I watched the movie “Game Change” which follows John McCain’s 2008 Presisential campaign from his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate to his ultimate defeat by Obama. A great movie.
Pailin and the McCain/Palin relationship has many parallels with Parata and her relationship with Key, IMO.
Fantastic film, really shows the grind that campaigning can do. In the end I actually felt sorry for the old bugger McCain, though he still chose her, so not that sorry.
Ought to be a bottom line that foreign corporates are not allowed to sue New Zealand if they think that we are hindering their ability to rape and plunder by exercising our democratic right to rule our country.
The first translated means she’s miffed that the Nats aren’t including her or Labour in the negotiations. The second kinda suggests that Pharmac is the only thing they’re really fixated on and everything else is on the table.
Been interesting following the Apple vs Samsung patents battle, gives an idea on what’s in store when the Nats adopt the US patent laws via the TTPA.
Today’s ‘paper was saying one of Apple’s patents is zooming an image by tapping the screen with finger. Zooming with a click of the mouse has been around since long before the iphone so it should never been accepted as a patent just on prior use grounds.
Agreed. The Nats are supporting software patents which would be a disaster for the local software industry. Anytime someone gets moderately successful they’ll attract the attention of the US patent trolls & be subjected to lawsuits.
There’s really nothing you can patent in software, copyright covers it not patents.
An employer could make employees redundant, but it had to be for a legitimate reason, the employment law specialist said.
“It looks like they possibly made him redundant, although it doesn’t look like the positions have gone.”
All employers needed to follow the proper process when making staff redundant, including giving reasons and consulting with the affected workers, he said.
Well, not really. If this gets taken to the tribunal, the employer will lose. If there was a few months between employing more and making redundancies, they would be ok.
You bet me to it. Gonna be a PG in here somewhere…but win the battle, lose the war b/c the company could go under due to the cost of compensation. Why can’t employers get things right?
in haste, told him he had to sign a four-month fixed-term and back-dated contract on the spot or he would not be kept or paid.
Somehow this seems like it was inevitable. The beneficiary advocacy service in Auckland has had its funding cut.
Service manager Karen Pattie said the service needed about $100,000 annually and would cease operations within three weeks without further funding.
Ms Pattie said the service, which currently served 400 clients, had been one of the victims in the Government’s decision to cut funding for agencies providing advocacy work.
The push was now for the work to be delivered through Work and Income staff and ensuring beneficiaries were “accountable” for receiving their benefits.
emboldening mine.
Hey, let’s go the wholoe hog and save money by having the prosecution represent the defense in the criminal justice system. Employers could advocate for aggrieved employees in industrial disputes…..
This idea has huge potential for the government in so many areas.
Later this month climate change sceptic an English lord, Chris Moncton, a former adviser to Margret Thatcher will be traveling around New Zealand giving public debates on climate change. He starting in Northland, which is no surprise given the Governments intentions to mine & drill in the region.
I would like to know who is sponsoring this English Toff? The Government? Mining & drilling companies? Keys rich mates? ACT? Just who is behind this guys visit?
Also was mining & drilling our national parks really plan A of the Government till public outrage, including the thousands who marched in protest ‘stalled’ their intentions & was asset sales plan B? And are we seeing the reverse plans with mining & drilling being the plan B now?
Are we being feed more lies by Key as he has said if asset sales were foiled there was no plan B?
Thanks QoT armed with that info we will be heading along to the bar where Lord Haw-Haw is performing and heckle him and his mates. Should be entertaining may even take some rotten eggs just in case the ACT crew front up.
I would like to know who is sponsoring this English Toff? The Government? Mining & drilling companies? Keys rich mates? ACT? Just who is behind this guys visit?
It’ll be the Climate Science Coalition and I want to know how much he’s being paid. It seems his job these days is nothing but getting paid huge amounts to lie about climate science.
Hard to find out about that sort of thing these days. Conservatives are too ashamed to do it publicly. In 2007, some US outfit going by the name Heartland Institute channelled funds to bozos here like the New Zealand Climate “Science” Coalition. NZCSC member Owen McShane received $US25,000. while member Terry Dunleavy received $US45,000. That’s what a quick search shows up anyway. Last year there was a bit of an issue when the Heartland Institute went particularly rabid so other corporates stepped up. I think it would be reasonable to suspect that Lord Monkeybrain is on the billionaire denialist gravy train, the cash circuitously making its way down to the clowns like him.
Mind you, New Zealand has its own clowns, chief among them Auckland University Associate Professor Chris De Freitas. Should I be surprised to see the New Zealand Fox News Herald continue to give space to him, as recently as today? Perhaps not.
Ian Wishart is also involved. It’s the basic wingnut welfare crew, wouldn’t be surprised t find that under all the ‘brought to you by’ fluff is a handout from Gibbs.
Datacom was just as bad. They did nurses pay. At north shore where my wife worked for 2 years, not once was her pay right. She complained to the union rep. Did it hit the headlines, did the union make a fuss, not likely. The difference, the nurses union was led by Liala Harrell there was a l
Labour Government, and she was sweating on her list position with the Labour party?
No mention of your wife complaining to the boss, Addison. In your summary, it’s all the union’s fault for some reason. What years are we talking about?
my my, that is a glaringly obvious example of Ministerial manipulation to gain the desired outcome. i.e: Talent 2’s positing of a messiah vendor we lovingly call NovaPay
one thing i still wonder is, if NovaPay was about to make Talent2 so much money, why did banksie jump ship ?
Yep, which was why I asked Addison the years he was talking about. I was hoping to award Addison the stupidity trifecta: getting the relevant Nurses Organisation National Secretary wrong, putting Laila in the wrong party, and claiming the bosses mistakes were the fault of the union. However, I note from Addison’s contributions over the weekend that he doesn’t like answering direct questions. Presumably because the answers would show the vast void that is his factual ignorance is filled by hot air, right wing talking points and anti-worker prejudice.
Rubbish trp I always try and answer questions unless they are of a personal nature and go too far. I have had very little argument against my opinions, usually just the copout of playing the man not the ball. If you want a sensible debate try doing it without insulting those who offer opinions contrary to your own. Or are you of the view that chanting Maggie out over and over is a sensible debate(perhaps Key Out in a Kiwi context)
I don’t give a flying one about your opinions, Addison. I and others have simply demonstrated this morning (and on Saturday) that you don’t know what you are talking about. Every supposed fact in your wee rant this morning has been disproven.
The thing is, you are entitled to put your opinions forward and promote the ideas and philosophies behind them. You’ll find plenty of healthy debate. But when you claim as fact things that are not fact round here, you will be shredded everytime.
To summarise:
Datacom’s problems did make the media. You said they didn’t.
Laila Harre did not hide the Datacom issue because of personal ambition as you falsely claimed. She was never on Labour’s list, she was, in fact, an MP for a party born in opposition to the LP.
Laila Harre did not even work for the NO at the time you claim she did.
How about you just come out and say “I got all that wrong. Sorry”?
I looked at the comment, including the misspelling of Laila’s name and the required incorrect fact every sentence. I was considering writing a reply or a note to point this out preemptively. But then I thought that people would be in wanting to play at squashing this guy’s ego soon enough. Why should I spoil the fun? 😈
2001 to 2002,and yes she did complain to her line manager and was told to refer the complaint to the Union rep. And if you read my post a bit more carefully I am not blaming the union or the Labour government, the fault lay with datacom. The poing is that the unions are all over nova pay and National but were ominously silent over datacoms faults. I am suggesting Harre was quiet because she didn’t want to rock her Labour Party mates whilste she was angling for her party place. A new twist to the old line; the working class can kiss my ass, I have a list seat at last!;-)
not at all. not blaming the union for the pay mess up. Blaming the union for their inaction about the matter. PS I apologise I did not realise Harre resigned from Labour in 1989. Therefore cannot blame her inaction for political ambitions.
Cool, so Harre, who was not NO Nat Sec at the time, kept quiet about an issue she was unaware of to keep her mates in the party she left in disgust years earlier happy? How is life on Planet Key? Oxygen on short supply?
i call BS Addison, you have one isolated example, well i also have relatives and friends in that industry and recently talked with them specifically on the NovaPay issue, as the health sector seemed to handle the complicated task with competence and certitude. Each and every one of the half dozen i spoke to said the occassional blip happened , as it does in any payroll, and would be resolved in reasonable timeframes. They also made a point of mentioning that there is no comparison to the over-arching scale of the Talent2 / Novapay swindle that has been played on NZ Education.
Lucky them, but pay matters were a joke at Northsore when my wife was there over a 2 year period. They were always corrected but it was a fortnightly occurrence.
‘Open Letter/ OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key – how can the Government ‘get a good price for Mighty River Power, when thousands ‘Switch Off Mercury Energy’?
Dear Prime Minister,
Please be advised of the founding aim of the ‘Switch Off Mercury Energy’ community group, of which I am a Spokesperson:
“MINUTES(CONFIRMED) FOUNDING MEETING OF ‘SWITCH OFF MERCURY ENERGY’
15 August 2012 Grey Lynn Community Centre 510 Richmond Rd Grey Lynn.
HELP STOP THE PRIVATISATION OF MIGHTY RIVER POWER BY SWITCHING OFF MERCURY ENERGY! (100% owned by Mighty River Power)
AIM: To help stop the privatisation of public assets – particularly the proposed privatisation of the first of the electricity State-Owned Assets (SOEs), Mighty River Power, by FOCUSING ON getting 100,000 customers to SWITCH OFF Mercury Energy (100% owned by Mighty River Power). Fewer customers equals less profits which equals a less attractive investment and jeopardises the Governments proposed agenda.
“Let me make it quite clear. If the Government doesn’t get a good price – the Government isn’t going to sell” (Tony Ryall, Minister of SOE’s 17/6/2012 NBR
The Government has no right to sell our public assets.
PRECEDENT: In 2008, Contact Energy (already privatized) doubled their directors fees and raised their prices 12%.In 6 months, more than 40,000 customers switched from Contact Energy and their profits were halved.
1) Please confirm that the publicly-stated position stated by the Minister of State-Owned Eneterprises Tony Ryall, is unchanged:
“Let me make it quite clear. If the Government doesn’t get a good price – the Government isn’t going to sell” (Tony Ryall, Minister of SOE’s 17/6/2012
2) Please provide the information which confirms HOW a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power is/has been calculated.
3) Please provide the information which confirms WHO has/is responsible for the calculation of a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power.
4) Please provide the information which confirms that has/is responsible for the calculation of a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power, are independent, and professionally competent, and do not have any untoward ‘ conflicts of interest’ / vested interests in the sale of Mighty River Power.
5) Please confirm that you are aware of your statutory duties arising from the Public Records Act 2005
(a)to provide for the continuation of the repository of public archives called the National Archives with the name Archives New Zealand (Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga); and
(b)to provide for the role of the Chief Archivist in developing and supporting government recordkeeping, including making independent determinations on the disposal of public records and certain local authority archives; and
(c)to enable the Government to be held accountable by—
(i)ensuring that full and accurate records of the affairs of central and local government are created and maintained; and
(ii)providing for the preservation of, and public access to, records of long-term value; and
(d)to enhance public confidence in the integrity of public records and local authority records; and
(e)to provide an appropriate framework within which public offices and local authorities create and maintain public records and local authority records, as the case may be; and
(f)through the systematic creation and preservation of public archives and local authority archives, to enhance the accessibility of records that are relevant to the historical and cultural heritage of New Zealand and to New Zealanders’ sense of their national identity; and
(g)to encourage the spirit of partnership and goodwill envisaged by the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi), as provided for by section 7; and
(h)to support the safekeeping of private records.
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright
A Spokesperson for the Switch Off Mercury Energy community group.
I am one who has been surprised by the government’s and Key’s continued popularity in spite of all of the problems they have encountered and which are chronicled at length here.
So I was very interested last night to meet for the person time a person of the class responsible for the phenomenon.
Most people I know are now and have always been right wing. I know fewer people who are and have always been left wing. Here, I am exposed to the rabid left, who I never encounter in the real world.
But last night I met a devoted John Key fan. A 50 year old gay man of modest means who had voted Labour his whole life until 2008 and, indeed, had been a card carrying member and volunteered and canvassed for them in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
He has voted National the last two elections and does not regret it. His vote was essentially for Key who he remains very taken with. Part of the appeal, it seems, is the story of the struggle from modest circumstances to great wealth and then public service.
This is only an anecdote and, as such, has very limited value. But I found it very interesting to meet for the first time such a person.
Jesus Mary and Joseph I am agreeing with Gormless Fool.
Key has a very good back story and a lot of charm. To counter him Labour needs a leader who will outpoint him in an area. He needs to be smarter or gutsier or more passionate or be able to speak better but he needs to be different.
Shearer is not that person.
I also agree with Caleb Morgan that the dominant clique in the Labour Caucus is one that prefers Key to Cunliffe (or Chauvel or Dalziel or anyone of the left) to be next Prime Minister.
I don’t know why the Govt uses the likes of Deloittes for IT consultancy, they’re grossly overpriced and since a lot of IT work is labour charges the Govt is paying far too much for IT outsourcing.
Deloittes are principally an accounting firm and I wouldn’t hire accountants to advise me on IT stuff, don’t know why they get so much Govt work when we’ve got the likes of Datacom who are genuinely IT people.
Just how do Deloitte *win* all those juicy central/local government contracts, and service agreements etc!
They’re feasting aggresively on the public purse, at all levels, all around the country’s, local/central bodies!
One needs to investigate little snippets like the following statement:
Following a claim that Housing NZ corporate services director Roy Baker was a relative of a senior manager at Deloitte, former Housing NZ chairman Pat Snedden called then housing minister Phil Heatley to assure him any conflicts of interest had been properly managed. The conflict of interest had been declared.
Tracking the relationships and work history, of former and current Deloitte employees, is a good place to start!
Four Housing NZ executives, including Baker, left the corporation in 2009 and set up a private consultancy that named the ETP’s British software supplier, Northgate, as a partner
On Morning report Goff raised some issues. Deployment was two months longer than usual, (which may have increased fatigue), additional training required for the deployment was cut short by two weeks and an inquest is required.
I hope that Goff also gets a full independent inquiry. The ANZAC Day airforce deaths were suppose to be investigated by the Labour Department, not just by the airforce. The army are not independent.
Your eyes will roll at this. Chris Hipkins put up a story on Red Alert called CONTEMPT FOR DEMOCRACY on Saturday here http://tinyurl.com/cdekas6
Yesterday Chris deleted comments asking him if he thought the title was a bit hypocritical because he has been so criticized for his reaction to the democracy remits at the NZ Labour conference. Trevor
or Clare might have done the deleting…
My comment never got through. I wasn’t even getting smart. I just said I thought it might be better to take critics on. Still in moderation or deleted though?!
I have screen captures of two other comments that were deleted. Anyone know how to post screen captures here at TS…
I had seen TS comments saying how Red Alert is censored like mad but I had not seen it myself. Do MP’s think you can censor voters when they go to vote? Daft.
There is a high degree of moderation at Red Alert. There has to be, otherwise you’d have trolls from both all directions spending much of their time slagging the MP’s and drowning out discussion. The problem is, as you point out, that the moderation often drowns out actual comments.
I can testify that as a moderator after reading hundreds of thousands of comments here (and previous net experiences) with an enormous variety of trolling approaches, that after a while everything starts to look “deeply suspicious”. It is actually quite hard to restrain yourself from just moderating everything and stifling actual discussion.
The local equivalent is trying to tell us how to run our site or telling us what we should write. It is a very fast way to picking up a ban and if repeated, a fast way to lose the ability to comment here. Why? Because we’re doing the damn job and critics who are not are usually just a pain in the arse because they are not. We just tell them that they need time to start up and run their own site where they can run it the way they like – including getting their own audience. And attacking authors personally is just not tolerated at all because while there are a lot of commentators, there are only a relatively few people with both the skills in writing and who are willing to be authors.
Basically it is house rules when it comes to moderation at various sites. As a commentator you kind of have to live with them.
I think everyone here is kind of aware of the moderation policies at RA
And to be fair to Red Alert, I posted a comment a few months ago suggesting Clare Curren should apologise for bullying CV and I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t moderated in any way.
Helen Kelly’s criticism of the lack of care for forest workers safety is really needed. It seems to me though that there is a barrier in NZ to insisting on safety regulations and controls backed by law and regular inspections.
This morning’s comment from an adventure tourism spokesperson on the man falling and dying at an adventure business referred to businesses being very concerned and setting standards. It sounded to me that they are left to get on with it, perhaps after drawing up plans but saying and knowing isn’t doing.
What we need is a feisty little shit from the Department of Labour and Safety going round asking questions, checking the equipment and generally setting the owner’s teeth on edge. Instead we get growing risky behaviours from owners and avoidable deaths that amount to manslaughter by wilful neglect of owners and their staff. Owners should spend some time in jail if any fault can be found. A month for each fault perhaps. Faults of frayed ropes, poor maintenance, lax controls and methods, etc.
yes, also on the rise on RNZ
-Aukland house prices continuing up the spiral
-Aussie climate on “steroids” now
anyway,
some parting shots for The Village round-heads across the bow (eggs and omelettes and all that butter, i know, lets call it a master-craftsman class)
subjective self-identification is the outcome of subjection to a pre-existing order that includes language, law, admin, production, distribution, and exchange.
Husband, and cultivate and tailor a world to your proclivities and context.
1. World-making heart- and-mind. heart-and-mind shaping world. think and speak a novel world into being. way-making=also affection-an epistemology of caring. empathetic feeling. tick
2.it is sage not to coerce; disseminate teachings that go beyond what can be said. binaries require other for completion. enable each participant to contribute fully to “dramatic” performance.tick
3. keep the “hawkers” of knowledge at bay. celebrate the bravery, patience and kindness of the ordinary person. allow character of community to emerge synergistically out of associated living.
tick
4.way-making of undetermined nature; swinging gateway of experience opens and novelty emerges spontaneously. experience is appropriate object of awe and deference. tick
5.not institutionalized morality but superior communal morality. tick
6. the fecundity of emptiness. tick
7.withdraw, yet out in front.through unselfishness needs met. nature / Christ as mentor. persons perceived, needs met.tick
8.dwell in places loathed by crowds. giving authoritatively. speak credibly. act timely. water flows everywhere. tick
9. retire from excess. how to manage fullness; a measure of ignorance to cope with intelligence that vies with wisdom. humility to cope with accomplishments. a measure of timidity to cope with courage pervading an entire age. measure of frugality to cope with wealth that fills the four seas.
tick
10. the nature of the world is to transform. real wisdom-shaping penetrating insight into the present moment engaging with the unique circumstances at play. tick
12. easier to satiate the abdomen, difficult to satiate the wandering eye through which the spirit can leak away. distractions. no crime more onerous than greed. no misfortune more devastating than avarice. no calamity with more grief than insatiability. know when enough is enough= satisfaction. tick
13. value anxieties. those who value care of own body more than running the world can be entrusted with the world; begrudging person= authority of the world; worldly favour-patronage will be followed by disgrace as favour “withdrawn”. faithful with little, self, then faithful with responsibilities and world. value ones’ person and love ones’ person in thorough-going integration with ones’ field of experience. tick
14. hold tightly to way-making in the present to manage what happens now to understand where it began in the distant past= the draw-string of way-making. master draws me forward a step at a time, broadens my culture, disciplines my behaviour through the observance of ritual propriety; even if I wanted to quit, I could not.-Yan Hui (we supported a Mob hui after church; is broad)
tick
15. reluctance as at a winters’ stream crossing. vigilance towards surrounding neighbours.dignified as an invited guest. yielding as ice to thaw. solid like un-worked wood. murky like muddy waters when stilled clear. settled when agitated comes to life. not seek fullness, remaining hidden and unfinished. tick
-epistemology of feeling in which the quality of understanding is a function of the immediacy and intensity of what is felt. way always under construction. many hands at work. a punctuation of consummating events, as paragraphs yet a never-ending story. tick
16. reversion-returning to the root, is what is called equilibrium. common sense- accommodation-tolerance -kingliness . tian cumulative cultural legacy focused by the spirit and spirituality of those who have come before. the way made is enduring, not self divided against self. s. like a mirror; not see things off or go to meet them. respond without storing anything up thus not injured by the myriad transformations they undergo. not passive or quiet but synergistically and organically responsive. accommodation is the source of fullness of strength, influence timeliness and efficacy. extension through deference, trunk branches from the roots. tick
17. during periods of decadence and social decline philosophers arise to proclaim the obvious of exacerbating problems by institutionalizing artificial alternatives, dominion, principalities and powers- educated morality and its vocabulary of ” right and wrong” “good and evil”. tick
20. Preferable to the marble 😉 of learning is the rich temple of immediate experience and unmediated feeling.
Do I really care what others think of me? I don’t think so. the worm has turned; Time for some
Wood Oil. (I would not be surprised if National gets another term or not) There’s some newsology for yas’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noology
What a great country? By l*ck it is! Go luck yourselves out.
“ha ha ha said the laughing gnome…”
now, where’d i secrete my Crossbow and bolts.
“guess I’ll see you, yes I’ll see you, see you on the other-side.”
This morning on Radio NZ this USA woman was interesting. She has been thoughtful and politically aware since a young age. She said that she considers the USA to be a pluralism of wealthy groups not a democracy.
10-11am: Feature interview – Cisco Systems co-founder and Jane Austen expert Sandy Lerner
I put item about Sandy Lerner on OpenMike 3/3 by mistake. I tried to delete it because I wanted it to go in today’s only, but the delete function doesn’t work and neither does my edit function.
I have just heard Mike Williams criticise the Labour Party… saying they need to spend less time on the internal infighting and more time attacking the government. Two minutes later following a question by Lyn Freeman on the subject of Charles Chauvel’s speech, he is belittling Chauvel and accusing him of having a tantrum (I paraphrase) when he made exactly the same point.
He claims Charles Chauvel has done himself no good by saying what he did
This isn’t the first time Williams has contradicted himself like this and it won’t be the last. The man is shaping up to be even more of a ‘fake’ leftie than Josie Pagani.
He also claimed Shearer’s reshuffle was very fair. The MPs who Shearer promoted deserved it and were the best performers in the party (words to that effect anyway). He intimated those who were demoted were simply not good enough, and he’s sorry to have to say this blah blah… but they simply didn’t come up to scratch. So, we take it from the guru himself that David Cunliffe and Lianne Dalziel were just not up to it folks .
Why are types such as Williams, *allowed* on the radio you think..
Forget buying into the charade around the re-shuffle, and empty spaces like Williams commenting on it, these are all just pawns in a game, the game is called, *distract/fool the public*!
Age old game, which is still working wonders it seems!
Bryce Edwards: Opposition is failing NZ voters, low polls a threat to Shearer
Dr Edwards says voters don’t see enough difference between the two major parties to bother shaking up the status quo.
“I think we are looking at what political scientists call democratic deficit, where voters are turned off politics because they just can’t see meaningful differences between political parties and reasons to vote either way.
“At the last election we had the lowest turnout in about 100 years – it could be even worse at the next election because people just don’t see the point.”
its ANARCHY i tells ya, ANARCHY! (have you seen the ways in which people are choosing to die these days? Hemlock would be a lot more gentle; they are even falling out of the sky. very sad, particularly these young people driving themselves into the wall)
Agree that it is a travesty that Mike Williams continues to be used as a Labour Party commentator – Charles was only calling it like it is. If the hierarchy don’t like the infighting, manage it, don’t just try to ignore it. They are missing the first fundamental rule of politics! Doesn’t bode well for Government
Yes Anne, when Williams says “less time on the internal infighting and more time attacking the government” he apparently isn’t talking about the leadership cartel around Shearer who have been responsible for all the leaking, backstabbing, media bitching and vote spying, and who are supposed to be the ones responsible for fighting the government.
he’s talking about those dumb-bunny members and conference delegates who had the effrontary to think they were deserving of a say in the leadership of the parliamentary party. I mean the parliamentary party belongs to us – the elite – not them. They have no right to poke their noses into our business. We decide what’s good for us the party not them.
As for the bunch of treacherous MPs who had the gall to back the members. We have no choice but to continue to punish them until they show contrition and promise they will never betray us the party again.
A problem with prescribing “less time on the internal infighting and more time attacking the government” is the diminishing range of issues over which a forthright attack on the government would enjoy the full backing of the present Labour caucus. Even following the prescription may well reveal us as “the enemy within,” should our critique of the government fail to be sufficiently circumscribed and nuanced.
If Cunliffe is so hopeless – why is he trouncing every other Labour MP on YouTube’s Inthehouse channel at the moment? Seems to me, he’s the only performing with any talent in the House, for a start.
[lprent: Don’t dick about with your handles. Each handle has to be approved the first time it is used. Try using too many and we’ll conclude that you are deliberately wasting our time and ban you. Read the policy about wasting moderators time. ]
I gave up on whaleoil to many biggots and rednecks. Sadly giving up here to many socialist facist thugs who are left overs from from the 30s in Germany, and think socialism is about having the power to ban opposition.
Goodby and good luck I am sure you will do wonders for the political LEFT IN nz
No, you’re giving up because virtually everything you’ve written here has been shown to be bullshit.
And enough of the dramatic exits, everyone knows you’ll be back in no time with a new name and a new back story to peddle the same old lies and propaganda.
That’s a pity. You screwed yourself up today big time, but you’ve made a few neo-lib arguments that National’s opposition parties need to be prepared to counter in the spin wars.
Help me, help me, help me sail away,
Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay.
‘Cause I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime …
upon reflection, I do find it somewhat illuminating that Addison reckons some here want to ban opposition, and that’s why he chooses to withdraw.
Secondly, I also think it’s a bit of an alien concept for me to not get worked up and passionate about politics. Even basic roading policies have a good chance of being life or death decisions. Yes, the mods here keep a handle on threats etc, but with a wide range of folk of course a bit of personal abuse or the occasional f-bomb will occur, especially if one acts like a dick. To expect a prim and proper “Midsomer Murders”-style conversation about policies that might e.g. kill kids (or simply choose which people will die, but hopefully a lower number than plan B) is pretty unrealistic.
I’ve been following the “New” Left wing blog the Daily Blog for a couple of days and I have come to the conclusion that it’s just another version of Pundit (with more pictures) staying well within the expected paradigm and I suspect it will fall by the way side soonish. I have also been following something of what is happening in Italy and while our “Lefty/Greeny” politicians are talking about money printing and the first victims of using prisoners as cheap labor are presenting themselves I thought I’d put a link here for those of you who want to know how it’s done in Italy. Enjoy!
Julia Hartley Moore on Jim Mora was saying with approval that one of the good things that the government has done is enabled free cello lessons somewhere in her manor. This morning I listened on Radionz to a worker on a benefit advocacy group which may have to close (it’s the only one for a huge area of Auckland) because the government has withdrawn the $50,000 part of the $100,000 they need and they can’t provide the service without it.
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.It was another ‘SHOCK! HORROR!’ headline from a media increasingly venturing into tabloid-style journalism:Andrea Vance’s article seemed to focus on the "million dollar sums from the Government as the country grapples with a housing ...
Dr Brian Easton writes: It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. Here is my guess at some ...
What Was the Prime Minister Reading in the Runup to Election Year?It’s the summer break. Everyone settles down with family, books, the sun and some fishing. But the Prime Minister has a pile of briefing papers prepared just before Christmas, which have to be worked through. I haven’t seen them. ...
In case you hadn't noticed, FYI, the public OIA request site, has been used to conduct a significant excavation into New Zealand's intelligence agencies, with requests made for assorted policies and procedures. Yesterday in response to one of these requests the GCSB released its policy on New Zealand Purpose and ...
Farming leaders are watching closely whether Damien O’Connor keeps the key portfolios of Agriculture and Trade when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins restructures his Cabinet. O’Connor has been one of the few ministers during Labour’s term in office who has won broad support for what he has done ...
South Islands farmers are whining about another drought, the third in three years. If only we knew what was causing this! If only someone had warned them that they faced a drying climate! But we do know what is causing it: climate change. And they have been warned, repeatedly, for ...
Ok, there’s good news and bad news in this week’s inflation figures, but bad > good. Our inflation rate held steady but hey, at a level below the inflation rate in Australia. The main reason for the so/so result here? A fall in petrol prices of 7.2% offset the really ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet ...
Since her shock resignation announcement, Jacinda Ardern has been at pains to point out that she isn’t leaving because of the toxicity directed at her on social media and elsewhere, rebutting journalists who suggested misogyny and hate may have driven her from office. Yet there have been dozens of columns ...
The Clinical Magus: Of particular relevance to New Zealanders struggling to come to terms with the sudden departure of their prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, is Jung’s concept of the anima. Much more than what others have called the feminine principle, the anima is what the human male has made out ...
The Select Committee, considering the proposed RNZ-TVNZ merger, has come back with a report conceding many of the criticisms that were made of the original legislation. In what is one of the most comprehensive demolitions of a Bill submitted to a Select Committee, the Economic Development, Science and Innovation ...
Such are the 2020s, the age when no-one, it seems, actually respects the basic underpinnings of democracy. Even in New Zealand. This week, I stumbled across a pair of lengthy and genuinely serious articles, that basically argue that Something is Rotten in the state of New Zealand democracy. One ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hurrah. Today we found something fresh on the Beehive website, Beehive.govt.nz, which claims to be the best place to find Government initiatives, policies and Ministerial information. It wasn’t from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, whose reaction to the latest inflation figures would have been appreciated. So, too, ...
Smiling And Waiving A Golden Opportunity: Chris Hipkins knew that the day at Ratana would be Jacinda’s day – her final opportunity to bask in the unalloyed love and support of her followers. He simply could not afford to be seen to overshadow this last chance for his former boss ...
Extremism Consumes Itself: The plot of “Act of Oblivion” concerns the relentless pursuit of the “regicides” Edward Whalley and William Goffe – two of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant. As with his many other works of historical fiction, Robert Harris’s novel brings to life a period ...
To challenge the Government’s promotion of co-governance, to share power between Maori and public authorities and agencies, is to invite accusations of racism. An example: this article by Martyn Bradbury on The Daily Blog headed Luxon’s race baiting hypocrisy at Ratana. The article was triggered by National leader Christopher Luxon, ...
A very informative video discussion: Are we getting the whole story about Ukraine? | Robert Wright & Ivan Katchanovski Getting objective information on the situation in Ukraine and the cause of this current war is not easy. There is the current censorship and blatant mainstream media bias – which ...
Yesterday the Herald ran an op-ed from Mayor Wayne Brown titled “The case for light rail is lighter than ever” and a few things stood out. However, it’s getting more and more tricky to make a strong economic case for spending up to $29 billion on a single route of ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Samantha Harrington Imagine it’s a cold February night and your furnace breaks. You want to replace it with an electric heat pump because you’ve heard that tax credits will help pay for the switch. And you know that heat pumps can reduce ...
In 2005, then-National Party leader based his entire election campaign on racism, with his infamous racist Orewa speech and racist iwi/kiwi billboards. Now, Christopher Luxon seems to want to do it all again: Fresh off using his platform at this week's Rātana celebrations to criticise the government's approach to ...
Inflation is showing little sign of slowing down, posing a problem for freshly minted PM Chris Hipkins. According to that old campaigner Richard Prebble, Hipkins should call a snap election. If he waits till October, he risks being swept away. The dilemma for the new leader is that fighting an election ...
Buzz from the Beehive A great deal has happened since January 19. Among other things, a new Prime Minister and deputy have been sworn in and our leaders (past, present and aspiring) have delivered speeches at Ratana. Newshub reported that politicians of all stripes had descended upon Rātana for the ...
It’s a big day for New Zealand; our 41st Prime Minister has taken office and the new, “Chippy” era of politics is underway. Or, on the other hand, the Labour Party continues to govern with an overall majority and much the same leadership team in place. Life goes on and ...
New Zealand has another Prime Minister who does not have a basic grasp of the three articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. THOMAS CRANMER writes: It is simply astonishing that New Zealand’s next Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, is unable to give even a brief explanation of the three articles ...
A statue of a semi-naked Nick Smith puts the misogyny debate into perspective. GRAHAM ADAMS writes … In the wake of Ardern’s abrupt resignation, the mainstream media are determined to convince us she was hounded from office mainly because she is a woman and had to fall on her sword ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is ...
An editorial in the NZ Herald last week, titled “Nimbyism goes bananas as housing intensifies“, introduced Herald readers to a couple of acronyms that go along with the now-familiar NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard): “bananas” (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone) “cave” dwellers (citizens against virtually everything). The editorial ...
Back in the dark autumn of 2020, when the prospect of Covid was freaking the country out, Finance Minister Grant Robertson set himself and Treasury a series of questions about what a post-Covid economy might look like. Those were fearful days, and the questions in part reflected a series ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet another day has passed without Ministers of the Crown posting something to show they are still working for us on the Beehive website. Nothing new has been posted since January 17. Perhaps the ministers are all engaged in the bemusing annual excursion ...
Incoming Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has already indicated he intends making the tax system “fairer”. That points to the route a government facing an election could take to tilt the odds towards winning in its favour, given Labour’s support in the last months of the Ardern era had been ...
NewsHub has a poll on the cost-of-living crisis, which has an interesting finding: the vast majority of kiwis prefer wage rises to tax cuts: When asked whether income has kept up with the cost of living, 54.8 percent of people surveyed said no and according to 58.6 percent of ...
Labour has begun 2023 with the centre-left bloc behind in the polls and losing ground. That being so, did his colleagues choose Chris Hipkins as the replacement for Jacinda Ardern because they think he has a realistic shot at leading them to victory this year, or because he‘s the best ...
Two Flags, Two Masters? Just as it required a full-scale military effort to destroy the first attempt at Māori self-government in the 1850s and 60s (an effort that divided Maoridom itself into supporters and opponents of the Crown) any second attempt to establish tino rangatiratanga, based on the confiscatory policies ...
The first of Kiwirail’s big network shutdowns to fix the foundations on our tracks is now well underway with the Southern Line closed between Otahuhu and Newmarket. This is following on from the network wide Christmas/New Year shutdown, during which Kiwirail say that nearly 1,300 people working across 69 different ...
This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby blogIn last year’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Congress included about $20 billion earmarked for natural climate solutions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for deciding how those funds should be allocated to meet the climate ...
You’ve really got to wonder at the introspection, or lack thereof, from much of the mainstream media post Jacinda Ardern stepping down. Some so-called journalists haven’t even taken a breath before once again putting the boot in, which clearly shows their inherent bias and lack of any misgivings about fueling ...
Over the weekend I was interviewed by a media outlet about the threats that Jacinda Ardern and her family have received while she has been PM and what can be expected now that she has resigned. I noted that the level of threat she has been exposed to is unprecedented ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey ...
A Different Kind Of Vibe: In the days and weeks ahead, as the Hipkins ministry takes shape, the only question that matters is whether New Zealand’s new prime minister possesses both the wisdom and the courage to correct his party’s currently suicidal political course. If Chris “Chippy” Hipkins is able to steer ...
The days of the Labour Government being associated with middle class social liberalism look to be numbered. Soon-to-be Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni are heralding a major shift in emphasis away from the constituencies and ideologies of liberal Grey Lynn and Wellington Central towards the ...
Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern last week, her replacement, Chis Hipkins, has said: Over the coming week, Cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programs and projects that aren’t essential right now That messaging is similar to what Jacinda Ardern said late last year and as ...
Much of what will mark the early days of Chris Hipkins’ Prime Ministership would have happened anyway. By December, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister were making it clear the summer break and early days of this year were going to be spent on a reset of government policy. ...
Going to try to get into the blogging thing again (ha!) what with an election coming up and all that. So today I thought I'd start small and simple, by merely tackling the world's (second) richest man.I'm no fan of Elon Musk. You don't want to know why, but I'll ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 15, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 21, 2023. Story of the Week State of the climate: How the world warmed in 2022With a new year underway, most of the climate data for ...
Well, that was a disappointment. As of today, the New Zealand Labour Caucus opted for Chris Hipkins as our new Prime Minister, and I cannot help but let loose a cynical cackle. ...
Get ready for a major political reset once Chris Hipkins is sworn in as Prime Minister this week. Labour’s new leader is likely to push the Government to the right economically, and do his best to jettison the damaging perceptions that Labour has become “too woke” on social issues. Overall, ...
Things have gone sideways… and it’s only the third week of January? It was political earthquake time. For some the Prime Minister made a truly significant announcement. For others – did you have this on your bingo card? – a body double did so (sit tight, you’ll understand later, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Because our hard-working Ministers of the Crown are engaged in Labour Party caucus stuff in Napier, no doubt jockeying to ensure they keep their jobs or get a better one, Point of Order was not surprised to find no fresh news on the Beehive website this ...
By the end of 2019, Jacinda Ardern was a political superstar heading towards an election defeat. She was an icon, internationally beloved, on track to be an ex-prime minister before the age of forty. It was the year of the Christchurch terror attack when Ardern’s response to the atrocity saw ...
People complain about their jobs being meaningless. Does it matter?David Graeber, author of Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work and What We Can Do About It, would have smiled at Elon Musk’s sacking half the Twitter workforce. Musk seems to be confirming the main thesis of the book, that ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes: Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. ...
Should New Zealand have a snap election? That’s one of the questions arising out of the chaos of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation. There’s an increased realisation that everything has changed, and the old plans and assumptions for election year have suddenly evaporated. So, although Ardern has named an ...
I warned about the trap of virtue signaling in my article Virtue signaling over Ukraine. This video is still relevant – but have we moved on since then? The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was universally condemned at the time. Or was it? Certainly, the political atmosphere ...
Earlier this week Point of Order carried a post by Geoffrey Miller on how Japan under a new security blueprint is doubling its defence spending. The plans see Japan buying up advanced weaponry – including long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US – and spending more on ...
Anyone else suffering back-to-work-blues? We’re battling, but still upright. Haere tonu! Today’s cover image is of sunset over Tirohanga Whānui Bridge, sourced from Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland On Monday, Jolisa pondered the fate of AT’s ‘Statements of Imagination’. Tuesday’s post was a guest post by Grady ...
Open access notables Bad news delivered by an all-star cast of familiar researchers: Another Year of Record Heat for the Oceans. From the abstract: In 2022, the world’s oceans, as given by OHC, were again the hottest in the historical record and exceeded the previous 2021 record maximum. According to IAP/CAS data, ...
The resignation of Jacinda Ardern has already made more global headlines than you might expect for that of the PM of a small commonwealth nation like say Sierra Leone (population 6.5 million) or Singapore (population 5.5 million). But international observers might not be too surprised by Ardern’s announcement that ...
One of my earliest political memories is the resignation of Prime Minister David Lange in August 1989. I remember this because of a brown felt-tipped pen drawing I did of the Beehive, the building that houses the Executive of the New Zealand Government. More than thirty years later, we ...
Buzz from the Beehive Hard on the heels of our Buzz from the Beehive earlier today, the PM has made two announcements – the 2023 general election will be held on Saturday 14 October and she will not be campaigning to win a third term as Prime Minister. She will ...
Jacinda Ardern had an outsized impact on New Zealand’s international relations. While all Prime Ministers travel internationally, Ardern’s calendar was fuller than most. Ardern’s first major foreign trip came within weeks of her election in 2017, to the APEC summit in Vietnam. The meeting gave Ardern her first in-person encounter ...
She gave it her all. No New Zealand Prime Minister has ever dominated the political scene at home as she has done, or has established an international profile to match hers. No New Zealand Prime Minister has had to confront such a sequence of domestic and international catastrophes – from ...
Jacinda Ardern's shock resignation announcement today has left a lot of us with a lot of complicated feelings. In my case, while I've been highly critical of Ardern's government, I'm still sorry to see her go. We've had far too many terrible things happen during her term as Prime Minister ...
The decision by Jacinda Ardern to end her term as Prime Minister on February 7 has come as a stunning surprise. It turns the task of a centre-left government winning re-election this year from difficult to nigh on impossible. No-one else among the Labour caucus has Ardern’s ability to explain ...
Jacinda Ardern’s first press conference as Labour leader in August 2017 was a defining moment in the past decade of New Zealand politics. A young woman (by the standards of politics) who had long been tipped for higher office, she had underperformed as a minister and Andrew Little’s noble resignation ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Members of Parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have today written to Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to condemn the ongoing violence and killing of women’s rights and democracy protesters, and to call on him to intervene immediately. ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
The Government is making an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following ex-Tropical Cyclone Hale, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “While Cyclone Hale has caused widespread heavy rain, flooding and high winds across many parts of the North Island, Tairāwhiti ...
Rural Communities Minister Damien O’Connor has classified this week’s Cyclone Hale that caused significant flood damage across the Tairāwhiti/Gisborne District as a medium-scale adverse event, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers. “We’re making up to $100,000 available to help coordinate efforts as farmers and growers recover from the heavy ...
A vaccine for people at risk of mpox (Monkeypox) will be available if prescribed by a medical practitioner to people who meet eligibility criteria from Monday 16 January, says Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. 5,000 vials of the vaccine have been obtained, enough for up to 20,000 ...
RNZ News Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has acknowledged the way Aucklanders have come together and opened their homes to those in need, with the New Zealand government focused on providing the resources needed to get the city back up and running. The new prime minister — just four days into ...
RNZ News Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty has asked for communication on support after the severe thunderstorm in Auckland to be stepped up. It comes after a Civil Defence warning text failed to be sent out, and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told RNZ they will be reviewing the response, ...
RNZ News Three people are dead and at least one person is missing following the flooding overnight in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. About 1000 people were still stranded today after Auckland Airport was closed last night because of flooding of the arrival and departure foyers. Flights were cancelled for ...
Wayne Brown has doubled down on his decision last night to shun the media until close to midnight and only order a state of emergency at 9.30pm. In a defensive display to the media this afternoon, the Auckland mayor was questioned on comments other councillors made last night, including some ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed there are three deaths linked to the extreme weather event in Auckland over the past 24 hours. There is also at least one person missing. Speaking at a press conference in Auckland, Hipkins said the priority was to make sure Aucklanders were safe, housed ...
*This story was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission*Until New Zealand's stormwater drain system adapts to our rising climate, it will never be able to cope with the level of flooding seen in Auckland on Friday night, writes James Renwick The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced ...
Chris Hipkins has experienced his first major event as prime minister, just days into his tenure. He’s spent the day in Auckland alongside emergency services, surveying the damage and assessing next steps. He’s due to speak at 3.15pm alongside Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Thanks to Stuff, here is a livestream. ...
Due to the “unprecedented weather event” in Auckland, organisers have confirmed the “heartbreaking decision” to cancel this year’s Laneway Festival. “We were so excited to deliver this show to our biggest crowd ever in New Zealand, our team has been working around the clock to do everything they can to ...
With the rain easing for a moment, many will be beginning the arduous task of cleaning out their flooded property. Auckland council has release advice for cleaning up after a flood. Cleaning up after a flood It is important to clean and dry your house and everything in it. Floodwater ...
Air New Zealand Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan says the airline’s domestic flights in and out of Auckland resumed from 12pm today as Auckland Airport re-opens. But he said with a backlog of flights and customers, the priority is those who need to travel urgently. “Those ...
Festival-goers holding on hope for Laneway, set to take place at Western Springs on Monday, will have to wait a bit longer for an official update. A brief post on Facebook this afternoon stated: “Safety is Laneway Festival’s number one priority. With the large weather event Auckland is currently experiencing, ...
Wayne Brown has defended the timing of a declaration of a state of emergency last night following record rainfall in Auckland. “The state of emergency is a prescribed process, it’s quite formal, and I had to wait until I had the official request from the emergency management centre. The moment ...
After the 11th hour cancellation last night, Elton John has cancelled the second concert of his farewell tour at Mt Smart, which had been scheduled for this evening. In a statement, John said: “Following the instruction of the emergency services, we have no option but to cancel tonight’s show in ...
The member of parliament for Mt Albert, Jacinda Ardern, has posted a message on Facebook following the flooding in Auckland. “I’m very conscious that it’s been a while since I posted, and there have been a few big things happening. But today the most important thing is everyone’s wellbeing and ...
Flooding of the runway, the check-in and arrivals areas on the ground floor and surrounding roads has disrupted operations at Auckland International, halting all departures until at least 5pm today, with no arrivals before 4:30am tomorrow. “People are asked not to come to the International Terminal at this time for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Renwick, Professor, Physical Geography (climate science), Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Victoria Park near the Auckland CBD on January 27.Getty Images The extraordinary flood event Auckland experienced on the night of January 27, the eve of the ...
New Zealand’s largest insurance group, IAG, says it is on track to receive more than 1,100 claims from Aucklanders by lunchtime after the city was deluged in the wettest day on record. Those claims, said the group which includes AMI, State and NZI Insurance, span property damage to homes and ...
The rampant flooding in Auckland didn’t just detonate its provincial public holiday weekend – it coincided with the biggest weekend of the year to date for live events. A pair of Elton John concerts at Mt Smart stadium had a combined capacity of over 80,000, while both Laneway at Western ...
Auckland is beginning a clean-up after its wettest day since records began. “Auckland was clobbered on Friday,” said emergency management duty controller Andrew Clark. “We won’t start to get a good idea of numbers affected until later today and, even then, this will take time, with information still coming in ...
The prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is travelling to Auckland after devastating floods hit the city overnight. With the airport out of operation until at least midday, he is landing at Whenuapai air base on a New Zealand Defence Force Hercules aircraft from Wellington. ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has arrived in Auckland for a daylong visit to the city following its catastrophic flood on Friday night. Flying in an Air Force Hercules to Whenuapai, Hipkins will spend roughly three hours on the ground assessing flood damage in the city before returning. He will receive ...
A quirk of timing left all Auckland’s institutions on the back foot. But social media, particularly TikTok, graphically showed just how bad the situation was. Late afternoon on a Friday is known as time to quietly drop bad news. You have the plausible deniability of it happening during work hours, ...
It’s a common sight during summer. It’s also a recipe for disaster.I recently drove with my family from New Plymouth to Tāmaki Makaurau and, just like how I lost count of how many cows I saw on the way, I lost count of how many cars had a passenger ...
Opinion - Election year has begun with a bang, and already the punditry and speculation are ramping up, but Grant Duncan warns not to treat polls as gospel. ...
New Zealand’s new prime minister, Chris Hipkins, is formally facing down an emergency just a few days after being sworn in, summoning the National Crisis Management Centre to the Beehive. The Beehive Bunker is being stood up to help with coordination of the emergency response in Auckland. I’ve asked ...
Analysis - Jacinda Ardern is one of New Zealand's most historically significant leaders. But she did not achieve the grand vision for Aotearoa her outsized rhetoric promised. ...
Brits abroad can be an asset to Aotearoa - but only if we make an effort to engage with te ao Māori, writes Scottish expat Fran Barclay Earlier this week, the UK High Commissioner signalled a promising intention to address the barriers facing young Māori and Pasifika who aspire to ...
"They want the Māoris out": provincial life in NZShe hadn’t learned to shut her mouth. Howard was tired of Councillor Kemp harping on and on and on. He pushed himself deeper into the boardroom chair and leaned back as far as he could force it. This woman had ranted ...
Positive affirmation quotes often aren’t helpful for tāngata whai ora. But taking the piss out of them can be. Early in January, on the first day of what would be a week of staying in bed with the curtains pulled, I put a disappointingaffirmations Instagram post up on my stories. ...
Ellen Rykers visits Mahakirau Forest Estate, ‘a crown jewel in the Coromandel Range’, where pest control is serious business.This is an excerpt from our weekly environment newsletter Future Proof – sign up here. The Mahakirau Forest Estate is not your average subdivision. Enter through its tall ...
As Auckland tackles severe floods and the city’s airport emerges from a deluge on both the runway and in terminals, Air New Zealand has confirmed that no flights will leave or arrive before noon on Saturday at the earliest. In a statement, the airline said anyone booked for a flight ...
RNZ News Mayor Wayne Brown has shut down criticism that he was too slow in declaring a state of emergency after severe flooding in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. In a media stand-up late on Friday evening, Brown said he was following advice from experts and as soon as they ...
The Prime Minister has gone down to the Beehive bunker to help coordinate the emergency response, as the Insurance Council warns some Aucklanders whose homes and business are flooded face very hard times ahead. Jonathan Milne reports.Comment: Standing by the south-western motorway, I watched in dismay as hundreds of cars ...
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland as severe weather causes major flooding across much of the city. It’s expected the rain will continue into the morning. This post will be updated as more information is shared.What does a state of emergency mean? A state of emergency ...
Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown said he declared an emergency in Auckland as soon as he possibly could – and he made the decision without listening to the “clamour” of the public. There has been some criticism of the mayor for his relative silence today throughout the deadly flooding that’s hit ...
Welcome to a special late night edition of The Spinoff’s live updates as Auckland enters a state of emergency. Stewart Sowman-Lund is on deck, with help from our news team.The top linesAuckland is in a state of emergency. It will remain in place for seven ...
Prime minister Chris Hipkins is pleased the call was made to declare a state of emergency in Auckland. All government agencies were working “flat out” to help in what was an “extraordinary set of circumstances”, Hipkins said in a tweet. “The emergency response is underway and the government is ready ...
Auckland’s mayor Wayne Brown has released a statement following the decision to declare a state of emergency in Auckland. Brown has faced criticism this evening for his relative silence throughout today’s major flooding, with the first public pronouncement of the state of emergency coming from his deputy. Brown said the ...
Christopher Luxon has criticised the time it took for the state of emergency in Auckland to be declared. The National Party leader is currently in Southland, but told Today FM he intends to get back to Auckland as soon as possible. Earlier in the night, Luxon sent a tweet “urging” ...
Here is, verbatim, that latest information we have from Civil Defence on tonight’s state of emergency in Auckland: Auckland Emergency Management has opened a Civil Defence Centre to assist those that have been displaced or need assistance following today’s severe weather. The centre is open now and is based at ...
Severe flooding has ravaged Auckland today but the mayor of the city is barely visible. As I write, the airport has flooded, check-in areas looking like a public pool. Motorways are overflowing and cars have been seen floating down streets like a river. A person has died in floodwaters in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Treasurer Jim Chalmers has laid out an economic blueprint for pursuing “values-based capitalism”, involving public-private co-investment and collaboration and the renovation of key economic institutions and markets. In a 6000-word essay in The Monthly ...
This is live coverage of the developing situation in Auckland. We will continue to update this with photos and information as it comes to hand. After a day of torrential rain, and new reports of at least one death in the flood water, a state of emergency has been declared ...
Fans are describing Auckland Transport's plans to help them get to and from Elton John's concerts in the supercity this weekend as a fiasco with tonight's concert now cancelled due to the weather. Two concerts were due at Mt Smart Stadium before tonight's concert was called off in the face ...
A state of emergency has been declared in Auckland due to severe flooding that has caused people to evacuate their homes. It was officially declared at 9.54pm. Meanwhile, Auckland Airport has closed its international terminal check-in due to flooding inside the building. The airport says it is sincerely sorry to ...
RNZ News Residents in flood-prone areas of West Auckland are being asked to prepare to evacuate as bad weather causes power cuts and car crashes across Tāmaki Makaurau, with a severe thunderstorm watch in place for the north of Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland Emergency Management said the severe weather across ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Ward, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Queensland Five years ago, bulldozers with chains cleared forests and woodlands almost triple the size of the Australian Capital Territory in a single year. Brazil? Indonesia? No – much closer: Queensland. In 2018-19, ...
Auckland Transport has apologised for confusing messaging that suggested attendees of tonight’s Elton John concert should drive. In a post on Facebook last night, AT said “driving to the concert is recommended” – a suggestion that prompted backlash due to the lack of parking options near the stadium. The announcement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Tingay, John Curtin Distinguished Professor (Radio Astronomy), Curtin University Asteroid 20223 BU’s path in red, with green showing the orbit of geosynchronous satellites.NASA/JPL-Caltech There are hundreds of millions of asteroids in our Solar System, which means new asteroids are discovered ...
In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry revealed he attended the future King and Queen of England’s wedding with a frostbitten penis. A veteran of Antarctic expeditions says it’s not an issue that crops up often, if at all.Now that the avalanche of coverage about the Duke of Sussex’s memoir ...
A new poem by Wellington poet and publisher Ash Davida Jane. objects in the mirror are closer than they appear if a dog digs in the right spot and unearths a rib what do I care if a woman grows from that bone take her in and tend to her ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Grove Press, $25) Everyone’s chowing down on fiction ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide schankz/Shutterstock Have you ever worried if the play between your cats was getting too rough? A new study published in Scientific Reports has investigated play and fighting ...
More water than anything else, the cucumber is the perfect counter to intense and fiery flavours. Cucumber is without a doubt the most refreshing vegetable*, the antidote to hot summer days. At 95% water, a cucumber is basically an edible, crunchy, waste-free water bottle. Beside water, the cucumber has almost ...
REVIEW:By Rowan Callick Radio Australia was conceived at the beginning of the Second World War out of Canberra’s desire to counter Japanese propaganda in the Pacific. More than 70 years later its rebirth is being driven by a similarly urgent need to counter propaganda, this time from China. Set ...
The yellow brick road to Mt Smart stadium looks to be packed this weekend as thousands travel to dual Elton John concerts In the words of pop royal Elton John, “I think it’s going to be a long, long time” - in this case for the 40,000 odd concert-goers driving ...
The decision by Sport Northland to deny 'Stop Co-Governance', a community group, use of their Whangarei venue to hold a public meeting is illegal and defies the rights given to all Kiwis to voice their political opinions. This case, yet again, illustrates ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rolf Gerritsen, Professorial Research Fellow, Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University The supposed dimensions of the “crisis” in Alice Springs have been exhaustively portrayed in the media, both nationally and in the Northern Territory. The stories abound: shopfront windows repeatedly broken, groups of ...
Children’s Commissioner, Judge Frances Eivers: "Myself and previous Commissioners have been clear that the use of motels at all is deplorable, and a symptom of a system that is failing children. "Concerns around the practice have been raised repeatedly ...
Everything you need to know to get through the chaotic commute to to the Elton John concert in Tāmaki Mākaurau this weekend. Fans heading to Elton John’s concerts at Mt Smart Stadium this weekend have been advised to drive or walk thereby Auckland Transport (AT). In a Facebook post ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Andrews, Professor and Academic Director (Indigenous Research), La Trobe University ShutterstockAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. Many people do not know about the early activism undertaken ...
Finance minister Grant Robertson has opted to go list-only for the upcoming election, meaning he will not seek to be re-elected as MP for Wellington Central. It opens up the door for a swift exit from politics should Labour lose the election; without an electorate, no byelection would be triggered ...
Tory Whanau told The Spinoff’s When The Facts Change podcast that National’s transport spokesperson would push Wellington ‘backwards’ if he becomes transport minister.Wellington’s left-leaning mayor is worried her plans for the city could be scuppered by a new National-led government – and specifically by the party’s most likely candidate ...
Thousands of people are expected to flock to Auckland’s Western Springs on Monday for the triumphant return of the Laneway Festival. But with severe weather warnings in place, is it going to be reduced to a Splendour in the Grass-style “hellscape”? According to the organisers, no. In an email sent ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of Otago A German Leopard 2 heavy battle tank of the type destined for Ukraine.Getty Images The recent decision by Olaf Scholz’s German government to supply Ukraine with Leopard 2 tanks – after ...
The Hauraki Gulf Alliance, a group of diverse organisations representing more than 1 million people, has rubbished proposals to continue trawling and dredging in New Zealand’s first marine park, the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. The Hauraki Gulf Fisheries ...
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission has shared experiences of children and young people in emergency housing ahead of New Zealand’s review under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Geneva this week. “The government ...
It’s felt like a long time between drinks, but everyone’s favourite/least favourite family are almost back on our screens. HBO today released a trailer for the upcoming fourth season of Succession and announced a March release date. Check out the trailer – which doesn’t give away too much, but successfully ...
http://www.hbo.com/movies/game-change/index.html
Hekia Parata and John Key.
I watched the movie “Game Change” which follows John McCain’s 2008 Presisential campaign from his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate to his ultimate defeat by Obama. A great movie.
Pailin and the McCain/Palin relationship has many parallels with Parata and her relationship with Key, IMO.
Fantastic film, really shows the grind that campaigning can do. In the end I actually felt sorry for the old bugger McCain, though he still chose her, so not that sorry.
http://iforce.co.nz/i/uaa0wf32.ivg.jpg
What sort of mine is this, and where is it located?
No idea, but what an amazing photo.
Reverse image search indicates a diamond mine in Northern Canada.
Here’s a shot of it in winter:
http://www.diavik.ca/ENG/media/1157_photo_listing_1544.asp
Cheat 😛
As shown on Whaleoil yesterday
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/03/photo-of-the-day-153/
What is Labour’s stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership?
Whatever he said…..unless trevor disagrees
Goff strongly pro TPPA, AFAIK
Ought to be a bottom line that foreign corporates are not allowed to sue New Zealand if they think that we are hindering their ability to rape and plunder by exercising our democratic right to rule our country.
Ought to be a bottom line that the NZ govt cannot sign agreements that the public, including other political parties, doesn’t know about.
The only thing I could find was this vague piece by Maryan street:
http://www.labour.org.nz/node/3254
and this:
http://www.labour.org.nz/node/4334
“The only thing I could find was this vague piece by Maryan street:
http://www.labour.org.nz/node/3254”
and this:
http://www.labour.org.nz/node/4334”
Not a lot is it.
The first translated means she’s miffed that the Nats aren’t including her or Labour in the negotiations. The second kinda suggests that Pharmac is the only thing they’re really fixated on and everything else is on the table.
Been interesting following the Apple vs Samsung patents battle, gives an idea on what’s in store when the Nats adopt the US patent laws via the TTPA.
Today’s ‘paper was saying one of Apple’s patents is zooming an image by tapping the screen with finger. Zooming with a click of the mouse has been around since long before the iphone so it should never been accepted as a patent just on prior use grounds.
There’s so many patents around like that now it’s just not funny and they’re all being used to stiffle innovation and make money from nothing.
Agreed. The Nats are supporting software patents which would be a disaster for the local software industry. Anytime someone gets moderately successful they’ll attract the attention of the US patent trolls & be subjected to lawsuits.
There’s really nothing you can patent in software, copyright covers it not patents.
Make of this what you will, apparently a Kaiapoi Labourer had to train prisoners who took his job after he was laid off:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/rebuilding-christchurch/8376234/Labourers-lose-jobs-to-prisoners
Another good reason to join a union.
Well, not really. If this gets taken to the tribunal, the employer will lose. If there was a few months between employing more and making redundancies, they would be ok.
I was pointing out that the union would know the laws whereas often the employee often doesn’t. It’s that point about specialisation.
Not to mention unions being far more likely to have the resources to support taking cases to the tribunal than an individual.
You bet me to it. Gonna be a PG in here somewhere…but win the battle, lose the war b/c the company could go under due to the cost of compensation. Why can’t employers get things right?
in haste, told him he had to sign a four-month fixed-term and back-dated contract on the spot or he would not be kept or paid.
Should have signed it and the document being completely incriminating in itself, taken the employer to court.
Yep. heard that across the wire alex
Great little article in the Guardian: “How shaming the poor became a new bloodsport!”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/03/blame-poor-poverty-barbara-ellen
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10868943
Somehow this seems like it was inevitable. The beneficiary advocacy service in Auckland has had its funding cut.
Service manager Karen Pattie said the service needed about $100,000 annually and would cease operations within three weeks without further funding.
Ms Pattie said the service, which currently served 400 clients, had been one of the victims in the Government’s decision to cut funding for agencies providing advocacy work.
The push was now for the work to be delivered through Work and Income staff and ensuring beneficiaries were “accountable” for receiving their benefits.
emboldening mine.
Hey, let’s go the wholoe hog and save money by having the prosecution represent the defense in the criminal justice system. Employers could advocate for aggrieved employees in industrial disputes…..
This idea has huge potential for the government in so many areas.
We used to have that sort of system, back before the Magna Carta. That should give you some idea as to how far back in time National want to take us.
We could even make MPs accountable, especially for screw ups. Lets start with Novopay…
Later this month climate change sceptic an English lord, Chris Moncton, a former adviser to Margret Thatcher will be traveling around New Zealand giving public debates on climate change. He starting in Northland, which is no surprise given the Governments intentions to mine & drill in the region.
I would like to know who is sponsoring this English Toff? The Government? Mining & drilling companies? Keys rich mates? ACT? Just who is behind this guys visit?
Also was mining & drilling our national parks really plan A of the Government till public outrage, including the thousands who marched in protest ‘stalled’ their intentions & was asset sales plan B? And are we seeing the reverse plans with mining & drilling being the plan B now?
Are we being feed more lies by Key as he has said if asset sales were foiled there was no plan B?
Why the fuck would anyone want to listen an english lord?
Anyone in such circles cannot by default be trusted one little bit.
VTO it’s a debate ‘not’ a lecture cobber.
Fair enough but the point still stands.
What qualifications make him worth listening to or debating, especially given that his position as a lord starts him in a negative position?
Well, if it helps, while Monckton is a viscount, he’s not actually a member of the House of Lords, as he is known to claim.
Dammit, links aren’t showing again. Should be:
Thanks QoT armed with that info we will be heading along to the bar where Lord Haw-Haw is performing and heckle him and his mates. Should be entertaining may even take some rotten eggs just in case the ACT crew front up.
It’ll be the Climate Science Coalition and I want to know how much he’s being paid. It seems his job these days is nothing but getting paid huge amounts to lie about climate science.
.
Hard to find out about that sort of thing these days. Conservatives are too ashamed to do it publicly. In 2007, some US outfit going by the name Heartland Institute channelled funds to bozos here like the New Zealand Climate “Science” Coalition. NZCSC member Owen McShane received $US25,000. while member Terry Dunleavy received $US45,000. That’s what a quick search shows up anyway. Last year there was a bit of an issue when the Heartland Institute went particularly rabid so other corporates stepped up. I think it would be reasonable to suspect that Lord Monkeybrain is on the billionaire denialist gravy train, the cash circuitously making its way down to the clowns like him.
Mind you, New Zealand has its own clowns, chief among them Auckland University Associate Professor Chris De Freitas. Should I be surprised to see the New Zealand Fox News Herald continue to give space to him, as recently as today? Perhaps not.
Ian Wishart is also involved. It’s the basic wingnut welfare crew, wouldn’t be surprised t find that under all the ‘brought to you by’ fluff is a handout from Gibbs.
Yes Gibbs fits in there nicely he may try to use this as a platform to reignite ACT through this characters roadshow?
We could even make MPs accountable, especially for screw ups. Lets start with Novopay…
Datacom was just as bad. They did nurses pay. At north shore where my wife worked for 2 years, not once was her pay right. She complained to the union rep. Did it hit the headlines, did the union make a fuss, not likely. The difference, the nurses union was led by Liala Harrell there was a l
Labour Government, and she was sweating on her list position with the Labour party?
No mention of your wife complaining to the boss, Addison. In your summary, it’s all the union’s fault for some reason. What years are we talking about?
MAF – More Addison Fiction
quite correct CV – it’s fiction that Datacom stuff-ups never hit the headlines.
Here we go – Datacom featured twice in two days:
From the Otago Daily Times February 15 2008 – Datacom’s payroll problems plague schools
From Scoop February 14 2008
hey joe, busted link, goes to nowhere land
Yes – unfortunate that the edit function is not working – see Prism @ 17 – otherwise I would have fixed it. Here’s the link:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0802/S00155.htm
[lprent: I have three plugins with conflicting JQueries. Trying to get them to a common compatible version is a pain. ]
my my, that is a glaringly obvious example of Ministerial manipulation to gain the desired outcome. i.e: Talent 2’s positing of a messiah vendor we lovingly call NovaPay
one thing i still wonder is, if NovaPay was about to make Talent2 so much money, why did banksie jump ship ?
and see page 2 on this site:
http://old.nzei.org.nz/site/nzeite/files/rou%20rou/RR_2008_06.pdf
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/1111/payroll-problem-plagues-schools
Or just remove the apostrophe at the end of the link.
I didn’t say datycom never hit the headlines. I am saying Harre didn’t rock Labours boat because she was looking after NO1 not her union members.
And what you are saying is rubbish. Harre was busy being an Alliance MP at the time your wife was working at North Shore hospital.
Harre was not connected with the Labour Party.
Yep, which was why I asked Addison the years he was talking about. I was hoping to award Addison the stupidity trifecta: getting the relevant Nurses Organisation National Secretary wrong, putting Laila in the wrong party, and claiming the bosses mistakes were the fault of the union. However, I note from Addison’s contributions over the weekend that he doesn’t like answering direct questions. Presumably because the answers would show the vast void that is his factual ignorance is filled by hot air, right wing talking points and anti-worker prejudice.
Rubbish trp I always try and answer questions unless they are of a personal nature and go too far. I have had very little argument against my opinions, usually just the copout of playing the man not the ball. If you want a sensible debate try doing it without insulting those who offer opinions contrary to your own. Or are you of the view that chanting Maggie out over and over is a sensible debate(perhaps Key Out in a Kiwi context)
Get fucked addison.
All you ever write here is anecdata about your own life (lolz).
You don’t get to complain about people “not playing the ball” when all you have presented is the man.
there we go again your first line says it all
No, it doesn’t. You need to read further than that.
I think we might be getting to the problem though…
I don’t give a flying one about your opinions, Addison. I and others have simply demonstrated this morning (and on Saturday) that you don’t know what you are talking about. Every supposed fact in your wee rant this morning has been disproven.
The thing is, you are entitled to put your opinions forward and promote the ideas and philosophies behind them. You’ll find plenty of healthy debate. But when you claim as fact things that are not fact round here, you will be shredded everytime.
To summarise:
Datacom’s problems did make the media. You said they didn’t.
Laila Harre did not hide the Datacom issue because of personal ambition as you falsely claimed. She was never on Labour’s list, she was, in fact, an MP for a party born in opposition to the LP.
Laila Harre did not even work for the NO at the time you claim she did.
How about you just come out and say “I got all that wrong. Sorry”?
I looked at the comment, including the misspelling of Laila’s name and the required incorrect fact every sentence. I was considering writing a reply or a note to point this out preemptively. But then I thought that people would be in wanting to play at squashing this guy’s ego soon enough. Why should I spoil the fun? 😈
he’s a disease i tells ya, a disease
the more dense a tory’s shell is, the more it protects their over-inflated ego.
2001 to 2002,and yes she did complain to her line manager and was told to refer the complaint to the Union rep. And if you read my post a bit more carefully I am not blaming the union or the Labour government, the fault lay with datacom. The poing is that the unions are all over nova pay and National but were ominously silent over datacoms faults. I am suggesting Harre was quiet because she didn’t want to rock her Labour Party mates whilste she was angling for her party place. A new twist to the old line; the working class can kiss my ass, I have a list seat at last!;-)
“did the union make a fuss, not likely. ”
“I am not blaming the union”
communication 101: these are what are known as contradictory statements
not at all. not blaming the union for the pay mess up. Blaming the union for their inaction about the matter. PS I apologise I did not realise Harre resigned from Labour in 1989. Therefore cannot blame her inaction for political ambitions.
Did you ever thank the union for the excellent pay and conditions your wife enjoyed in the first place?
Course not, that’s all down to the benevolence of the bosses.
But not paying wages correctly and on time, that’s the fucking union’s job eh?
was your wife a member of the union, btw?
Cool, so Harre, who was not NO Nat Sec at the time, kept quiet about an issue she was unaware of to keep her mates in the party she left in disgust years earlier happy? How is life on Planet Key? Oxygen on short supply?
I stand coorected,i didn’t know she left Labour in 1989. Aplogies for that.
And how about all the other factual inaccuracies, care to apologise for those too?
i call BS Addison, you have one isolated example, well i also have relatives and friends in that industry and recently talked with them specifically on the NovaPay issue, as the health sector seemed to handle the complicated task with competence and certitude. Each and every one of the half dozen i spoke to said the occassional blip happened , as it does in any payroll, and would be resolved in reasonable timeframes. They also made a point of mentioning that there is no comparison to the over-arching scale of the Talent2 / Novapay swindle that has been played on NZ Education.
Lucky them, but pay matters were a joke at Northsore when my wife was there over a 2 year period. They were always corrected but it was a fortnightly occurrence.
that a person’s pay would be in error every fortnight for two years does beggar belief, sure you are not exaggerating just a tad?
Yes addison, no doubt there were thousands of others this was happening to as well as your made up wife, but the union kept it all secret.
Because that’s what they do, unions. They exist to make sure no-one finds out about workers not getting paid.
FFS can we get some better tr0lls please?
4 March 2013
‘Open Letter/ OIA request to NZ Prime Minister John Key – how can the Government ‘get a good price for Mighty River Power, when thousands ‘Switch Off Mercury Energy’?
Dear Prime Minister,
Please be advised of the founding aim of the ‘Switch Off Mercury Energy’ community group, of which I am a Spokesperson:
“MINUTES(CONFIRMED) FOUNDING MEETING OF ‘SWITCH OFF MERCURY ENERGY’
15 August 2012 Grey Lynn Community Centre 510 Richmond Rd Grey Lynn.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
HELP STOP THE PRIVATISATION OF MIGHTY RIVER POWER BY SWITCHING OFF MERCURY ENERGY! (100% owned by Mighty River Power)
AIM: To help stop the privatisation of public assets – particularly the proposed privatisation of the first of the electricity State-Owned Assets (SOEs), Mighty River Power, by FOCUSING ON getting 100,000 customers to SWITCH OFF Mercury Energy (100% owned by Mighty River Power). Fewer customers equals less profits which equals a less attractive investment and jeopardises the Governments proposed agenda.
“Let me make it quite clear. If the Government doesn’t get a good price – the Government isn’t going to sell” (Tony Ryall, Minister of SOE’s 17/6/2012 NBR
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/govt-wont-sell-assets-if-it-cant-get-good-price-ryall-ck-121435
The Government has no right to sell our public assets.
PRECEDENT: In 2008, Contact Energy (already privatized) doubled their directors fees and raised their prices 12%.In 6 months, more than 40,000 customers switched from Contact Energy and their profits were halved.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/droughts/news/article.cfm?c_id=180&objectid=10590906&pnum=0 ……………”
____________________________________________________________________________________
Please provide the following information:
1) Please confirm that the publicly-stated position stated by the Minister of State-Owned Eneterprises Tony Ryall, is unchanged:
“Let me make it quite clear. If the Government doesn’t get a good price – the Government isn’t going to sell” (Tony Ryall, Minister of SOE’s 17/6/2012
2) Please provide the information which confirms HOW a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power is/has been calculated.
3) Please provide the information which confirms WHO has/is responsible for the calculation of a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power.
4) Please provide the information which confirms that has/is responsible for the calculation of a ‘good price’ for Mighty River Power, are independent, and professionally competent, and do not have any untoward ‘ conflicts of interest’ / vested interests in the sale of Mighty River Power.
5) Please confirm that you are aware of your statutory duties arising from the Public Records Act 2005
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2005/0040/latest/DLM345536.html
Purposes of Act
The purposes of this Act are—
(a)to provide for the continuation of the repository of public archives called the National Archives with the name Archives New Zealand (Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga); and
(b)to provide for the role of the Chief Archivist in developing and supporting government recordkeeping, including making independent determinations on the disposal of public records and certain local authority archives; and
(c)to enable the Government to be held accountable by—
(i)ensuring that full and accurate records of the affairs of central and local government are created and maintained; and
(ii)providing for the preservation of, and public access to, records of long-term value; and
(d)to enhance public confidence in the integrity of public records and local authority records; and
(e)to provide an appropriate framework within which public offices and local authorities create and maintain public records and local authority records, as the case may be; and
(f)through the systematic creation and preservation of public archives and local authority archives, to enhance the accessibility of records that are relevant to the historical and cultural heritage of New Zealand and to New Zealanders’ sense of their national identity; and
(g)to encourage the spirit of partnership and goodwill envisaged by the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi), as provided for by section 7; and
(h)to support the safekeeping of private records.
Yours sincerely,
Penny Bright
A Spokesperson for the Switch Off Mercury Energy community group.
http://www.facebook.com/SwitchOffMercuryEnergy/info
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
I am one who has been surprised by the government’s and Key’s continued popularity in spite of all of the problems they have encountered and which are chronicled at length here.
So I was very interested last night to meet for the person time a person of the class responsible for the phenomenon.
Most people I know are now and have always been right wing. I know fewer people who are and have always been left wing. Here, I am exposed to the rabid left, who I never encounter in the real world.
But last night I met a devoted John Key fan. A 50 year old gay man of modest means who had voted Labour his whole life until 2008 and, indeed, had been a card carrying member and volunteered and canvassed for them in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
He has voted National the last two elections and does not regret it. His vote was essentially for Key who he remains very taken with. Part of the appeal, it seems, is the story of the struggle from modest circumstances to great wealth and then public service.
This is only an anecdote and, as such, has very limited value. But I found it very interesting to meet for the first time such a person.
Jesus Mary and Joseph I am agreeing with Gormless Fool.
Key has a very good back story and a lot of charm. To counter him Labour needs a leader who will outpoint him in an area. He needs to be smarter or gutsier or more passionate or be able to speak better but he needs to be different.
Shearer is not that person.
I also agree with Caleb Morgan that the dominant clique in the Labour Caucus is one that prefers Key to Cunliffe (or Chauvel or Dalziel or anyone of the left) to be next Prime Minister.
http://cutyourhair.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/where-is-christchurch-in-the-labour-reshuffle/
A preference to be in charge of a losing Labour Party, as opposed to being not in control of a winning Labour Party?
Yep, that seems to be it. Apparently, the ABCs think having power in the party is more important than the party or the country.
FIFY
I mean real, as opposed to virtual. No offence to the rabid left intended.
There are those who get into cargo cult very, very easily.
These deals are annoying & becoming too common….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/8376186/Questions-raised-over-Deloitte
I don’t know why the Govt uses the likes of Deloittes for IT consultancy, they’re grossly overpriced and since a lot of IT work is labour charges the Govt is paying far too much for IT outsourcing.
Deloittes are principally an accounting firm and I wouldn’t hire accountants to advise me on IT stuff, don’t know why they get so much Govt work when we’ve got the likes of Datacom who are genuinely IT people.
Just how do Deloitte *win* all those juicy central/local government contracts, and service agreements etc!
They’re feasting aggresively on the public purse, at all levels, all around the country’s, local/central bodies!
One needs to investigate little snippets like the following statement:
Tracking the relationships and work history, of former and current Deloitte employees, is a good place to start!
Open the door, let them in, then join them!
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10868979
Coroner who declined inquest into death of gay soldier made submission against gay marriage.
First, WTF was he doing making a submission?
Second, his decision needs to be reviewed.
Yeah, that is pretty galling.
On Morning report Goff raised some issues. Deployment was two months longer than usual, (which may have increased fatigue), additional training required for the deployment was cut short by two weeks and an inquest is required.
I hope that Goff also gets a full independent inquiry. The ANZAC Day airforce deaths were suppose to be investigated by the Labour Department, not just by the airforce. The army are not independent.
Ah. Now THAT begins to smell…
Your eyes will roll at this. Chris Hipkins put up a story on Red Alert called CONTEMPT FOR DEMOCRACY on Saturday here http://tinyurl.com/cdekas6
Yesterday Chris deleted comments asking him if he thought the title was a bit hypocritical because he has been so criticized for his reaction to the democracy remits at the NZ Labour conference. Trevor
or Clare might have done the deleting…
My comment never got through. I wasn’t even getting smart. I just said I thought it might be better to take critics on. Still in moderation or deleted though?!
I have screen captures of two other comments that were deleted. Anyone know how to post screen captures here at TS…
I had seen TS comments saying how Red Alert is censored like mad but I had not seen it myself. Do MP’s think you can censor voters when they go to vote? Daft.
Labour MPs certainly think that they can censor and censure Labour Party members for speaking their mind.
There is a high degree of moderation at Red Alert. There has to be, otherwise you’d have trolls from both all directions spending much of their time slagging the MP’s and drowning out discussion. The problem is, as you point out, that the moderation often drowns out actual comments.
I can testify that as a moderator after reading hundreds of thousands of comments here (and previous net experiences) with an enormous variety of trolling approaches, that after a while everything starts to look “deeply suspicious”. It is actually quite hard to restrain yourself from just moderating everything and stifling actual discussion.
The local equivalent is trying to tell us how to run our site or telling us what we should write. It is a very fast way to picking up a ban and if repeated, a fast way to lose the ability to comment here. Why? Because we’re doing the damn job and critics who are not are usually just a pain in the arse because they are not. We just tell them that they need time to start up and run their own site where they can run it the way they like – including getting their own audience. And attacking authors personally is just not tolerated at all because while there are a lot of commentators, there are only a relatively few people with both the skills in writing and who are willing to be authors.
Basically it is house rules when it comes to moderation at various sites. As a commentator you kind of have to live with them.
I think everyone here is kind of aware of the moderation policies at RA
And to be fair to Red Alert, I posted a comment a few months ago suggesting Clare Curren should apologise for bullying CV and I was pleasantly surprised it wasn’t moderated in any way.
Helen Kelly’s criticism of the lack of care for forest workers safety is really needed. It seems to me though that there is a barrier in NZ to insisting on safety regulations and controls backed by law and regular inspections.
This morning’s comment from an adventure tourism spokesperson on the man falling and dying at an adventure business referred to businesses being very concerned and setting standards. It sounded to me that they are left to get on with it, perhaps after drawing up plans but saying and knowing isn’t doing.
What we need is a feisty little shit from the Department of Labour and Safety going round asking questions, checking the equipment and generally setting the owner’s teeth on edge. Instead we get growing risky behaviours from owners and avoidable deaths that amount to manslaughter by wilful neglect of owners and their staff. Owners should spend some time in jail if any fault can be found. A month for each fault perhaps. Faults of frayed ropes, poor maintenance, lax controls and methods, etc.
yes, also on the rise on RNZ
-Aukland house prices continuing up the spiral
-Aussie climate on “steroids” now
anyway,
some parting shots for The Village round-heads across the bow (eggs and omelettes and all that butter, i know, lets call it a master-craftsman class)
subjective self-identification is the outcome of subjection to a pre-existing order that includes language, law, admin, production, distribution, and exchange.
Husband, and cultivate and tailor a world to your proclivities and context.
1. World-making heart- and-mind. heart-and-mind shaping world. think and speak a novel world into being. way-making=also affection-an epistemology of caring. empathetic feeling. tick
2.it is sage not to coerce; disseminate teachings that go beyond what can be said. binaries require other for completion. enable each participant to contribute fully to “dramatic” performance.tick
3. keep the “hawkers” of knowledge at bay. celebrate the bravery, patience and kindness of the ordinary person. allow character of community to emerge synergistically out of associated living.
tick
4.way-making of undetermined nature; swinging gateway of experience opens and novelty emerges spontaneously. experience is appropriate object of awe and deference. tick
5.not institutionalized morality but superior communal morality. tick
6. the fecundity of emptiness. tick
7.withdraw, yet out in front.through unselfishness needs met. nature / Christ as mentor. persons perceived, needs met.tick
8.dwell in places loathed by crowds. giving authoritatively. speak credibly. act timely. water flows everywhere. tick
9. retire from excess. how to manage fullness; a measure of ignorance to cope with intelligence that vies with wisdom. humility to cope with accomplishments. a measure of timidity to cope with courage pervading an entire age. measure of frugality to cope with wealth that fills the four seas.
tick
10. the nature of the world is to transform. real wisdom-shaping penetrating insight into the present moment engaging with the unique circumstances at play. tick
12. easier to satiate the abdomen, difficult to satiate the wandering eye through which the spirit can leak away. distractions. no crime more onerous than greed. no misfortune more devastating than avarice. no calamity with more grief than insatiability. know when enough is enough= satisfaction. tick
13. value anxieties. those who value care of own body more than running the world can be entrusted with the world; begrudging person= authority of the world; worldly favour-patronage will be followed by disgrace as favour “withdrawn”. faithful with little, self, then faithful with responsibilities and world. value ones’ person and love ones’ person in thorough-going integration with ones’ field of experience. tick
14. hold tightly to way-making in the present to manage what happens now to understand where it began in the distant past= the draw-string of way-making. master draws me forward a step at a time, broadens my culture, disciplines my behaviour through the observance of ritual propriety; even if I wanted to quit, I could not.-Yan Hui (we supported a Mob hui after church; is broad)
tick
15. reluctance as at a winters’ stream crossing. vigilance towards surrounding neighbours.dignified as an invited guest. yielding as ice to thaw. solid like un-worked wood. murky like muddy waters when stilled clear. settled when agitated comes to life. not seek fullness, remaining hidden and unfinished. tick
-epistemology of feeling in which the quality of understanding is a function of the immediacy and intensity of what is felt. way always under construction. many hands at work. a punctuation of consummating events, as paragraphs yet a never-ending story. tick
16. reversion-returning to the root, is what is called equilibrium. common sense- accommodation-tolerance -kingliness . tian cumulative cultural legacy focused by the spirit and spirituality of those who have come before. the way made is enduring, not self divided against self. s. like a mirror; not see things off or go to meet them. respond without storing anything up thus not injured by the myriad transformations they undergo. not passive or quiet but synergistically and organically responsive. accommodation is the source of fullness of strength, influence timeliness and efficacy. extension through deference, trunk branches from the roots. tick
17. during periods of decadence and social decline philosophers arise to proclaim the obvious of exacerbating problems by institutionalizing artificial alternatives, dominion, principalities and powers- educated morality and its vocabulary of ” right and wrong” “good and evil”. tick
here, have some ‘morality”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_morality
20. Preferable to the marble 😉 of learning is the rich temple of immediate experience and unmediated feeling.
Do I really care what others think of me? I don’t think so. the worm has turned; Time for some
Wood Oil. (I would not be surprised if National gets another term or not) There’s some newsology for yas’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noology
What a great country? By l*ck it is! Go luck yourselves out.
“ha ha ha said the laughing gnome…”
now, where’d i secrete my Crossbow and bolts.
“guess I’ll see you, yes I’ll see you, see you on the other-side.”
Epitaph Writer :
FXDX.
excuse me while I get back to Job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZXpqhXSDrE 😉
This morning on Radio NZ this USA woman was interesting. She has been thoughtful and politically aware since a young age. She said that she considers the USA to be a pluralism of wealthy groups not a democracy.
10-11am: Feature interview – Cisco Systems co-founder and Jane Austen expert Sandy Lerner
As a founder of Cisco she’d be a multi-millionaire, too…
I read that when she was forced out of Cisco Systems her husband and her liquidated their stock for US$170M.
In the interview she says that she studied communism and marxist economics at univeristy.
I put item about Sandy Lerner on OpenMike 3/3 by mistake. I tried to delete it because I wanted it to go in today’s only, but the delete function doesn’t work and neither does my edit function.
Astonishing!
I have just heard Mike Williams criticise the Labour Party… saying they need to spend less time on the internal infighting and more time attacking the government. Two minutes later following a question by Lyn Freeman on the subject of Charles Chauvel’s speech, he is belittling Chauvel and accusing him of having a tantrum (I paraphrase) when he made exactly the same point.
He claims Charles Chauvel has done himself no good by saying what he did
This isn’t the first time Williams has contradicted himself like this and it won’t be the last. The man is shaping up to be even more of a ‘fake’ leftie than Josie Pagani.
He also claimed Shearer’s reshuffle was very fair. The MPs who Shearer promoted deserved it and were the best performers in the party (words to that effect anyway). He intimated those who were demoted were simply not good enough, and he’s sorry to have to say this blah blah… but they simply didn’t come up to scratch. So, we take it from the guru himself that David Cunliffe and Lianne Dalziel were just not up to it folks .
Beggars belief.
I was also amazed/disgusted by Williams’ comments, Anne. Your summary is spot on.
Here is the link if others did not hear it.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2548073/politics-with-matthew-hooton-and-mike-williams.asx
The discussion on the partial sale of Mighty River is also worth listening to in the link.
—————————-
Also here is the link to the excellent Sandy Lerner interview mentioned by Prism at 16 and 17 above – well worth listening to.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2548070/feature-guest-sandy-lerner.asx
I think I’ll use my limited time this afternoon to listen to Sandy Lerner. Thanks vv.
Williams wanking and Hootons Horseshit Or Sandy Lerner? well thats no contest.
Why are types such as Williams, *allowed* on the radio you think..
Forget buying into the charade around the re-shuffle, and empty spaces like Williams commenting on it, these are all just pawns in a game, the game is called, *distract/fool the public*!
Age old game, which is still working wonders it seems!
Bryce Edwards: Opposition is failing NZ voters, low polls a threat to Shearer
http://www.3news.co.nz/Opposition-failing-voters—Edwards/tabid/1607/articleID/288865/Default.aspx
And what happens when the nation has become so disenfranchised by the *democratic political system*, due to it being completely corrupted!
Take a good look in the rear view mirror!
its ANARCHY i tells ya, ANARCHY! (have you seen the ways in which people are choosing to die these days? Hemlock would be a lot more gentle; they are even falling out of the sky. very sad, particularly these young people driving themselves into the wall)
Agree that it is a travesty that Mike Williams continues to be used as a Labour Party commentator – Charles was only calling it like it is. If the hierarchy don’t like the infighting, manage it, don’t just try to ignore it. They are missing the first fundamental rule of politics! Doesn’t bode well for Government
Yes Anne, when Williams says “less time on the internal infighting and more time attacking the government” he apparently isn’t talking about the leadership cartel around Shearer who have been responsible for all the leaking, backstabbing, media bitching and vote spying, and who are supposed to be the ones responsible for fighting the government.
Correct felixviper:
he’s talking about those dumb-bunny members and conference delegates who had the effrontary to think they were deserving of a say in the leadership of the parliamentary party. I mean the parliamentary party belongs to us – the elite – not them. They have no right to poke their noses into our business. We decide what’s good for
usthe party not them.As for the bunch of treacherous MPs who had the gall to back the members. We have no choice but to continue to punish them until they show contrition and promise they will never betray
usthe party again.A problem with prescribing “less time on the internal infighting and more time attacking the government” is the diminishing range of issues over which a forthright attack on the government would enjoy the full backing of the present Labour caucus. Even following the prescription may well reveal us as “the enemy within,” should our critique of the government fail to be sufficiently circumscribed and nuanced.
Clearly one man’s infighter is another man’s senior whip.
If Cunliffe is so hopeless – why is he trouncing every other Labour MP on YouTube’s Inthehouse channel at the moment? Seems to me, he’s the only performing with any talent in the House, for a start.
[lprent: Don’t dick about with your handles. Each handle has to be approved the first time it is used. Try using too many and we’ll conclude that you are deliberately wasting our time and ban you. Read the policy about wasting moderators time. ]
Average Fortune 500 CEO pay is 200x their median worker
I personally think ~10x to 15x is reasonable. This ratio is common in Japan and various countries in the EU.
http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income
I gave up on whaleoil to many biggots and rednecks. Sadly giving up here to many socialist facist thugs who are left overs from from the 30s in Germany, and think socialism is about having the power to ban opposition.
Goodby and good luck I am sure you will do wonders for the political LEFT IN nz
No, you’re giving up because virtually everything you’ve written here has been shown to be bullshit.
And enough of the dramatic exits, everyone knows you’ll be back in no time with a new name and a new back story to peddle the same old lies and propaganda.
That’s a pity. You screwed yourself up today big time, but you’ve made a few neo-lib arguments that National’s opposition parties need to be prepared to counter in the spin wars.
Help me, help me, help me sail away,
Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay.
‘Cause I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime …
Ray? Is that you ya old crooner?
http://24.media.tumblr.com/f57b0d94ce4e855c44891a68b21abe20/tumblr_mexpafJ5851rouyxzo1_500.gif
Is “addison” the so-called British retiree really gone now? A shame I say, a crying shame.
a little Norman at last
lol
Maybe there’s a fluffy kitten blog Addison would enjoy?
It’s the internet: of course there is
out the bach o’ the shed?
upon reflection, I do find it somewhat illuminating that Addison reckons some here want to ban opposition, and that’s why he chooses to withdraw.
Secondly, I also think it’s a bit of an alien concept for me to not get worked up and passionate about politics. Even basic roading policies have a good chance of being life or death decisions. Yes, the mods here keep a handle on threats etc, but with a wide range of folk of course a bit of personal abuse or the occasional f-bomb will occur, especially if one acts like a dick. To expect a prim and proper “Midsomer Murders”-style conversation about policies that might e.g. kill kids (or simply choose which people will die, but hopefully a lower number than plan B) is pretty unrealistic.
Facist? How dare you. I love all faces equally.
I’ve been following the “New” Left wing blog the Daily Blog for a couple of days and I have come to the conclusion that it’s just another version of Pundit (with more pictures) staying well within the expected paradigm and I suspect it will fall by the way side soonish. I have also been following something of what is happening in Italy and while our “Lefty/Greeny” politicians are talking about money printing and the first victims of using prisoners as cheap labor are presenting themselves I thought I’d put a link here for those of you who want to know how it’s done in Italy. Enjoy!
Where’s the link?
Oh sorry my bad: Here it is Beppe Grillo
Yeah right we all really understand spoken Italian, no sub-titles evident…
As the post states the subtitles start at 0:1:48 into the video but reading English is not one of your fortés either I take it
Didn’t start any minutes into my viewing of the vid, while talking shit is obviously one of your overt skills right…
Subtitles appeared on time but they were in feckin Italian. I used the translate facility and selected English but I just got comedic translations.
Arfamo, you might find this link to be interesting as well. A more nuanced leftist take on what is happening in Italy
http://overland.org.au/blogs/garibaldis-statue/2013/03/this-is-the-new-italy/
Thanks Pascal. That was interesting and thought-provoking.
The Return of the Anti-Christ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Antichrist_%28book%29
(it’s complicated)
The movie was good too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antichrist_(film)
Might Just take Your Life
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10868977
coronarias Redig
http://bdeeppurplefanforum.runboard.com/t13386
Julia Hartley Moore on Jim Mora was saying with approval that one of the good things that the government has done is enabled free cello lessons somewhere in her manor. This morning I listened on Radionz to a worker on a benefit advocacy group which may have to close (it’s the only one for a huge area of Auckland) because the government has withdrawn the $50,000 part of the $100,000 they need and they can’t provide the service without it.
We need bread AND roses (or music).
Swiss voters overwhelmingly pass ‘Corporate Fat Cats’ law allowing shareholders to veto excessive corporate pay.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-03/swiss-fat-cats-clobbered-70-just-say-nonneinno-excessive-executive-pay
Fixed the time up. Looks like the ntp.ubuntu.com got a wee bit off.
“you are posting comments too quickly, slow down”
Wtf is this? Are you giving the righties a headstart now?
Inequality visualised.
I’d like to see the figures for NZ represented in that form.
+1
Smile or DIE!!!
RSAnimate video.
+1 Very good. Reality Check time.