Stuff today launched a fact checking policy tracker on the new government’s “major” initiatives. If done well (researched, balaced, investigated), I think it is a great development. I am not sure they have the resources unless they have added post election staff to do it well?
“The concept is simple: we’ll highlight key events with short pieces of analysis, fact-checking and data-based reporting.” Which is kind of what journalism is always supposed to be.
A “new” type of journalism? Maybe. Or maybe not.
“Post will include a mix of the elements you’re used to from Stuff: charts, video, pictures and tweets, all wrapped up with sharp insights from our journalists.”
How they determine “major” ( cost, number of people impact, etc) will also be interesting.
There’s no way they would’ve ever done that for national.
This will be probably be gamed to further push negative memes around the govt by cloaking them in ‘facts’ IMO as part of the rights new media strategy.
Y’know that ‘my expert says…’ shit that shonky had as stock in trade.
The Fourth Estate is dead in New Zealand. John Campbell used to ask the tough questions , holding politicians responsible for their actions or inactions. Remember Campbell’s dogged determination to have John Key and Brownlee do the right thing for those suffering during Christchurch’s post-earthquake? John Campbell soon afterwards lost his job at TV3, many news host now are seen to tow the line, afraid to upset their bosses. True reporting and holding politicians accountable has flown out of the window in New Zealand. Shame on us.
Very true savenz but like Carolyn_nth, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
By and large Newsroom has been a success and its possible they have been galvanised into action by a new government with new ideas and lots of changes about to occur. In other words, they now have impetus which was certainly lacking under the previous government.
Well my advice to our coalition government I would have someone auditing all the news videos and make sure they all show the good side to out new coalition government because some of the videos have not been flattering and everyone has a side that looks good on video. I no you have just started but u need someone on that job of keeping the media honest.
1st point every news show except for the breakfast show has a blue back ground. This is subliminal message blue is best.
Like in 2008 nearly every fucken article I read had key in it. It was the key to this the key to that go back you and will find the proof national still have the media in there clasp look at bill and joice videos all good shots we are in this for the long game we have to be. Kia kaha
There is a a nother subliminal message being put out through Our media and thats crack this a have a crack this word should be banned as the media have not figured out that they are being used by some people to put this message out there I notice these things. This shit is a design drug that does what it is designed to do which is to hook the user and then makes them a uncontrolled idiot whom has no grasp on reality and will do anything to get there next fix. Fuck that.
“The concept is simple: we’ll highlight key events with short pieces of analysis, fact-checking and data-based reporting.” Which is kind of what journalism is always supposed to be.
Agree. But given many of us wanted it we cannot object now. Balance and investigation are key. My conern is they are going to just repackage the “I reckon and knee jerk” journalism with some pretty bells and whistles.
I woukd have loved to have seen this during the election campaign but too many journos and editors dribbling at tge possibility of a scandal for real stuff?
Patricia +1
The selective eye of the media is very concerning. It tends to focus increasingly on trivia, gore, and sensationalism. Not to mention the international component at RNZ which is dodgy, quoting suspect US sources. RNZ needs better funding and journalism. Here’s hoping.
It would be a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” in the American political machine Andre, and you know it. Both the Repugs and Dems are a lost cause.
That comment is more useful for assessing your vantage point that it is for assessing the very real differences between Dems and Repugs for Americans and the rest of the world.
There is no real difference , both parties are war mongering, corporate supporting, 1% defending, scum. Who have hurt working people ever since their inception.
Says someone who is so fukn stupid that he admitted a couple of months ago he had pen in hand with his ballot paper, and he couldn’t even put a tick in a box that would help get rid of the Nats.
And just very politely, I’m suggesting you might want to pull your head in Andre.
If you don’t want to address a point made, then don’t. If you can’t, that’s okay too.
What isn’t okay is to launch into ad hom bullshit off the back of previous, unrelated comments you either disagreed with or couldn’t get your head around.
The appropriate point in reply to adam had already been made at 2.1.1.1. adam’s reply to that just perfectly illustrated the point that had already been addressed, and he completely missed.
So more or less dismissing someone out of hand because they opined that both the Dems and Repugs are a lost cause, was addressing the point that both parties share broadly similar perspectives on specific policy fronts.
Erm, no. That can’t be what you meant, because all you did in response to Adam’s comment was what you did in response to Garibaldi’s – which was to side-step the substantive content of the comment and “go” the person making the comment.
But we’ve been through this (above) and I’m confident, that now you have had the opportunity to make a second go at comprehension, that it won’t develop into a pattern that marks your comments, and that being the case, I won’t have to start putting on hats and what-not when I stumble across your contributions to the site. 🙂
I think it’s a fair point to make that the farther one is politically from the US political “Overton Window”, the less apparent distance there is between the dems and the republicans. Particularly if you’re viewing it from side-on.
But for the 10% of the US population who have affordable healthcare under the dems which they could lose under the republicans, the distance between the two parties might seem a little bit larger than it does to you or Adam.
If you or anyone else really needs a concise explanation of the difference between Dems and Repugs in how it relates to ordinary Americans, here you go.
And I’ll add another one: Democrats support workers rights, such as the right to organise, equal pay, non-discrimination. Republicans want to eliminate all worker protections to allow employers complete rights to do whatever they want.
And there’s many many more differences that deeply affect Americans and the rest of the world.
Come on McFlock the democrats opposed single payer, which would make a real difference to people’s lives. The democrats could stop the repeal, but they will not. loads of ways to stop the repeal of legislation but the democrats never do.
The ‘they’re the same’ line is a rhetoric device not designed to be fact. Therefore a irreverent sharpish response with a link seems okayish. But of course I bow to greater knowledge of these things. //leaves quietly and quickly…
Come on McFlock the democrats opposed single payer, which would make a real difference to people’s lives.
Oh, government paying would be better, but ACA still made a real difference to 30 million people that the republicans are trying to repeal.
The democrats could stop the repeal, but they will not. loads of ways to stop the repeal of legislation but the democrats never do.
That’s not how democracy works. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the dems are minority in Congress, Senate, and it’s a republican presidency. How are the dems supposed to outvote that?
There would be very few that don’t support single-payer in principle. There are at least three realpolitik reasons why there was no chance of passing single-payer in that tiny 2008-2010 period when they had 60 votes in the senate.
First is it’s an extremely complex problem how to get to single-payer from the system they had in ’08, 2 years would not be anywhere near enough time to sort out a robust solution.
Second, literally every single Democrat senator was needed to pass Obamacare, there was no margin for even a single no. And yes, there probably were a very few dems that would not have been willing to sign on to such a massive change. So they all signed on to something they (incorrectly) believed had a chance of bipartisan support.
Third, they do need to consider re-electability. As it was, they went way out on a limb supporting the expansion of healthcare to those that previously couldn’t afford it. And many of them paid the political price in 2010, when Obamacare was widely considered to have added a lot of momentum to the Republican wave that year.
That was a lot of writing needed to address a simple throw-away bullshit line. I really hope you’ll take it on board so it won’t be neeeded again.
Now, how about you tell us how you think Democrats could stop the repeal if the Republicans mustered the fifty votes in the Senate?
1) Filibuster
2) Committee hearings requests on point by point basis.
3) Points of order stalling as it’s a repeal – so not covered by Byrd Rule
4) Open up new debates within the debate to repeal
5) Put forward amendments rather than the repeal
That’s from the top of my head. They have other tools. The senate and the house can slow bills down to a snail’s pace until the midterms. There is very limited ability to go into urgency to repeal unlike us – also there is the whole talking to moderate republicans to remind them about midterms.
As I said, it’s about stopping the repeal. The road to do that is not a simple straight up vote.
adam, the repugs were trying to do it under reconciliation. So none of that applies. None of it.
The time window they had for reconciliation ran out a little while ago, so those points do apply now. And the repugs aren’t even trying now after their window closed. But they might try again next year under a new reconciliation process.
I suppose if the trumpists look like actually winning the repeal of ACA on their (third?) attempt, the dems could make use of your great expertise on how to stop people doing anything substantial, ever.
Yes they did, and now they must do it in a open floor debate – if at all.
They will probably not go to reconciliation again, as elections are coming up.
As for slandering the democrats – hell yes, and I stand by it, ‘wet liberal I know your pain politics’ is the reason we are in this mess. No good saying you agree with somthing in principle if you not go the backbone to actually support it via voting for it. Corporate donors make peons of us all.
You do know that slander is an untruth, right? So standing by slander is standing by an untruth…
Anyway, regardless of whether you think dems are soft liberals or not, they have fundamentally improved (simply with the ACA) the lives of 30 million people, and the republicans want to repeal that improvement.
So yes, there is a significant difference between the two, the closer you are to US politics. You’re in the opposite hemisphere and on their far left. Of course the positions of the democrats and republicans look similar to you – you’re a very long way away from them. Get closer, and you’d feel the differences.
Actually guys the main thrust of my comment was more to do with the fact that both the party machines are so corrupt that anyone half decent cannot make it through. But , yes ,I also meant that whoever Americans vote for they still get the same boss ie deep state Zionism ( for want of a better expression).
Hear! Hear! re your response to Garibaldi at 2.1.1.1, Andre. Looking back…..and knowing what we now know, I’m even more appalled than I was then by the utterly scandalous madness of TS becoming a vehicle for cheerleading for Trump…..thanks principally to the overbearing and bawling hubris of one CV. Particularly since that self-vaunted ‘prime leftie’ seemed to be motivated more by a ridiculously indulgent reaction to an internecine shit-fest occurring somewhere south of Timaru. Self-satisfying delusions as to one’s own ‘purity’ are fucking dangerous!
There’s a new controversial theory that anti-muons can detect virtual holes. They could run an experiment on Joyce to test the theory and publish in Nature.
India trade deal is apparently on life support and has been for many months. I guess John Key was just inflating his own importance when he said great progress was being made?
@Tracey
It basically comes down to the manner in which many of their nationals have been treated over the gNat junta’s reign.
Strangely enough, despite corruption (overt there, covert here), India does actually give a shit about its nationals.
Same thing with South American states. I’m not sure whether many will remember the absolute CLANGER Key, and his business enterage dropped when on a mission to Sth America at the time of Chavez’ death. They (a number of Sth American states) certainly didn’t and still haven’t.
It went down like a cup of cold sick – even though not all were fans of the Chavez reign.
Why would India want a trade deal with NZ when we’ve created a mechanism by which many/most of their nationals are exploited and treated as disposable human economic units. Even though India have veered right and swallowing much of the cool aid, Modi’s staked his name on fixing corruption, cosy little deals, black money, and they’re wide awake to all that now happening in lil ‘ole NuZull.
I’ve had the popcorn out not long after the gNatz came to power, and I happened to pick up a South American diplomat’s son hitch hiking back to Wellington with his mates. And was it the start of the gNat junta’s second term that Key started rattling on about being careful not to be arrogant? Or maybe it was the first term when an astute journalist observed that the smiling assassin only knew where various blots on the Pacific Ocean were, and that they were actually Pacific Island neighbours during his flights to HhhhWoiEeee with mum and the kuds
Parker does not seem confident of overturning ISDS clause but if we must have it I am happier ( not to be confused with happy) if the adjudication of disputes is done by;
Fulltime Judges
Public Forum
Fully disclosed decisions
He is not talking at all about IP issues. Thry had 5 bottom lines ( Labour) as Mcflock pointed out a couple of days ago but so far are publicly focusing on only 2(arguably 3) of them.
“Parker confirmed he was interested in the alternative to ISDS developed by the European Union, based on a public investment court system.
“One of the principles of justice is actually once you turn yourself over to becoming a judge, you put your prior biases and conflicts of interest behind you, and that’s not as clearly done in respect of arbitrations because the people who sit on those arbitration panels, once they’ve done it they go back to being a trade lawyer, perhaps accountable for their business to some of these forces who were in the contest, so a court is better in that regard.”
I find myself in agreement with Mike Hosking this morning:
“So here’s the theme: Governments make a difference. Governments can cock it up, or stoke it up.
But governments also, by and large, aren’t quite as big a deal as you might think.
Certainly not as big a deal as the headline writers would have you believe.
Mostly people carry on. Mostly people make their own decisons. Take their own risks. Live their own lives. Chart their own reality.
If you’re waiting for a government to tell you what to do, where to do it, how to do it and when to do it, then good luck to you. But the rest of us are getting on with it.”
We have a weak and disaggregated state and public sector.
We have a highly deregulated and market-driven society.
We have almost zero horizontal discipline across government policy or departments.
We have a very delicately poised coalition government, in no position to make massive changes.
We have no common direction as a country.
None of that has changed in the last 20 years, and is unlikely to on current tracking.
Certainly I didn’t notice some minor season of anomie forming during the coalition negotiations.
And yet we have a functioning society.
Plenty of things are getting worse, which we can all roll off as a list. All will take many years to improve.
We don’t yet have a government that is strongly altering our daily lives for good..
We have a weak and disaggregated state and public sector.
We have a highly deregulated and market-driven society.
We have almost zero horizontal discipline across government policy or departments.
We have no common direction as a country.
That’s all because our society has been under attack by business for the last thirty or more years which has been helped by the governments of the day.
We have a very delicately poised coalition government, in no position to make massive changes.
Actually, it’s not – it’s pretty solid. Probably more solid that the previous government.
Now let’s go through the list of entities this government would need to clean out:
– Electricity Commission
– NZTA Board
– HNZ Board
– Boards of all power generators (since they can still roll them from 51%)
– Boards of all Crown Research Institutions
– Law Commission
– Reserve Bank
– Boards of all the hundreds of largely useless quangos circulating through Wellington, from the Walking Commission to NZ On Air
– RNZ, TVNZ,and all the remaining State Owned Enterprises
etc.
You get the picture.
This government has started with momentum in only a very few areas. And this is this government at its peak: it never gets stronger, more forceful or more popular than here.
Page 15 of yesterdays Herald quotes Phil Goff proposing a streamlining of Water Services.
Let’s ignore the use of the word “streamlining” in an article about water services ??? and cut to the important possibility if this takes place.
The concept of “three waters” ie Watercare being responsible for Potable water, Waste Water and Stormwater management is not new and shouldn’t need any great research. This was the concept proposed before amalgamation by those responsible who had spent 3–4 years carefully examining all aspects of the best way to handle this important section of infrastructure for the new Auckland.
Sadly their deliberations were effectively thrown in the rubbish bin and Rodney Hide was given the job of sorting everything out which he did in about three months after his mate John Key had handed him the task.
The then head of Watercare refused to have stormwater as part of their responsibility and so it became a separate section of Auckland Council. Wastewater discharges into the Waitemata continue at roughly the same rate as they did before amalgamation except in the former North Shore City area , they had followed the three waters principal during the upgrade of their infrastructure over several years.
This is another legacy that Auckland could well do without. Let’s hope that reason will now prevail.
Only slightly on topic… I discovered a while back that the (privatised) Papakura water contract was still operational. It’s not part of Watercare, I assume because they couldn’t break the contract & have to let it expire.
It was Hide who pushed for those privatised contracts to be extended up to 25years. Interesting when one considers that if all of the councils had contracted out their utilities the SuperCity could never have come about. Doesn’t make a lot of sense does it.
Paddles the cat, the twitter account for Jacinda and Clarks’s pet, now has more followers after being active only a month than the deputy leader of the National Party, Paula Bennett, who has been on Twitter since 2009.
Jacinda’s pet has more media followers than Bill’s.”
I doubt this instance is any guide, Germans have a far tougher driving licence test than we do they’re generally pretty good drivers from what I’ve heard.
Tiredness may be a part that needs addressing. I had a near miss a while back with someone in a hire camper crossing the line on a corner. They entered it wrong and cut the white line. Their reaction was to swerve even further towards me, luckily for me they just as quickly corrected and pulled back in. That was open road, I’d taken my foot off when I saw them over the line & then nearly crapped myself when they veered further, thought for a brief moment they were aiming at me.
I put them down as used to driving on the right, where their swerve to the right would have been the natural reaction, and that they may have picked the camper up straight after landing & then drove north. They could have been getting tired, which may be why they took the wrong line on the corner to begin with.
The point being it may not be a bad idea to more strongly urge people to not engage in a long drive in a camper immediately on arriving here after a long flight. They are campers after all, it’s not as if they have nowhere to sleep.
” The comments came in response to Health Minister David Clark saying he is “very seriously considering” accepting resignations from District Health Board (DHB) heads that aren’t on the new Government’s “wavelength.”
“I’m extremely disappointed,” Mr English said.
“I thought the Jacinda Ardern Government would be different. It turns out it’s just the same old Labour trying to do its brutal tactics on the public service.”
Mr Clark told RNZ he may ask for resignation letters from current chairs of DHBs before choosing which ones to accept back into the fold.
“I want to be sure that the district health board chairs are in agreement with the current Government’s agenda and direction,” Mr Clark told RNZ. ”
Good idea, Minister Clark. Would it be too much to ask you to also take the opportunity to trim bloated top-level administrative overhead and salaries? Y’know, so the money actually gets spent on providing services rather than funding lots of expensive top-level jobsworths whose only function is getting in the way?
And they did so through crony appointments to senior management positions. I suspect even public servants at the coal face in WINZ live in fear of their masters.
I’m hoping the age of the various corporatised public service feifdoms will get a bloody big shake up. And despite someone’s pessimism on another thread about not being able to make changes needed, the neo-libs created exactly the structure that will/could allow a bloody big shakeup to happen.
We’ll see. It is very early days.
$500,000 salary plus for a damn hospital CEO. Where was that? The figure stayed in my head, and everything else faded when I heard it to day or yesterday on Radionz. The hospitals are damned of course, trying to manage on short rations for the working parts, while the cock at the top is paid for playing the neo -lib game of sorting out the inefficiencies with a sinking budget level.
+1 This is the essence of neo-liberal corruption. English to blame for setting it all up that way before he rose to be an outgoing prime-ministerial candidate first time he lost.
The Electoral Commission in London has a very poor record of inquiry and prosecution. Sadly the Metropolitan police are not much better.
Carol Cadwalladr has pushed the story in The Guardian but it is not getting any traction in the mainstream media.
Open Democracy has done some solid work which the Electoral Commission will probably ignore. https://www.opendemocracy.net/dup-dark-money
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by the late hotelier Earl Hagaman’s estate to reconsider a defamation case against the new justice minister Andrew Little.
I say good for the boy’s parents, they at least have their priorities right. IMO the Police should respect their wishes and stay out of it… provided the boy agrees too.
My oh my Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, a prestigious Anglican private school – and they let their “gals” out of bounds topless to play truant. What on earth is the world coming to. I have heard tales of yore from other Hawkes Bay Private schools for girls as well – doesn’t say much for the upper echelons of society in this country does it. Breeding our young ladies to be such utter trollops!!!!! Tongue in cheek here but seeing our prisons are littered with the poor and products of our public schools it just shows tacky-ness comes from all stratas of our society, you’d better believe it.
I have always found single sex schools to have a certain elitism and super-patriotism about them that was pretty gross. This could be a consequence of that.
Maui ,
You are entitled to your opinion but I disagree, depends on the on the ethics of the school and the way it is run surely. Your experience may well have been much less
agreeable than mine was.
Also – allows them to repeat the gratuitous publishing of three photos of teenage girls in their underwear (restrained?) on the back of a motorbike, and to reinforce the notion that privilege denotes respectability to all actions without critique.
I think it the best-conceived streaking prank so far carried out. The Herald even did a cartoon based on it. Unfortunately, the boy was run over and cut in the leg. Without that, it would have seemed impressive and harmless. But now, the question of whether the girls had the appropriate licences to be driving the bikes could come into question, and it could end in tears. There was no malice here, as there is when the poor bash a dairy-owner, so I am not sure that it is a matter of privilege. Wait and see if prosecution follows.
Without modern phones, there would have been no photos for the NZ Herald to so cynically publish as click-bait (and the article reached the top of their internet chart). That is also a sad commentary – on what the general public want to see.
In the old days they used vehicles for pranks, like seeing how many people you could pile into a volkswagen. Probably now it would have to be that they were all nude.
Then if there were both sexes one of the males would get an erection, then there would be some tale of sexual malpractice, and that would be good click bait. So watch the media over the next year when there is a low point in the news cycle, and no sexual malpractice of some luminary being investigated, or a new war, or shooting in a school, mall, concert, church, or particularly horrific bombing or picture of a child suffering. /sad and disillusioned not sarc
The rise in motocross bikes in public places is everywhere. They are super dangerous and often ridden by unlicensed people – aka – kids without the brains or understanding that they can kill people with their behaviour. The parents cheer it on.
Somehow whenever there is an accident of this kind, surprise surprise it is always considered a prank gone wrong and hushed up. Even when someone is killed or severely injured.
I’m all for harmless pranks but if they could have pulled the same prank on bicycles and nobody would have been hurt and it would not have been doing something illegal (aka riding motocross bikes in public places without permission or a motorbike license + injuring someone to boot).
Now I no my money from my business is not thunderous I made 2× this when I was 14 but in my line of business it’s all about the good will and if some people are shitting all over my good name there goes my earning sliding backwards. By 2 thirds but the potential earnings from my eco Maori pseudonym is thunderous but the same people are interfering with this. So I will be making a claim on the breaches of my rights under the Treaty of Waitangi there are many injustices that are being dealt out to me and my whanau. like the red head guy whom thought that he would come over to the farm house that I was living in that the farm owner had just sacked me idiot an say boo and the dumb ass Maori would run away. Well no because this Maori is a proud and brave Maori that knows his rights and told him were to go. So they have stuffed my farming career that I had planed to be managing and making $80.000 WTF. Now the big picture is that this sort of service can be dealt out to anyone in New Zealand if they are not in the who gives a________ club ie millionairs club. They now no that Im not a dumb ass Maori now. I wonder if the generals want to negotiate well no sorry they are God’s and are never worng
WTF just like the orange man Kia Kaha
The White House first learned one of its senior staffers met with the grand jury hearing the case presented by the special counsel into alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 election not from the staffer but from media reports, sources with knowledge of the investigation tell ABC News.
Former Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis recently testified before that grand jury into his role on President Donald Trump’s campaign. Clovis currently serves as the senior White House adviser to the Department of Agriculture.
Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page privately testified Thursday that he mentioned to Jeff Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — as new questions emerge about the attorney general’s comments to Congress about Russia and the Trump campaign.
During more than six hours of closed-door testimony, Page said that he informed Sessions about his coming July 2016 trip to Russia, which Page told CNN was unconnected to his campaign role. Page described the conversation to CNN after he finished talking to the House intelligence committee.
The Repugs release their tax reform bill. Like all “conservative” tax plans anytime anywhere, it borrows money to pay for big tax cuts to those that already have the most (especially those that write the rules and their owners), sticks it to those that have the least, and lies that it will increase growth.
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TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
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Stuff today launched a fact checking policy tracker on the new government’s “major” initiatives. If done well (researched, balaced, investigated), I think it is a great development. I am not sure they have the resources unless they have added post election staff to do it well?
“The concept is simple: we’ll highlight key events with short pieces of analysis, fact-checking and data-based reporting.” Which is kind of what journalism is always supposed to be.
A “new” type of journalism? Maybe. Or maybe not.
“Post will include a mix of the elements you’re used to from Stuff: charts, video, pictures and tweets, all wrapped up with sharp insights from our journalists.”
How they determine “major” ( cost, number of people impact, etc) will also be interesting.
Watching that space
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/98487531/the-first-draft-tracking-the-start-of-a-government
Pity they didn’t start it 9 years ago!
Then we’d also have a comparison.
Or during the election. Apparently Garner has been alluding to a similar thing.
There’s no way they would’ve ever done that for national.
This will be probably be gamed to further push negative memes around the govt by cloaking them in ‘facts’ IMO as part of the rights new media strategy.
Y’know that ‘my expert says…’ shit that shonky had as stock in trade.
It looks like a Newsroom initiative, supported by Stuff.
So, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that Newsroom would’ve done it in response to the NACT government, if they’d been around then.
However, to be fair, they do need to compare the current government’s performance with NACT’s track record.
Exactly so unless they do that it’s simply more DP.
Alot of what’s going to get done is repairing the damage National have dished out across NZ society so unless there’s context it’s pure spin.
Watch for synergies between stuff/granny and national attack lines.
Well done Newsroom, again… gosh they are a wonderful resource, kudos Newsroom
The Fourth Estate is dead in New Zealand. John Campbell used to ask the tough questions , holding politicians responsible for their actions or inactions. Remember Campbell’s dogged determination to have John Key and Brownlee do the right thing for those suffering during Christchurch’s post-earthquake? John Campbell soon afterwards lost his job at TV3, many news host now are seen to tow the line, afraid to upset their bosses. True reporting and holding politicians accountable has flown out of the window in New Zealand. Shame on us.
Yes, funny timing. When they cheerleaded shit for 9 years.
Very true savenz but like Carolyn_nth, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
By and large Newsroom has been a success and its possible they have been galvanised into action by a new government with new ideas and lots of changes about to occur. In other words, they now have impetus which was certainly lacking under the previous government.
Yep, has been some well researched articles on newsroom.
Well my advice to our coalition government I would have someone auditing all the news videos and make sure they all show the good side to out new coalition government because some of the videos have not been flattering and everyone has a side that looks good on video. I no you have just started but u need someone on that job of keeping the media honest.
1st point every news show except for the breakfast show has a blue back ground. This is subliminal message blue is best.
Like in 2008 nearly every fucken article I read had key in it. It was the key to this the key to that go back you and will find the proof national still have the media in there clasp look at bill and joice videos all good shots we are in this for the long game we have to be. Kia kaha
There is a a nother subliminal message being put out through Our media and thats crack this a have a crack this word should be banned as the media have not figured out that they are being used by some people to put this message out there I notice these things. This shit is a design drug that does what it is designed to do which is to hook the user and then makes them a uncontrolled idiot whom has no grasp on reality and will do anything to get there next fix. Fuck that.
True. They never did it for National though.
Agree. But given many of us wanted it we cannot object now. Balance and investigation are key. My conern is they are going to just repackage the “I reckon and knee jerk” journalism with some pretty bells and whistles.
I woukd have loved to have seen this during the election campaign but too many journos and editors dribbling at tge possibility of a scandal for real stuff?
Alarm bells went off for me when I saw “first draft”.
Too many times I’ve seen a story get edited over a week to become a massaged message.
So I think this is the same group finding a new way to colour public perception.
Bill English has declared war, so we have been warned.
Government should claim this space to avoid false news.
Patricia +1
The selective eye of the media is very concerning. It tends to focus increasingly on trivia, gore, and sensationalism. Not to mention the international component at RNZ which is dodgy, quoting suspect US sources. RNZ needs better funding and journalism. Here’s hoping.
Looks like the Democrats have decided to emulate the Republicans and establish their very own circular firing squad.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774
I won’t shed any tears if the Dem old crusties all take other out and clear the field for new blood.
It would be a case of “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” in the American political machine Andre, and you know it. Both the Repugs and Dems are a lost cause.
That comment is more useful for assessing your vantage point that it is for assessing the very real differences between Dems and Repugs for Americans and the rest of the world.
There is no real difference , both parties are war mongering, corporate supporting, 1% defending, scum. Who have hurt working people ever since their inception.
Says someone who is so fukn stupid that he admitted a couple of months ago he had pen in hand with his ballot paper, and he couldn’t even put a tick in a box that would help get rid of the Nats.
https://thestandard.org.nz/is-nz-doomed-to-lying-politics-now/#comment-1389259
And just very politely, I’m suggesting you might want to pull your head in Andre.
If you don’t want to address a point made, then don’t. If you can’t, that’s okay too.
What isn’t okay is to launch into ad hom bullshit off the back of previous, unrelated comments you either disagreed with or couldn’t get your head around.
The appropriate point in reply to adam had already been made at 2.1.1.1. adam’s reply to that just perfectly illustrated the point that had already been addressed, and he completely missed.
Ah. I see.
So more or less dismissing someone out of hand because they opined that both the Dems and Repugs are a lost cause, was addressing the point that both parties share broadly similar perspectives on specific policy fronts.
Erm, no. That can’t be what you meant, because all you did in response to Adam’s comment was what you did in response to Garibaldi’s – which was to side-step the substantive content of the comment and “go” the person making the comment.
But we’ve been through this (above) and I’m confident, that now you have had the opportunity to make a second go at comprehension, that it won’t develop into a pattern that marks your comments, and that being the case, I won’t have to start putting on hats and what-not when I stumble across your contributions to the site. 🙂
I think it’s a fair point to make that the farther one is politically from the US political “Overton Window”, the less apparent distance there is between the dems and the republicans. Particularly if you’re viewing it from side-on.
But for the 10% of the US population who have affordable healthcare under the dems which they could lose under the republicans, the distance between the two parties might seem a little bit larger than it does to you or Adam.
If you or anyone else really needs a concise explanation of the difference between Dems and Repugs in how it relates to ordinary Americans, here you go.
http://addictinginfo.com/2013/05/09/fifteen-differences/
And I’ll add another one: Democrats support workers rights, such as the right to organise, equal pay, non-discrimination. Republicans want to eliminate all worker protections to allow employers complete rights to do whatever they want.
And there’s many many more differences that deeply affect Americans and the rest of the world.
See how easy that was to respond to the actual content of a comment? Thank-you.
Come on McFlock the democrats opposed single payer, which would make a real difference to people’s lives. The democrats could stop the repeal, but they will not. loads of ways to stop the repeal of legislation but the democrats never do.
The ‘they’re the same’ line is a rhetoric device not designed to be fact. Therefore a irreverent sharpish response with a link seems okayish. But of course I bow to greater knowledge of these things. //leaves quietly and quickly…
Oh, government paying would be better, but ACA still made a real difference to 30 million people that the republicans are trying to repeal.
That’s not how democracy works. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the dems are minority in Congress, Senate, and it’s a republican presidency. How are the dems supposed to outvote that?
adam, that’s slandering most of the Democrats.
There would be very few that don’t support single-payer in principle. There are at least three realpolitik reasons why there was no chance of passing single-payer in that tiny 2008-2010 period when they had 60 votes in the senate.
First is it’s an extremely complex problem how to get to single-payer from the system they had in ’08, 2 years would not be anywhere near enough time to sort out a robust solution.
Second, literally every single Democrat senator was needed to pass Obamacare, there was no margin for even a single no. And yes, there probably were a very few dems that would not have been willing to sign on to such a massive change. So they all signed on to something they (incorrectly) believed had a chance of bipartisan support.
Third, they do need to consider re-electability. As it was, they went way out on a limb supporting the expansion of healthcare to those that previously couldn’t afford it. And many of them paid the political price in 2010, when Obamacare was widely considered to have added a lot of momentum to the Republican wave that year.
That was a lot of writing needed to address a simple throw-away bullshit line. I really hope you’ll take it on board so it won’t be neeeded again.
Now, how about you tell us how you think Democrats could stop the repeal if the Republicans mustered the fifty votes in the Senate?
1) Filibuster
2) Committee hearings requests on point by point basis.
3) Points of order stalling as it’s a repeal – so not covered by Byrd Rule
4) Open up new debates within the debate to repeal
5) Put forward amendments rather than the repeal
That’s from the top of my head. They have other tools. The senate and the house can slow bills down to a snail’s pace until the midterms. There is very limited ability to go into urgency to repeal unlike us – also there is the whole talking to moderate republicans to remind them about midterms.
As I said, it’s about stopping the repeal. The road to do that is not a simple straight up vote.
adam, the repugs were trying to do it under reconciliation. So none of that applies. None of it.
The time window they had for reconciliation ran out a little while ago, so those points do apply now. And the repugs aren’t even trying now after their window closed. But they might try again next year under a new reconciliation process.
I suppose if the trumpists look like actually winning the repeal of ACA on their (third?) attempt, the dems could make use of your great expertise on how to stop people doing anything substantial, ever.
Yes they did, and now they must do it in a open floor debate – if at all.
They will probably not go to reconciliation again, as elections are coming up.
As for slandering the democrats – hell yes, and I stand by it, ‘wet liberal I know your pain politics’ is the reason we are in this mess. No good saying you agree with somthing in principle if you not go the backbone to actually support it via voting for it. Corporate donors make peons of us all.
You do know that slander is an untruth, right? So standing by slander is standing by an untruth…
Anyway, regardless of whether you think dems are soft liberals or not, they have fundamentally improved (simply with the ACA) the lives of 30 million people, and the republicans want to repeal that improvement.
So yes, there is a significant difference between the two, the closer you are to US politics. You’re in the opposite hemisphere and on their far left. Of course the positions of the democrats and republicans look similar to you – you’re a very long way away from them. Get closer, and you’d feel the differences.
Took a leaf from your playbook McFlock, changed the language to suit.
Seeing as we can’t call acts of terror, terrorism.
May as well call the dishonesty of wet liberals – slander.
So we must worship at the altar of your world view, otherwise its abuse there Andre.
Open your mind, try reading ‘A People’s History of America’ by Howard Zinn.
No worshiping and no alters (except for thems that’s so inclined) and no personal abuse.
Pretty simple really.
Actually guys the main thrust of my comment was more to do with the fact that both the party machines are so corrupt that anyone half decent cannot make it through. But , yes ,I also meant that whoever Americans vote for they still get the same boss ie deep state Zionism ( for want of a better expression).
Try stop licking Trump’s arse by default Adam.
Oh do try getting the point North, other wise I’ll just take you as another wet liberal who can’t handle working people actually having power.
Hear! Hear! re your response to Garibaldi at 2.1.1.1, Andre. Looking back…..and knowing what we now know, I’m even more appalled than I was then by the utterly scandalous madness of TS becoming a vehicle for cheerleading for Trump…..thanks principally to the overbearing and bawling hubris of one CV. Particularly since that self-vaunted ‘prime leftie’ seemed to be motivated more by a ridiculously indulgent reaction to an internecine shit-fest occurring somewhere south of Timaru. Self-satisfying delusions as to one’s own ‘purity’ are fucking dangerous!
All I’m reading is the same puritanical ranting coming from you North. Just, from a different ideological position.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/africa/98511341/cosmic-rays-reveal-mysterious-void-in-egypts-great-pyramid
This could be used to find that fiscal hole that Steven Joyce was talking about; even when he was wrong about it, he was still right 😉
🙂
Muons only detect holes that exist. Like the one inside Joyce’s head.
There’s a new controversial theory that anti-muons can detect virtual holes. They could run an experiment on Joyce to test the theory and publish in Nature.
But in Joyce’s case, you probably won’t get a useful read because what surrounds that void is so dense.
On the other hand, it is such a perfect vacuum in there that you could store a very large amount of antimatter quite safely.
Joyce = a void. Absolute zero warmth – a space wasted on nothing.
Might be usefull as a carbon sink.
India trade deal is apparently on life support and has been for many months. I guess John Key was just inflating his own importance when he said great progress was being made?
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/11/02/57753/nz-india-fta-on-life-support
All I can say to that is ‘good’. Obviously getting that FTA would increase our already unsustainable dairy herd.
@Tracey
It basically comes down to the manner in which many of their nationals have been treated over the gNat junta’s reign.
Strangely enough, despite corruption (overt there, covert here), India does actually give a shit about its nationals.
Same thing with South American states. I’m not sure whether many will remember the absolute CLANGER Key, and his business enterage dropped when on a mission to Sth America at the time of Chavez’ death. They (a number of Sth American states) certainly didn’t and still haven’t.
It went down like a cup of cold sick – even though not all were fans of the Chavez reign.
Why would India want a trade deal with NZ when we’ve created a mechanism by which many/most of their nationals are exploited and treated as disposable human economic units. Even though India have veered right and swallowing much of the cool aid, Modi’s staked his name on fixing corruption, cosy little deals, black money, and they’re wide awake to all that now happening in lil ‘ole NuZull.
I’ve had the popcorn out not long after the gNatz came to power, and I happened to pick up a South American diplomat’s son hitch hiking back to Wellington with his mates. And was it the start of the gNat junta’s second term that Key started rattling on about being careful not to be arrogant? Or maybe it was the first term when an astute journalist observed that the smiling assassin only knew where various blots on the Pacific Ocean were, and that they were actually Pacific Island neighbours during his flights to HhhhWoiEeee with mum and the kuds
Parker does not seem confident of overturning ISDS clause but if we must have it I am happier ( not to be confused with happy) if the adjudication of disputes is done by;
Fulltime Judges
Public Forum
Fully disclosed decisions
He is not talking at all about IP issues. Thry had 5 bottom lines ( Labour) as Mcflock pointed out a couple of days ago but so far are publicly focusing on only 2(arguably 3) of them.
“Parker confirmed he was interested in the alternative to ISDS developed by the European Union, based on a public investment court system.
“One of the principles of justice is actually once you turn yourself over to becoming a judge, you put your prior biases and conflicts of interest behind you, and that’s not as clearly done in respect of arbitrations because the people who sit on those arbitration panels, once they’ve done it they go back to being a trade lawyer, perhaps accountable for their business to some of these forces who were in the contest, so a court is better in that regard.”
Tracey, ISDS are now not allowed in any trade agreement. Agreed by all three parties and passed by cabinet today.
Jacinda has said that is their biggest concern, so now it is official.
Not doubting you but can you post a link? I don’t see this in the news yet.
A.
Stage four of the grieving process is depression. Stage five acceptance.
Hosking now at bewilderment factor 9, showing indictors of both of the above.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11939977
I find myself in agreement with Mike Hosking this morning:
“So here’s the theme: Governments make a difference. Governments can cock it up, or stoke it up.
But governments also, by and large, aren’t quite as big a deal as you might think.
Certainly not as big a deal as the headline writers would have you believe.
Mostly people carry on. Mostly people make their own decisons. Take their own risks. Live their own lives. Chart their own reality.
If you’re waiting for a government to tell you what to do, where to do it, how to do it and when to do it, then good luck to you. But the rest of us are getting on with it.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11939977
We have a weak and disaggregated state and public sector.
We have a highly deregulated and market-driven society.
We have almost zero horizontal discipline across government policy or departments.
We have a very delicately poised coalition government, in no position to make massive changes.
We have no common direction as a country.
None of that has changed in the last 20 years, and is unlikely to on current tracking.
Certainly I didn’t notice some minor season of anomie forming during the coalition negotiations.
And yet we have a functioning society.
Plenty of things are getting worse, which we can all roll off as a list. All will take many years to improve.
We don’t yet have a government that is strongly altering our daily lives for good..
I love how he doesnt think he is a headline writer
I doubt Mikey even knows who he is.
https://thestandard.org.nz/mike-hosking-the-case-of-the-vanishing-journalist/
That’s all because our society has been under attack by business for the last thirty or more years which has been helped by the governments of the day.
Actually, it’s not – it’s pretty solid. Probably more solid that the previous government.
Hasn’t had a test yet to evaluate its strength.
Oh I don’t agree. Asking political appointees to write a resignation letter is a start.
Clean out the strategic interference to begin real change on day 10.
Health Minister is simply “considering” this.
Now let’s go through the list of entities this government would need to clean out:
– Electricity Commission
– NZTA Board
– HNZ Board
– Boards of all power generators (since they can still roll them from 51%)
– Boards of all Crown Research Institutions
– Law Commission
– Reserve Bank
– Boards of all the hundreds of largely useless quangos circulating through Wellington, from the Walking Commission to NZ On Air
– RNZ, TVNZ,and all the remaining State Owned Enterprises
etc.
You get the picture.
This government has started with momentum in only a very few areas. And this is this government at its peak: it never gets stronger, more forceful or more popular than here.
This is as good as it gets.
So, Hosking is right this time.
As good as it gets? Your lack of imagination is eclipsed only by a pessimism – an ebony hue on black.
Page 15 of yesterdays Herald quotes Phil Goff proposing a streamlining of Water Services.
Let’s ignore the use of the word “streamlining” in an article about water services ??? and cut to the important possibility if this takes place.
The concept of “three waters” ie Watercare being responsible for Potable water, Waste Water and Stormwater management is not new and shouldn’t need any great research. This was the concept proposed before amalgamation by those responsible who had spent 3–4 years carefully examining all aspects of the best way to handle this important section of infrastructure for the new Auckland.
Sadly their deliberations were effectively thrown in the rubbish bin and Rodney Hide was given the job of sorting everything out which he did in about three months after his mate John Key had handed him the task.
The then head of Watercare refused to have stormwater as part of their responsibility and so it became a separate section of Auckland Council. Wastewater discharges into the Waitemata continue at roughly the same rate as they did before amalgamation except in the former North Shore City area , they had followed the three waters principal during the upgrade of their infrastructure over several years.
This is another legacy that Auckland could well do without. Let’s hope that reason will now prevail.
+1 John Shears
+100
Only slightly on topic… I discovered a while back that the (privatised) Papakura water contract was still operational. It’s not part of Watercare, I assume because they couldn’t break the contract & have to let it expire.
It was Hide who pushed for those privatised contracts to be extended up to 25years. Interesting when one considers that if all of the councils had contracted out their utilities the SuperCity could never have come about. Doesn’t make a lot of sense does it.
“Can there be a more wonderful humiliation?
Paddles the cat, the twitter account for Jacinda and Clarks’s pet, now has more followers after being active only a month than the deputy leader of the National Party, Paula Bennett, who has been on Twitter since 2009.
Jacinda’s pet has more media followers than Bill’s.”
Ouch.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/11/02/twitter-watch-jacindas-cat-has-more-followers-than-the-deputy-leader-of-the-national-party/
Go paddles. Love it love it,,—what ya say to that james, –poor paula?
The killing fields. Tourist drivers are a danger not only to themselves but to Kiwis as well.
The Germans crossed the centre line, hit a truck which then lost control and killed two (reading between the lines) locals.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11939828
Question: is the latest road death spike associated with the spike in tourist numbers?
I doubt this instance is any guide, Germans have a far tougher driving licence test than we do they’re generally pretty good drivers from what I’ve heard.
Tiredness may be a part that needs addressing. I had a near miss a while back with someone in a hire camper crossing the line on a corner. They entered it wrong and cut the white line. Their reaction was to swerve even further towards me, luckily for me they just as quickly corrected and pulled back in. That was open road, I’d taken my foot off when I saw them over the line & then nearly crapped myself when they veered further, thought for a brief moment they were aiming at me.
I put them down as used to driving on the right, where their swerve to the right would have been the natural reaction, and that they may have picked the camper up straight after landing & then drove north. They could have been getting tired, which may be why they took the wrong line on the corner to begin with.
The point being it may not be a bad idea to more strongly urge people to not engage in a long drive in a camper immediately on arriving here after a long flight. They are campers after all, it’s not as if they have nowhere to sleep.
This year police have a greater involvement in deaths on the road than tourists.
Billy already getting in a whine that the elites might not be quite so coddled going forward.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/labour-already-a-brutal-government-bill-english/ar-AAulbPV?li=BBqdg4K&ocid=mailsignout
” The comments came in response to Health Minister David Clark saying he is “very seriously considering” accepting resignations from District Health Board (DHB) heads that aren’t on the new Government’s “wavelength.”
“I’m extremely disappointed,” Mr English said.
“I thought the Jacinda Ardern Government would be different. It turns out it’s just the same old Labour trying to do its brutal tactics on the public service.”
Mr Clark told RNZ he may ask for resignation letters from current chairs of DHBs before choosing which ones to accept back into the fold.
“I want to be sure that the district health board chairs are in agreement with the current Government’s agenda and direction,” Mr Clark told RNZ. ”
Good idea, Minister Clark. Would it be too much to ask you to also take the opportunity to trim bloated top-level administrative overhead and salaries? Y’know, so the money actually gets spent on providing services rather than funding lots of expensive top-level jobsworths whose only function is getting in the way?
Irony alert. The last govt acted so poorly toward public servants one even got death threats as a result of one Minister’s actions.
I almost spat my coffee when I saw his comment about brutal tactics. Rank hypocrisy.
You’ve got better control of your reflexes than I do.
And they did so through crony appointments to senior management positions. I suspect even public servants at the coal face in WINZ live in fear of their masters.
I’m hoping the age of the various corporatised public service feifdoms will get a bloody big shake up. And despite someone’s pessimism on another thread about not being able to make changes needed, the neo-libs created exactly the structure that will/could allow a bloody big shakeup to happen.
We’ll see. It is very early days.
Perhaps the same should happen in broadcasting. (Wouldn’t leave many though.)
“Considering” is just weak.
He has a month tops to get his people in there and re-write the entities.
After that, political ossification sets and the window closes.
$500,000 salary plus for a damn hospital CEO. Where was that? The figure stayed in my head, and everything else faded when I heard it to day or yesterday on Radionz. The hospitals are damned of course, trying to manage on short rations for the working parts, while the cock at the top is paid for playing the neo -lib game of sorting out the inefficiencies with a sinking budget level.
+1 This is the essence of neo-liberal corruption. English to blame for setting it all up that way before he rose to be an outgoing prime-ministerial candidate first time he lost.
Russophobia… fake news…
/
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-investigation/uk-investigates-brexit-campaign-funding-amid-speculation-of-russian-meddling-idUKKBN1D14H9
The Electoral Commission in London has a very poor record of inquiry and prosecution. Sadly the Metropolitan police are not much better.
Carol Cadwalladr has pushed the story in The Guardian but it is not getting any traction in the mainstream media.
Open Democracy has done some solid work which the Electoral Commission will probably ignore.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/dup-dark-money
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/28/trump-assange-bannon-farage-bound-together-in-unholy-alliance
I can’t help but suspect that the Russians may have interfered in our election too.
Who did plant all that unfavourable news that kept breaking out??
Have you heard of the seed and soil hypothesis? The wind blows the seed and if it lands on suitable soil it will germinate.
But who is controlling that wind?
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an attempt by the late hotelier Earl Hagaman’s estate to reconsider a defamation case against the new justice minister Andrew Little.
It awarded Mr Little costs.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/342933/court-dismisses-defamation-appeal-against-andrew-little
Good . Minister. Little holds honest stances.
Hooray.
If you havent had a chance to listen to the spoof of Max Key dissing Eminem you might lije to. Lil Max will be very pouty
This one?
https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/27-10-2017/maxclusive-max-key-destroys-eminem-career-in-diss-track/
Hamilton Boys’ High School student injured in girls’ nude bike prank
(not sure how running someone over at a school on a motorbike can be considered a ‘prank’)
You also have to wonder about the girls who thought it was a good idea????
If it was a youth gang that deliberately ran amok around a school and ran someone over, they would be in custody.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/11/hamilton-boys-high-school-student-injured-in-girls-nude-bike-prank.html
I say good for the boy’s parents, they at least have their priorities right. IMO the Police should respect their wishes and stay out of it… provided the boy agrees too.
Sounds like it was simply an accident. The prank was simply riding nude which seems to be the only reason why this was ‘news’.
My oh my Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, a prestigious Anglican private school – and they let their “gals” out of bounds topless to play truant. What on earth is the world coming to. I have heard tales of yore from other Hawkes Bay Private schools for girls as well – doesn’t say much for the upper echelons of society in this country does it. Breeding our young ladies to be such utter trollops!!!!! Tongue in cheek here but seeing our prisons are littered with the poor and products of our public schools it just shows tacky-ness comes from all stratas of our society, you’d better believe it.
I have always found single sex schools to have a certain elitism and super-patriotism about them that was pretty gross. This could be a consequence of that.
Maui ,
You are entitled to your opinion but I disagree, depends on the on the ethics of the school and the way it is run surely. Your experience may well have been much less
agreeable than mine was.
Just to reinforce the “just a prank” perspective, the Herald has kindly come up with an article High school pranks that have annoyed teachers.
Also – allows them to repeat the gratuitous publishing of three photos of teenage girls in their underwear (restrained?) on the back of a motorbike, and to reinforce the notion that privilege denotes respectability to all actions without critique.
never happened in my day. Pity – would have been a highlight of my teenage years…
True savenz. Depends whether you view pranks top-down or bottom-up.
I think it the best-conceived streaking prank so far carried out. The Herald even did a cartoon based on it. Unfortunately, the boy was run over and cut in the leg. Without that, it would have seemed impressive and harmless. But now, the question of whether the girls had the appropriate licences to be driving the bikes could come into question, and it could end in tears. There was no malice here, as there is when the poor bash a dairy-owner, so I am not sure that it is a matter of privilege. Wait and see if prosecution follows.
Without modern phones, there would have been no photos for the NZ Herald to so cynically publish as click-bait (and the article reached the top of their internet chart). That is also a sad commentary – on what the general public want to see.
In the old days they used vehicles for pranks, like seeing how many people you could pile into a volkswagen. Probably now it would have to be that they were all nude.
Then if there were both sexes one of the males would get an erection, then there would be some tale of sexual malpractice, and that would be good click bait. So watch the media over the next year when there is a low point in the news cycle, and no sexual malpractice of some luminary being investigated, or a new war, or shooting in a school, mall, concert, church, or particularly horrific bombing or picture of a child suffering. /sad and disillusioned not sarc
The squealing in this Kiwiblog thread should amuse – https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/11/labour_confirms_national_awards_will_be_compulsory.html
The rise in motocross bikes in public places is everywhere. They are super dangerous and often ridden by unlicensed people – aka – kids without the brains or understanding that they can kill people with their behaviour. The parents cheer it on.
Somehow whenever there is an accident of this kind, surprise surprise it is always considered a prank gone wrong and hushed up. Even when someone is killed or severely injured.
I’m all for harmless pranks but if they could have pulled the same prank on bicycles and nobody would have been hurt and it would not have been doing something illegal (aka riding motocross bikes in public places without permission or a motorbike license + injuring someone to boot).
Now I no my money from my business is not thunderous I made 2× this when I was 14 but in my line of business it’s all about the good will and if some people are shitting all over my good name there goes my earning sliding backwards. By 2 thirds but the potential earnings from my eco Maori pseudonym is thunderous but the same people are interfering with this. So I will be making a claim on the breaches of my rights under the Treaty of Waitangi there are many injustices that are being dealt out to me and my whanau. like the red head guy whom thought that he would come over to the farm house that I was living in that the farm owner had just sacked me idiot an say boo and the dumb ass Maori would run away. Well no because this Maori is a proud and brave Maori that knows his rights and told him were to go. So they have stuffed my farming career that I had planed to be managing and making $80.000 WTF. Now the big picture is that this sort of service can be dealt out to anyone in New Zealand if they are not in the who gives a________ club ie millionairs club. They now no that Im not a dumb ass Maori now. I wonder if the generals want to negotiate well no sorry they are God’s and are never worng
WTF just like the orange man Kia Kaha
Well that is a comment with lot of possibilities.
Kushner is now a target:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/jared-kushner-robert-mueller-documents-russia-investigation/index.html
Family dinners will be fun.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/358248-vanity-fair-trump-blaming-kushner-for-mueller-investigation
Thanksgiving is coming up soon.
And Mr Clovis won’t be on the invite list.
The White House first learned one of its senior staffers met with the grand jury hearing the case presented by the special counsel into alleged Russian meddling into the 2016 election not from the staffer but from media reports, sources with knowledge of the investigation tell ABC News.
Former Trump campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis recently testified before that grand jury into his role on President Donald Trump’s campaign. Clovis currently serves as the senior White House adviser to the Department of Agriculture.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-house-unaware-top-adviser-testified-grand-jury/story?id=50895265
Al Franken is going after Sessions for lying under oath to the Senate.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/jeff-sessions-under-fire-as-new-revelations-cast-further-doubt-on-his-russia-testimony/
Floodgates are opening.
Former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page privately testified Thursday that he mentioned to Jeff Sessions he was traveling to Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign — as new questions emerge about the attorney general’s comments to Congress about Russia and the Trump campaign.
During more than six hours of closed-door testimony, Page said that he informed Sessions about his coming July 2016 trip to Russia, which Page told CNN was unconnected to his campaign role. Page described the conversation to CNN after he finished talking to the House intelligence committee.
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/02/politics/carter-page-testimony-russia-trip/index.html?sr=twCNN110217carter-page-testimony-russia-trip0734PMVODtop
The Repugs release their tax reform bill. Like all “conservative” tax plans anytime anywhere, it borrows money to pay for big tax cuts to those that already have the most (especially those that write the rules and their owners), sticks it to those that have the least, and lies that it will increase growth.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/2/16595980/winners-losers-house-republican-tax-bill
It’s almost like they have an agenda.
https://twitter.com/byHeatherLong/status/926139481052385285
Must be coincidence, surely? They wouldn’t really act with considered malice towards regions that don’t support them, would they?
Still has to be coincidence…
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/11/charts-of-the-day-how-republicans-are-using-the-tax-code-to-screw-blue-states/
Is it just me then, that repealing the all the crazy laws from national over employment is not much of a victory.
Actually feels shallow, weak, and if this is the great example of a changing government.
Then don’t expect much change.
If that’s all they manage in the frist hundred days (let alone the entire term), I’d agree with you.
I suspect that a few more changes than that are on the cards, despite the nats’ desire to become a cancer on the side of parliament.
I hope you’re right McFlock, I hope you’re right.
Looks like Iceland’s Left-Green alliance is about to become a governing reality under Katrin Jakobsdottir:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/02/iceland-president-left-greens-form-coalition
“I am the only one that matters…” – the Grabemfuhrer in response to questions about why positions are being left unfilled.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/358573-trump-on-lack-of-nominees-i-am-the-only-one-that-matters
The good news is he doesn’t understand that those positions are there to help him actually achieve things.