Open mike 03/11/2012

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, November 3rd, 2012 - 99 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

99 comments on “Open mike 03/11/2012 ”

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  1. Logie97 1
    3 November 2012 at 7:24 am

    Oh dear PM. There is many a slip twixt cup and lip.
    Wondered how long it would take to be in the British media …

    http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4624295/Becks-is-as-thick-as-batst-according-to-NZ-Prime-Minister.html

    Instead of commenting on the poor lack of judgement by the PM, the Herald would appear to be making a lame excuse for him …

    “Mr Key would not be the first person to question Beckham’s intelligence. One of his celebrated quotes is: “I definitely want Brooklyn to be christened, but I don’t know into what religion yet.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10844806

    • karol 1.1
      3 November 2012 at 7:32 am

      Busy day yesterday from the Shonkey one insulting many people:
       

      Prime Minister John Key had insulted the thousands of New Zealanders who had lost their jobs in manufacturing through comments he made in Dunedin this week, Dunedin South MP Clare Curran said yesterday.

      Ms Curran was particularly incensed by Mr Key visiting Dunedin’s Farra Engineering and declaring there was “no crisis in manufacturing”.

      That had become a catch phrase of the Government, she said. …

      It was lucky Mr Key stopped his visit in Dunedin and did not travel further south where the future of meatworks and the Tiwai aluminium smelter were at the forefront of people’s minds, Ms Curran said.

      “He’s got front, I will give him that. Turning up in Dunedin and telling us there is no crisis in manufacturing takes some front.”

       
       
       

      • tc 1.1.1
        3 November 2012 at 8:26 am

        Ms curran only has herself and colleagues to blame as Shonkey will be cock a hoop the latest polls show the placement of DS as leader is working a treat.

        Key will keep doing this as there appears no alternative to him and his backers so bravo Clare.

        • OneTrack 1.1.1.1
          3 November 2012 at 9:47 am

          Not to forget, what would the Greens do with Tiwai Point. That’s right, they would close it down before lunch-time. It will probably be part of the coalition agreement with Labour. No wonder Rio Tinto want to sell.

          • Colonial Viper 1.1.1.1.1
            3 November 2012 at 9:51 am

            Don’t worry mate, Rio Tinto will close it down first.

          • weka 1.1.1.1.2
            3 November 2012 at 10:30 am

            “what would the Greens do with Tiwai Point. That’s right, they would close it down before lunch-time.”
             
            Citation needed. Can’t find anything on the Greens website that includes policy on Tiwai.

            • OneTrack 1.1.1.1.2.1
              3 November 2012 at 12:59 pm

              I think from what they have said for a number of years, that that would be the likely policy. No citation needed – Logic will tell you that. Thy don’t need the overseas fund now, they will just print more money. It worked for Greece and Zimbabwe – what could go wrong.

              • Colonial Viper …
                3 November 2012 at 2:49 pm

                “No citation needed” ie you’re making shit up and calling it Greens policy.

                “It worked for Greece and Zimbabwe” and the US, UK, Japan, EU,…

                Where do you think money comes from anyway???

              • weka …
                3 November 2012 at 3:16 pm

                “I think from what they have said for a number of years, that that would be the likely policy.”
                 
                Lolololol. Can you make that sentence any more vague and wishywashy in your attempt to cover the fact that you made shit up.

                • fatty …
                  3 November 2012 at 5:22 pm

                  What OneTrack meant to say is – there is a possibility that if something happened, then the likely outcome could be…you know what I mean, the sandal-wearing hippies want to destroy businesses

              • Murray Olsen …
                3 November 2012 at 3:56 pm

                What control did Greece have over the printing of the Euro? Even though it will hurt, please try to think.

          • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1.1.3
            3 November 2012 at 12:12 pm

            Rio Tinto have three options with Tiwai Point: 1) Upgrade it to new technology, 2) Sell it or 3) Persuade the government that they should get millions more per year in subsides. They want to 2) but probably can’t find any buyers as the buyers will have to do 1) anyway which means it would be cheaper just to build a new smelter and so they’re trying for 3) by crying Look!, Jobs!!!.

            • OneTrack 1.1.1.1.3.1
              3 November 2012 at 1:08 pm

              So what should happen? Look NO jobs.

              • Draco T Bastard …
                3 November 2012 at 2:00 pm

                The government buys it, upgrades it and pumps several million dollars per year into R&D to keep it up to spec. Also, we should be looking to see if it can be used to smelt our titanium reserves which would be another goal of that R&D.

      • Dr Terry 1.1.2
        3 November 2012 at 9:54 am

        He shows plenty of “front” alright, but I am sure he carefully watches his back!

    • rosy 1.2
      3 November 2012 at 7:39 am

      Jeez. Loving the last line in the Sun article.

      • karol 1.2.1
        3 November 2012 at 7:50 am

        OLO: quality journalism, that.

        • karol 1.2.1.1
          3 November 2012 at 8:30 am

          Whoops.  Should be LOL.

        • rosy 1.2.1.2
          3 November 2012 at 8:31 am

          Shows Key’s relevance. What an embarrassingly nasty, conceited and self-centred little man he is.

          • Jackal 1.2.1.2.1
            3 November 2012 at 9:23 am

            The Prime Minister has been an embarrassment lately. His irrelevance is exhibited within international media by the continuous misspelling of his name. Here’s the latest one, in an article about his contemptuous comments on David Beckham:

            NEW Zealand’s Prime Minister has branded David Beckham “as thick as bats***”, reports said yesterday.

            John Key made the stinging remarks – reported on Radio New Zealand – to a group of schoolchildren in the city of Dunedin yesterday.

            […]

            The office of David Key refused to comment also.

            Beckham is internationally liked and such juvenile comments by Key will damage his and New Zealands international standing. And what was the point? Badmouthing a sports star to a group of kids. What a nasty prick!

            • Dv 1.2.1.2.1.1
              3 November 2012 at 12:56 pm

              Why is he using that sort of language to teenagers?

              • Draco T Bastard …
                3 November 2012 at 2:01 pm

                Because he probably thinks it’s risque and will thus impress the teenagers.

                • QoT …
                  3 November 2012 at 2:07 pm

                  See also the really clumsy way he pronounced “texts” during the Richard Worth scandal. He’s obviously got marketers/focus groupers advising him to use language to connect with his audience. He needs to fire them, because it’s really obvious when he’s not speaking naturally.

              • Reagan Cline …
                3 November 2012 at 8:21 pm

                Because he knows the sort of language teenagers use and he wants to turn them off Beckham – a useless bloody media pin up boy who should actually work for an honest living for a change.

                • Jim Nald …
                  3 November 2012 at 8:27 pm

                  “a useless bloody media pin up boy who should actually work for an honest living for a change”

                  – of course, he should have used a more appropriate example: himself. The Prime Batshit of NZ.

                • Colonial Viper …
                  3 November 2012 at 8:37 pm

                  Because he knows the sort of language teenagers use and he wants to turn them off Beckham

                  John Key was jealous that some teenage girls liked Beckham more than they liked him. So he had to say something.

                  Basically, Key is the middle aged father figure Kevin Spacey from American Beauty.

    • David H 1.3
      3 November 2012 at 10:19 am

      Pot – Kettle – Black.

    • Deborah Kean 1.4
      4 November 2012 at 7:17 pm
       

      Oh dear PM. There is many a slip twixt cup and lip.

      The most amusing thing is that he got the idiom wrong…
       

  2. karol 2
    3 November 2012 at 7:25 am

    Lyndon Hood: the MSDtrix
    MSD hacking Trinity-style!

  3. Jenny 3
    3 November 2012 at 7:56 am

    Climate change spurs superstorms

    stuff.co.nz headline

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7893092/Climate-change-stirs-superstorms

    But it doesn’t spur political action.
    (even in an election campaign)

    Just eight months earlier, the Princeton University professor reported that what used to be once-in-a-century devastating floods in New York City would soon happen every three to 20 years.

    He blamed global warming for pushing up sea levels and changing hurricane patterns.

    Political leaders here and in the US, despite the best scientific advice, like unaware morons are determined to keep plodding along down the same old worn out “Business As Usual paths“, unperturbed by the New Reality.

    For more than a dozen years, Oppenheimer and other climate scientists have been warning about the risk for big storms and serious flooding in New York.

    A 2000 federal report about global warming’s effect on the United States warned specifically of that possibility.

    One must wonder at the sheer bloody minded stupidity and irresponsibility and lack of leadership on public display here.

    “The ingredients of this storm seem a little bit cooked by climate change, but the overall storm is difficult to attribute to global warming,” Canada’s University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver said.

    Some individual parts of Sandy and its wrath seem to be influenced by climate change, several climate scientists said.

    First, there’s sea level rise. Water levels around New York are a nearly a foot higher than they were 100 years ago, said Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann.

    Add to that the temperature of the Atlantic Ocean, which is about two degrees warmer on average than a century ago, said Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University. Warm water fuels hurricanes.

    And Sandy zipped north along a warmer-than-normal Gulf Stream that travels from the Caribbean to Ireland, said Jeff Masters, meteorology director for the private service Weather Underground.

    Meteorologists are also noticing more hurricanes late in the season and even after the season.

    But while national politicians Romney and Obama seem determined to ignore the issue of climate change, those on the ground, both Democratic and Republican, may have a different view.

    On Tuesday, both New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo said they couldn’t help but notice that extreme events like Sandy are causing them more and more trouble.

    “What is clear is that the storms that we’ve experienced in the last year or so, around this country and around the world, are much more severe than before,” Bloomberg said.

    “Whether that’s global warming or what, I don’t know. But we’ll have to address those issues.”

    Cuomo called the changes “a new reality”.

    “Anyone who says that there’s not a dramatic change in weather patterns I think is denying reality,” Cuomo said.

    “I told the president the other day: ‘We have a 100-year flood every two years now’.

    So why isn’t President Obama taking the opportunity to explicitly challenge his opponet to come to a bipartizan concensus around climate change?

    When if Romney refused to rise to this challenge he would be finished?

    When if Romney refused to rise to the challenge of coming to a bipartizan agreement on climate change there are other more rational Republican contenders waiting in the wings to replace him who would?

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/31/us-storm-sandy-obama-idUSBRE89U1EJ20121031

    (Reuters) – Putting aside partisan differences, President Barack Obama and Republican Governor Chris Christie toured storm-stricken parts of New Jersey on Wednesday,….

    …..Despite being a top surrogate for Obama’s rival Mitt Romney in the November 6 election, Christie kept up his compliments about Obama for guiding federal support during and after the devastating storm, which also crippled New York City and other parts of the eastern seaboard.

    “I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and his compassion,” said Christie, known for his blunt, in-your-face political style, after the two men completed their tour.

    Is Obama a contender for the title of ‘most disapointing president, ever’?

    In history when Obama is remembered, (if he is mentioned at all). It will be of this week, in which it will be said, a president who could have been great, chose mediocrity instead.

    • alex 3.1
      3 November 2012 at 9:14 am

      Hopefully Obama will start taking serious action on climate change once the pressure of re-election is off. If he loses though, he better not do an Al Gore and start going on about how much we should do about AGW once he no longer wields political power.

      • Colonial Viper 3.1.1
        3 November 2012 at 9:21 am

        Hopefully? No way man. The US is determined to make Canadian tar sands a major strategic source of oil, and its full speed ahead with Alaskan and deep sea drilling.

        American global dominance economically and militarily depends on fossil fuels.

      • AsleepWhileWalking 3.1.2
        3 November 2012 at 12:37 pm

        In the same way as he promised before the previous election to bring back troops, he is now committing to the environment.

        There is a higher probability that Obama will announce alien life has been confirmed on earth.

    • OneTrack 3.2
      3 November 2012 at 9:51 am

      “So why isn’t President Obama taking the opportunity to explicitly challenge his opponet to come to a bipartizan concensus around climate change?

      When if Romney refused to rise to this challenge he would be finished?”

      Why doesn’t Obama do something for himself. He is the president NOW. He has been for the last four years. And now its Romney’s fault. FFS.

      • mike e 3.2.1
        3 November 2012 at 11:24 am

        Obama has had his hands tied by a repulican congress and house of representatives
        Old timer that’s why he has tried to reach out to the right!

      • Jackal 3.2.2
        3 November 2012 at 11:30 am

        I haven’t heard Obama blame Romney for climate change OneTrack… Is that what you’re trying to say? The fact that Romney is in the back pocket of big businesses means that if he wins, it would be less likely the United States does anything substantial about its GHG emissions.

        Obama on the other hand has succeeded in improving standards for vehicle emissions and supported green energy investment. However this is too little too late in my opinion, and the United States has mostly failed to address the issue of climate change while Obama has been president.

        Romney will be even worse. The Republicans are full of vehement climate change deniers, including Romney’s right hand man Paul Ryan. Here is a list outlining some of Ryan’s actions that clearly show he’s an Ostrich with his head firmly burried in the sand.

        Obama is nowhere near the most disappointing US president ever btw Jenny. That title has been firmly won by George W. Bush. He makes Obama look entirely competent concerning the United States’ climate policy. Bush jnr was and is still in denial about the effects of GHG emissions. Thankfully, in the face of such devastation, they’re a dying breed. At least something good might hopefully come out of hurricane Sandy… But I’m not holding my breath.

  4. alex 4
    3 November 2012 at 9:11 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7901838/Social-Development-Ministry-knew-of-kiosk-risks

    Paula Bennett is in the shit big time after it emerged that there were 4 recommendations to the MSD that they look into the security of their kiosks. My personal favourite bit of this article is the photo of Bennett, with the desperate looking quote ‘I cannot be held to blame’ underneath.

    • OneTrack 4.1
      3 November 2012 at 10:02 am

      Yeah, Bennett should have been in all the project meetings, personally checking what they all do.

      Don’t you trust public servants to actually do their job? Do you know too many of them and think that they are all incompetent, hence Bennett has to hold their hand.

      Or are you suggesting that the public service model is obsolete and technical roles (at least) should be outsourced to the private sector. The bad private company told the project about the problems ages ago, but all the Sir Humphries ignored them – “we know best”

      And what will be the penalty for these incompetents – transfer to another department, move away from the window desk, they have to buy the drinks at lunch,…

      • weka 4.1.1
        3 November 2012 at 10:39 am

        One of a Minister’s core roles is to make sure that the government department they are responsible for is functioning competently. Bennett obviously has failed to do this. She doesn’t have to know everything that goes on, but she needs to ensure that systems are in place so that her and her office are aware of any problems. Again, big fail. She should be sacked.

        • AsleepWhileWalking 4.1.1.1
          3 November 2012 at 12:40 pm

          +1
          Actually Bennett promised to personally oversee the rollout of the kiosks. Personally. Oversee. The. Rollout.

          • Dv 4.1.1.1.1
            3 November 2012 at 12:58 pm

            AND why did NO manager say
            Hey you know that security report we had done on the Kiosks what did it say? Was it all OK?

          • aerobubble 4.1.1.1.2
            3 November 2012 at 1:16 pm

            Bennett, had she been a competent minister, had she taken responsibility for her own privacy breaches, would have realized that every public servant in MSM would have been demoralized by her stance. Privacy does not matter!

            Then a senior MSD executive turns up from England? spend a few weeks in the job and ups and resigns. A few weeks later the whole MSD implodes in farce over privacy.

            Key wants his cake, the abuse of power, yet doesn’t want to be held responsible for the consequences of that abuse.

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.2
        3 November 2012 at 10:41 am

        And what will be the penalty for these incompetents – transfer to another department, move away from the window desk, they have to buy the drinks at lunch,…

        Probably the same as for the incompetents at (private sector) KPMG…promotion to full partner and a Cayman Islands bank account.

      • just saying 4.1.3
        3 November 2012 at 10:52 am

        Apparently Bennett and the rest of the management are looking at some bottom-rung workers to fire because they apparently didn’t report the consumer advocate’s advice about kiosk (lack of) security. One report amongst many reported to higher levels, but hey ho.

        Those paid generously to actually be responsible will enjoy the ritual sacrifice, I’m sure.

      • mike e 4.1.4
        3 November 2012 at 11:26 am

        Bennett has had 4 years to get things right no more excuses!

        • Fortran 4.1.4.1
          3 November 2012 at 12:51 pm

          mike e

          It appears now that the systems fault is many years old, and that the four under investigation are not lower rung mortals, but senior managerial level.
          Let’s wait and get a bigger picture

      • alex 4.1.5
        3 November 2012 at 11:28 am

        Um, no, I think that a minister should be responsible for their department, and there was plenty of warning that wasn’t acted on.

    • David H 4.2
      3 November 2012 at 12:31 pm

      How can it not be her fault?? the Kiosks were rolled out under her watch.

      “The kiosks were set up two years ago to allow Work and Income clients to search job listings, create CVs, apply for jobs and make appointments.”
      http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/119790/msd-staff-%27to-be-held-accountable%27-over-breaches

      And yes it looks like the poor workers will get the blame as usual.

  5. Jackal 5
    3 November 2012 at 9:13 am

    Zero tolerance for racism

    People are educated into being racist. It’s not a natural condition. Therefore it’s imperative that racism within popular media is stamped out. There should be zero tolerance for racism, especially when idiots are trying to publish and promote it. Only then will we ensure the next generation doesn’t perpetuate the mistakes of the past. Only then will we have a truly progressive and inclusive society…

    • OneTrack 5.1
      3 November 2012 at 10:06 am

      That’s why you promote biculturalism – to accentuate the differences between people and put them into neat racial categories.

      Yes, educated into being racist is right – the only place we disagree on is by who.

      • PlanetOrphan 5.1.1
        3 November 2012 at 10:09 am

        Multiculturalism actually.

        As for the rest …… take a look @ yourself M8!

      • weka 5.1.2
        3 November 2012 at 10:45 am

        There’s not such thing as race. Biculturism simply acknowledges that this country was founded between two peoples – Maori and non-Maori. Only racists see that as putting “them into neat racial categories”
         
        “to accentuate the differences between people”
         
        And racists want everyone to look the same (ie white). Personally I celebrate diversity. It’s also much healthier than the monoculturalism that you espouse.

        • OneTrack 5.1.2.1
          3 November 2012 at 1:33 pm

          “There’s not such thing as race” – Semantics. Meanwhile, maori seats, statutory boards, anybody who suggests no racial laws gets decried as a racist, someone calls someone “white mofos” and the response of the race relations conciliator (if there is no such thing as race, why does that office exist) is to look the other way – I think he said it was whiteys fault anyway. If a pakeha did the same thing he would be tarred and feathered and probably in court.

          Everybodies equal – except, as is usual in the socialist nirvanas, some people are more equal than others. But, I know, I should just STFU and keep working and paying my taxes. There are more treaty claims that need topping up.

          • QoT 5.1.2.1.1
            3 November 2012 at 1:51 pm

            someone calls someone “white mofos”

            Truly, such a horrible injustice, let it never be forgotten, I mean it’s right up there with land seizures, forced assimilation, attempted annihilation of language and culture, disease, institutional discrimination …

            • weka 5.1.2.1.1.1
              3 November 2012 at 3:11 pm

              Even worse! He said it in a private email!!! Truly horrendous violation of human rights.

              • QoT …
                3 November 2012 at 3:16 pm

                Shit, weka, don’t you realise that makes it WORSE? That means that, right now, other brown people could also be saying mean things about white people! To each other! In some giant anti-white-people conspiracy which we can’t even see!!!!!! Jesus Christ, next thing you know immigrants will be talking to each other in their first language in the workplace!!!!!

          • felix 5.1.2.1.2
            3 November 2012 at 3:30 pm

            “Everybodies equal – except, as is usual in the socialist nirvanas, some people are more equal than others.”

            Yep, white people 99.999999% of the time.

      • mike e 5.1.3
        3 November 2012 at 11:29 am

        Cultural differencess don’t count when you play the race card OT .
        Pathetic!

    • ianmac 5.2
      3 November 2012 at 10:20 am

      The purpose behind Social Studies in School was or should have been to look at groups of people and find the things that are the same as “us”. Most people of the World have the same hopes and dreams and celebrate similar things. The differences are very small unless you are condemned to only search out the differences.

  6. KhandallaMan 6
    3 November 2012 at 10:18 am

    As a Labour member, who supported Cunliffe last December, I accepted the outcome of the process and fully backed Shearer as the new Leader. Had the vote gone the other way I’m sure his supporters would have done likewise.  Cunliffe was adamant that the person and the position deserved the respect of true party members.
    So what has happened? At one level: nothing.  The behaviours that held us back, under Goff and King, continued. The negative stifling of anyone with fresh ideas continued. No change. 
    At a another level the gap between the promise, the back-story, the team-builder image that Shearer and his promoters painted and the real Shearer we began to see was glaringly huge. 
    The unsettled leadership situation in a factor of the behaviour of Shearer and his close circle.  They did not want fundamental change. The membership does. The membership will now force that very necessary change.  

  8. weka 8
    3 November 2012 at 1:03 pm

    From another link in another thread
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10836450

     
    [Bob] Parker, who has met producers, is set to detail his own account of the earthquakes through his upcoming book Ripped Apart: A City in Chaos.
    At the time of the quakes, Parker praised the Christchurch community for coming together. But in a publicity blurb for the paperback, Parker says he will reveal “the arguments, indecision, petty jealousies, power struggles and policies” that emerged around the quakes. Critics query the wisdom of this as Parker is seeking re-election. The mayor could not be reached for comment.
     

    Does anyone else find it odd that Parker has had the time in the past year to write a book? Isn’t there a major housing crisis in Chch that is now leading to what was called this morning on NatRad a public health issue? Not to mention all the other struggles going on with recovery there, including the fact that many people have yet to have the conditions in their lives improve sufficiently to recover from the traumas.

  9. Dave Kennedy (bsprout) 9
    3 November 2012 at 2:36 pm

    There should be signs around parliament to remind government politicians not to feed the corporates, they’ll only get sugar highs and want even more.
    http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.co.nz/2012/11/feeding-fat-corporates-just-produces.html

  10. joe90 10
    3 November 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Dear Homebrew Crew,

    could you please do a cover version of Pete Wylie’s The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies!.

    Thanks in advance.

    Regards, Joseph N Marionette.

  11. Draco T Bastard 11
    3 November 2012 at 4:17 pm

    Gar Alperovitz on Cooperative Economy: “I’ll Bet My Life on It”

    We don’t have an economic problem, we have a problem managing the wealthiest economy in the world.

    He said this after pointing out that the US produces enough for $192k/year income for every family of four. He’s talking about the US of course but the same could be said of New Zealand.

    • weka 11.1
      3 November 2012 at 6:29 pm

      Produces enough what?

    • Colonial Viper 11.2
      3 November 2012 at 6:37 pm

      NZ has nearly $50K of economic activity (GDP) for every single man woman and child in the country.

      Yet hundreds of thousands still go cold and hungry. I mean, wtf.

    • kousei 11.3
      3 November 2012 at 11:51 pm

      Came across Interesting comment made on Alperovitz page

      Buckmister Fuller said
      “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”

      It could be well past the time to brush off the neo-liberal/conservative fantasy. What is there to debate there. They live in a dead end street similiar to the Ayn Randian cul de sac Pascal’s Bookie described the other day. It’s not worth debating because it is grounded in too many false premises.

      Another idea is that we ought to Care for and respect people and ecology and try as I may I can’t make that sound silly no matter how I look at it.

      In some cultures around the world greed is veiwed as a serious psychological problem. As is the idea that you would dispoil the gifts of nature, the very things that sustain life.

      I’m not talking about a preservationist mentality. It’s about taking a broader systems veiw of the world, not a narrow technocratic one. By thinking the wilderness starts here and farming or industry sits on the other side of the fence, the whole point of the interrelatedness of everything is missed. This is what worries me about the Greens.

      By looking after our soil and forests, we are looking after our water, and in turn looking after ourselves and the sustainable future of the whole system.

      Good strategy is long term and combines knowledge, wisdom and an understanding of history and will hopefully ensure some resilience against challenges. I think I might have strayed off the point somewhere but hey WTF is open mike for anyway?

      WTF are the deep thinkers in our political landscape? WTF aren’t they making a case for an ecological economy?

  12. prism 12
    3 November 2012 at 4:46 pm

    Queensland is trying to pass new laws that increase the denial of welfare already experienced.
    Australia is declaring war on us. There is no place for NZs in Queensland as I heard it on the news. And just after a sort of triumphant tv program the GC or something about Maori NZs doing well in Brisbane. Poor NZs – our own country that denies and deprives us from having a lifestyle and being able to improve because social mobility is so lacking, and now our supposed ally and friendly nation Australia is treating us as outliers.

    When is our government going to express some strong disapproval of this hostility? Helen Clark didn’t speak up much when the social security rules changed to close us out on the basis that there were more NZs going to Oz than coming from the other direction. Considering the differences in populations this would be expected. Working, earning and tax-paying NZs can’t receive equal welfare treatment unless they became naturalised Australians, which can not happen for two to three years of occupation and then is often refused. And all this time NZ declines while Australia continues to carry off profits and squeeze us dry like a blood orange.
    Herald

    • Colonial Viper 12.1
      3 November 2012 at 4:54 pm

      Australia is getting ready for a downturn. NZ provided cheap skilled labour for them. Now the jobs are disappearing they will be shipping the unemployed back to us by the tens of thousands.

      • prism 12.1.1
        3 November 2012 at 9:53 pm

        So Australia has a downturn. That Queensland quickly cut NZ citizens’ rights is an indication of the state’s spongey, opportunistic approach to relations with NZ. We shouldn’t forget our export of Joh Bjelke Petersen who became a top pollie there, a prize RWNJ. His malady lingers on. After Ansett there was a groundswell of hostility that was whipped up by some pollie there. Eventually they extended their hand to us again because NZ tourist numbers had dropped off noticeably. We should do this again. Boycott Queensland!

        And Australia in general needs to raise its present low level of commitment and respect for us so we have an ongoing political relationship that doesn’t get changed whenever someone throws a hissy fit because we don’t agree over aspects of defence for instance.

      • Jim Nald 12.1.2
        3 November 2012 at 9:59 pm

        Can’t wait for John ‘Batshit’ Key to take credit for the numbers coming back this way.

        • Dv 12.1.2.1
          3 November 2012 at 10:22 pm

          DunnnoBatshitKeyo

        • R 12.1.2.2
          3 November 2012 at 11:08 pm

          I like it! He did say that Winston didn’t have a ‘dog’s show’ in the last election. ‘Batshit Key’ has a nice ring to it IMO.

          • fender 12.1.2.2.1
            3 November 2012 at 11:30 pm

            Yep Batshit Key is paying the price now, if he had of had toilets on his planet he may have avoided the spontaneous leakage from his cake hole.

    • karol 12.2
      3 November 2012 at 6:40 pm

      The Queensland government is taking a serious “austerity” turn – mass lay offs in the public sector.  It’s not just Kiwis they are waging war on.

  15. xtasy 15
    4 November 2012 at 3:59 am

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-FnMcH21-I

    missed that one

    Viva el pueblo, viva Chile!

  16. xtasy 16
    4 November 2012 at 4:17 am

    THIS is the problem NZ and the rest of the world suffer from: Divide and Rule. It sadly always works, the Nazis were prfessionals in it, so were the British Imperialists, colonisers of NZ, same as the US and many others. It goes back to the Roman and even earlier times. Divide, create division, competition, hatred, suspicion, and so forth. It is all over NZ society. The Nat ACT brigade, and even before the treacherous Labour governments of last 2 decades heavily engaged in this, so we have the mess we have now. Where to move from here, I ask? I see little hope, as many small battles are going to be fought. The least the left (what is left of it) can do, is to ally with others, to put a stop for the worst of it all.

    Good night or morning, wherever you are.

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