leads the Labour Party, it will have officially become a neoliberal party.
What makes you think it is not at present?
Fair point.
It most definitely is not!
Just take a look at their policies. Which of these do you honestly think are ‘neo liberal’ policies?
*100,000 new, affordable homes
*Free healthcare to under 13s, pregnant women and over 65s
*Raising the minimum wage to $16.25
*Ensure every rental is warm and dry
*Everything paid for, plus we’re in surplus
*Ensure all Kiwis under 20 are in work, education or training
*Best Start for Kiwi kids
*Reduce unemployment to 4% in our first term
*Lower class sizes
*Extend paid paternal leave to 26 weeks
*Ensure that all our rivers and lakes are clean
*Lowering power bills
*Convert the dole to apprenticeships
*Protecting our land from speculators
*Christchurch recovery policy
*Capital gains tax excluding family home
*Increase tax to 36c/$ for incomes above $150,000
* investments to upgrade regional economies and create jobs
*Auckland and Christchurch city Rail Link
*Public Service Television Station
*Ban shark finning , animal testing of cosmetics, synthetic highs.
* New ministry for children
*Restore Adult and community education
*Kiwi assure insurance
*Marine reserves
*Abolition of secondary tax
*Inquiry into wages and collective bargaining
*Review of spy laws.
Bryce Edwards confirms my suspicions: Like Labour, The Greens had a disastrous election result (along with Maori, Mana, and Internet parties).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11336457
I think it is time the Left recognized we need a single Left party. It will require a huge amount of compromise on policies and organization. Can we do it or do we individually prefer to remain in the political wilderness?
why bother with MMP then? A single left party would homogenise left wing politics and disenfranchise more people. It might win Labour the govt, but what would be the point?
Because the Right is doing it and burying us.
What a different election it would have been if instead of just National there was a farmers party, a small business party, and a real estate developers party.
with one monolithic left wing party we’d have a left version of National, locking NZ into a centrist/rightist govt long term. So again, what would be the point? Power at all costs?
Here’s another idea. How about Labour try being a left wing party and seeing if the non-vote comes out again. We’re running out of time though, because not voting will become a hard habit to break.
Today’s Leunig.
Seems appropriate with Australia entering the war in Syria and Iraq, and John Key trying to work out how we can get involved.
Leunig – Today’s Recipe: Cult Pie
The rich countries like these kinds of wars: defense companies get richer as expensive ordinance gets blown up. But no troops on the ground to come home in coffins.
Sorry, Key. We are cannon fodder so if you send our SAS, send body bags, too.
Hi folks!
Seen this?
FRIDAY, OCT 3, 2014 10:25 AM NZDT
The great charter school rip-off: Finally, the truth catches up to education “reform” phonies
Fraud, financial mismanagement, lousy results: Reports highlight awful charter schools and people are catching on
JEFF BRYANT
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/02/the_great_charter_school_rip_off_finally_the_truth_catches_up_to_education_reform_
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Penny Bright