Hmm, I think you may get very little response to your challenge, there Bored.
Banks claimed exactly the same thing for Don Brash during the election campaign. At least once during every public speech in defence of his embattled and unpopular leader, Banks would proclaim that Don Brash is a patriot who loves his country.
Unfortunately to my ears it sounded like faint praise at the time, and indeed it was, as revealed in the teapot tapes.
Apart from loving their country, no one, not even their supporters, can point to any other positive quality that these individuals possess.
When people, start spouting about how patriotic they are, I am always reminded of Oscar Wilde’s statement about refuges and scoundrels.
I have a funny feeling that ACT might be stuffed full of such patriots.
Well they certainly got given all the credit for taking out the Seal Team 6, in a “revenge attack”. You simply would never “give” your “enemy” that sort of PR “victory”
Can’t recall Iran getting credit for taking out the drone, it was deny deny deny!
Digitized “letters” of OBL “fretting”.
You could not make this stuff up…woops hold on, they’re digital, of course you can!
The scrapped TVNZ7 channel will be replaced with a “plus one” channel that will be a duplicate of TV One run an hour later.
The new channel will start broadcasting on July 1 and will mirror the equivalent TV3 Plus 1 channel.
I am glad that the channel remains in TVNZs hands, and hope this means it would be relatively easy to re-purpose it as a PBS channel at a later date….?
I also like the +1 concept. I use TV3+1 sometimes – e.g. if I miss the news, or there is a clash of programmes on at the same time. Often the small number of dramas I DO watch are all on at the same time, with nothing worth watching at other times – and I can only record one channel showing on Freeview at a time, using my DVD recorder.
But my much preferred option is for a channel that is developed s a significant public service channel.
He’s not my boss and I only partly agree with him. TVNZ is terrible and I rarely watch it and they self celebratise far too much.
But I don’t think TV7 is the best use of resources. If they put some effort into having watchable programs on TV1 they wouldn’t have needed TV7 in the first place.
+1 is an ok idea for a bit of flexibility in watching, especially for times they have 60 minutes and Close Up (is that what that one’s called?) clash as they make sure they do – but repeating what mostly seems to be repetitive rubbish is a waste of time.
Its a nice safe protest – pitching as the ‘reasonable man’, that somehow by design sort of can’t in this case actually do anything about it – but its great to be able to pretend to have a different view from National! The question is still whether he will listen to his own poll and vote against the second reading of the privatising of strategic New Zealand assets. . .
Yeah, the usual criticised if he says nothing, criticised if he says something. Do you think he shouldn’t comment on anything?
On asset sales I think he’s likely to listen to his pre-election and post-election commitments. If he didn’t do that he’d get lambasted from certain quarters, who lambast him when he does. At least he’s consistent, the lambast brigade aren’t.
I would prefer a better ondemand offer, and a bigger, better public service channel. But I do find +1 can be useful sometimes.
I watch ondemand a bit, but often find the programmes I want to pick up there aren’t offered – House, lately for instance, and the programmes that run quite late like Damages.
Also I find TV3s videos often freeze on me. I do find it a better experience to watch programmes on my TV than on ondemand. And there’s been 1 or 2 occasions when I’ve watched the start of a movie on TV3, switched to watch another programme at 9.30pm, then switched onto TV3 +1 to watch the end of the movie.
I do watch dramas and the best ones always seem to be put up against each other, sometimes on 3 different channels. That doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does +1 can be helpful. Maybe that’s not a problem to people with “my sky” or “my freeview”. But I just have a DVD recorder and a freeview box.
And it does help with watching some key bit of news on TV3 that was on before I got home, but everyone is talking about online.
The +1 concept works when you have content which has value.
Like Sky Movies running blockbusters at a +1 delay across their channels, because maybe you have something else to watch at 8:30 but still want to catch the movie (or, these days, you’re MySkying too many things at 8:30…)
I simply cannot name any piece of TVOne content I care enough about to be grateful it’ll be on an hour later if I need it. But at least their utterly pointless “do a news show at 4.30 to prove we’re totally cooler than Prime even though it makes zero sense” news show will be bumped to a more plausible timeslot …
“New Zealanders told us they were uncomfortable about the rate of borrowing… They saw this as borrowing to invest and they didn’t like that.
“We have listened.
“That’s why I won’t continue with Labour’s previous policy to restore contributions to the Cullen Super Fund until I think we can afford it.
“It wouldn’t have increased net debt because it gave us an asset that matched the liability. However, New Zealanders saw this as borrowing to invest and they didn’t like that,” Mr Shearer said.
“We’ve decided that until we are back in surplus, any new spending will have to be paid for out of existing budget provisions, new revenue, or by re-prioritising.”
Trevor Mallard on Tuesday speaking in the House:
“I note that it has been the policy of the government to not put money into the Cullen Fund.
“And that, of course, is something that works against the development of capital in New Zealand. I think that has been a short-term approach,”
Maybe Mallard has since come on board with his leader’s plans.
ha ha, that is telling. I sometimes purposely take money out of my pockets so nothing can be spent and it is also quite the liberating thing. Try it next time you head somewhere. I do often carry a pocket-knife though.
It’s an amusing read. So many people who loved National and their cutbacks – until it affects them.
You might think it would make a lefty happy to see people turning against the Government, but it only made me sad. So many educated people who don’t give a shit about others, only about themselves.
Particularly like the 27yo grad earning $110k suggesting that government instead needs to be cutting welfare and raising the retirement age. Middle-class welfare is apparently more productive.
You might think it would make a lefty happy to see people turning against the Government, but it only made me sad. So many educated people who don’t give a shit about others, only about themselves.
It makes me sad to see solecisms such as “Pay check” sprinkled in amongst the comments. (That happens here as well, but after being being denigrated for saying anything, had vowed not to express how my head aches so much, seeing American spellings larded in amongst what would decades ago, have been NZ usage. Ah, heck with it, a young Island man once told my brother that his ambition was to “go to the Capital, man”. When my brother pointed out that they were both in Wellington, the youth said “I mean the capital, Washington”. That was 10 years back, and it seems everyone thinks that we live in the USA now.
muzza
2 May 2012 at 9:23 am
So the $NZ rises when the US data is bad, or they “QE”, and the $NZ also rises when the US data is favourable
“The New Zealand dollar rose after better-than-expected US manufacturing data reignited investors optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track, boosting demand for growth-linked assets such as the kiwi”
So in the next day or so, look out from data which obcures, or confuses sentiments about the “investors optimism that the world’s largest economy is on track”
So now if you go to a rugby match there’s always the chance that some security camera operator is reading your texts. Apparently a police officer who saw it happen thought there “might be privacy issues” (considering the source, that’s a major flag).
A variation on the “nothing to hide” argument in favour of big brother?
The point isn’t whether they’re interested – the point is whether you’ve got a right to sext your boyfriend or say the game of rugby is shit, without becoming the next target of a club bouncer who wants to get on tv.
Coupled with that is the fact that the harm of invasions of privacy isn’t the objective, in context meaning of the full text message, it’s the partial snapshot out of context that is used to colour in a pixelated image that exists solely in the mind of the privacy intruder – whether that being a camera operator taking home a copy to stroke off to, or an armed police officer operating under a misapprehension and shooting a Brazilian electrician in the head.
Anyone worried about their privacy has not been paying attention over the past 10-15 years primarily, but in reality its much longer than that…
Your privacy is not a consideration, in fact your privacy, and protection of your data is , not only for sale, but publically available freely, thanks to social networking!
We lost that battle long ago, and most had no idea it was even happening.
There’s a lot of difference between anonymised aggregate data and random datapoints being permanently and possibly erroneously attributed to an individual.
It’s like pollution – yeah, it’s all around, but that doesn’t mean we can’t clean up the worst bits to a reasonable standard.
“Your privacy is not a consideration, in fact your privacy, and protection of your data is , not only for sale, but publically available freely, thanks to social networking!”
Sorry, but that is such a crock. RNZ’s tech expert said the other day the old chestnut about how unencrypted emails are just like a postcard. If that’s true that means that the staff at vodafone can read my emails in the same way that the sorters and posties at NZPost can read a postcard I send. Is that true?
Do you know who I am? No? Then I have a degree of privacy that I enjoy and want to keep. How is my identity “publically available freely”?
I agree with you that many people have made choices about technology without understanding the implications very well. But that’s completely different than saying that we have no privacy anymore. Privacy is not an absolute.
The thing is that the postal worker sorting a postcard does not automatically store the entire contents and file it with every other piece of data that travelled through the sorting room that day. Then another dude runs a search and finds something to sell to an insurance company, or put on the interwebz, or decides that “great cocktails” was a reference to an improvised munition so puts you on a watch list / raid list.
No, that’s right. So the analogy (and the fearmongering) is wrong (or at least, it’s the wrong fearmongering). Worse than people not knowing what is going on, is people who do know putting out misleading and confusing information that makes it impossible for lay people to make good choices.
So who is storing my emails and then using them to spam me?
Well, facebook for one – only they call it “targeted advertising”.
But I’m not sure who mentioned emails. But I have been in CCTV ops rooms where the operator has cycled the monitor to the camera which shows the hot woman in a low-cut top. And then there’s the entire pan/tilt/zoom issue. ISTR Princess Diana had an issue with that on more than one occasion.
I don’t see why they would stop there. Facebook of course denies they are using the functionality even though they designed it in. In other words, they are saying that they did not inhale.
So what about your leader announcing that a future Labour government would freeze payments to the Superfund?
How about that for copying National after all the protests that Labourites and its MPs hurled at the government?
And how about his private dinner with that SKY lobbyist?
Clare Curran must be spitting chips!
so what about it?
do you think other people are mindreaders or your own prose is so riveting that the menaings are clear and evident to anyone with an iq under 70.
yah yah yah.
Oops Anne. Mr Key reckoned to a bunch of 10year olds yesterday, that his best channel was TV 1. Perhaps Pete and John could have a quiet cup of tea and agree.
Huge moon this weekend. One such that the moonman said would create another time of increased risk of earthquake activity. Let’s see what happens this time. Put the breakables away and fill the car with fuel Cantabrians…
That’s bold Lanth. Even bolder then the moonman. Remember he got the March 20 ones.
If the moon’s extra gravity can pull giant oceans that much further than it usually can surely there is substantial increased force exterted on everything upwards and sideway? After all, the oceans can react to it. We will probably all weigh both less and more this weekend.
Size of moon. It is a strange thing that again an astronomer says that a moon at moonrise is the same size as the moon high in the sky. He said this morning that it is just a trick and he can’t explain it. He says that high tech measuring gear shows that the moon is the same at rise as high.
Another astronomer reckoned that it was an illusion because at rise, there are land based things like hills and buildings for the eye to measure against and they are missing high in the sky.
Place your bets. Moon @ rise same size as high in the sky? Yes. No.
This is a well-known and well-studied phenomenon, and it is true that astronomers, and more relevantly psychologists, cannot adequately explain why the human brain interprets a moon low on the horizon as being apparently larger than one up high in the sky. There are many many theories for it, but as I understand none of them has been conclusively shown to be the best description. Most likely it’s a whole bunch of different factors all playing different roles.
Bad Astronomy puts forward an idea that might explain it unfortunately he puts the idea forward as fact when there’s still doubt. Wikipedia mentions this stuff to.
I did not see anyone mention a Sextant. It is a hi-tech instrument that has been used by navigators for measuring celestial objects for 100’s of years. I believe James Cook was skilled at using it. It was still being used 30 years ago. Nor did anyone refer to the refraction of light. A beautiful example of this is the primary and secondary Rainbow. In the case of the moon, light from a rising moon is travelling at an angle from space into the atmosphere. From a “less dense” to a “more dense” medium. In doing so the light changes direction. Something Navigators, Astronomers, etc. can measure. This does have an effect on the observed diameter of the moon when it is close to the horizion.
Regarding the possiblity of an eathquake, I will not be sleeping under the table but I do have an Emergency Kit at the end of the bed. Baden Powell’s motto for the Scouts.”Be Prepared”.
Why Cantabrians? They’re not the only ones with a moon this weekend. Why doesn’t everyone hop in their cars and get away to somewhere safe from the moon?
Where would you go? About the furthest from anywhere is the middle of the Southern Alps, why not try that?
Don’t want to be too close to the coast though, or somewhere with lots of hills (sorry Pete). They reckon Invercargill is one of the safer places to be in an earthquake (despite being near the sea) – it’s flat, not too many big buildings, not too close to major faults.
I was looking at the moon last night, high in the sky, and thinking shit that’s big this month, imagine what it will look like on the horizon when its full. It will be worth going out for.
I lost the piece of carpet from just inside my front door the other month,a close up of Slippery’s nut on Campbell live tonight tends to suggest that Slippery has glued it on to hide a bad spot of hair loss,
When asked if He knows anything about the missing carpet piece or anything else, Slippery sez He doesn’t know…
I am back to thinking that Labour should roll Shearer sooner rather than later, I look on today’s granny Herald and hello here’s a story of Dave having dinner with Rupert Murdoch’s paid mouth-piece in New Zealand, business as usual obviously,
Next I turn on Prime and catch the Labour leader on the news there,Shearer sez that under a Government He lead the Cullen Super fund was a dead duck until such time as it was affordable to put money into it,which under the current tax regime that Dave doesn’t appear to be about to change will be like the Minister of Guessing Bill English’s balancing of the books, the stuff of fairy tales,
Gets better tho,Dave is going to look for cross party support to raise the age of national super to 67, I doubt that one Dave, not that you and the Treasury want to raise the age of the pension to 67 instead of raising the taxes to pay for it,
I doubt with such policy Labour are going to be governing any time soon…
The difficulty with him accepting the need to with hold payments until the country returns to surplus is that it is accepting National’s argument that the budget needs to be balanced before new spending can be promised.
The difficulty is that from now on National can hold this principle against Labour every time they come out with a new policy. They will be asked, ‘where is the money coming from?’, ‘what are you cutting to get the money for this new policy?’.
It will be a lot harder for Shearer to come up with an answer that satisfies his own supporters and the general voter. (It is a realistic policy to have – he had no choice)
This will make the 2014 election very interesting – how will Shearer (if he is still the leader) differentiate himself from Key with economic policy? If the economy does start to pick up in 2013 & and early 2014, Key will be able to say, ‘ I told you so. We have seen NZ through the tough times, and now economic growth is returning.’
How will Shearer (or Cunliffe/Robertson) counter this?
Needed to happen???dont think there is any such need, Nationals wonky tax changes simply make the Cullen super fund unaffordable even if economic activity was to pick up to 3% growth,
Instead of manning up with a realistic progressive tax policy Shearer is playing lets not scare the horses hoping to ride high in the polls off of the back of Slippery and Nationals sleazy behaviour,
Dave thinks He can sleep walk the Labour Party into Government to implement an economic policy written by the Treasury…
If the economy does start to pick up in 2013 & and early 2014, Key will be able to say, ‘ I told you so. We have seen NZ through the tough times, and now economic growth is returning.’
How will Shearer (or Cunliffe/Robertson) counter this?
There will be no sustained per capita economic growth. Ever.
Labour has finally admitted today that it wont put contributions into the Super fund it has done a Flip Flop on its election promise. As John Key said it has only taken them 3 years to work out that its not good fiscal management to borrow money to invest it on the share market. The rest of New Zealand worked that out straight away .Good to see Labour admitting they were going to make yet another economic blunder if the did do it. Must be a sign of things to come under New Labour. The capital gains tax will be gone next
The shareprice of infrastructure companies Infratil, Contact Energy and Trustpowerare probably lower than they otherwise would be, given the appetite for low risk investments stemming from global financial unease.
The explanation given by a sharebroker is that the prices are down due to a reduction in demand from potential infrastructure investors who are waiting for Mighty River Power shares to be available to them at a discount.
This would mean investors are expecting to buy Mighty River Power shares on the cheap.
The Government, I suspect is going to sell them cheaper than they are worth to encourage investment away from residential property and to stoke confidence in the NZX.
The Government is appealing to investor’s greed, where they should be encouraging them to take a longer view and forego the chance of a quick buck.
I suspect they have swallowed the false doctrine that “greed is good”.
Encouraging long term investment in companies that are good employers and produce goods and services that are beneficial to people and not irreversibly harmfull to the environment should be the basis of goverment policy in this sphere.
“If someone were to give you an assignment and say, ‘Go write a guide book on how to drive from San Francisco to Monterey,’ and everybody could sit down and write their own two-page thing on that, there would be some similarities. But the idea is not protected,” Alsup said in court last Friday.
“Implementations are not derivative works. They are independent works, that simply start with the idea of the specification,” he argued. “When somebody looks at a specification, and says, this is the input, and these are the outputs… programmers each use their own creativity” to implement it. This line of argument may lead Alsup to conclude that the “sequence, structure, and organization” of APIs are not copyrightable.
Such a finding could possibly break open software monopolies such as Windows.
Labour absolutely smashing the Tories and the Lib Dems in the council elections. SNP also looking solid north of Hadrian’s Wall.
Jack Straw:
“It is a matter of record that I didn’t vote for Ed Miliband for leader but I think he is doing increasingly well. But I also think the scales are falling from people’s eyes about Mr Cameron, who has enjoyed quite high ratings above his own party for some time. But since the budget people have seen the real David Cameron and the real George Osborne and they are not terribly keen on what they see.”
Labour will be doing well if they manage to hold Glasgow. All the talk was that it would fall to SNP. So far 9-7 to Lab. It’s being seen as a key indicator after the debacle of the general election.
Overall, it looks like the Lib Dems are the biggest losers, Wales in particular going red again. Good job, too. They did have the option of going with Labour once Brown said he wouldn’t carry on, but they chose Cameron. So yah boo sucks to them.
+1 I think the true understanding between the 2 Oxbridge boys decided that set of negotiations.
Also
It looks as if SNP has conceded it cannot win outright in Glasgow. Labour will be relieved and hopefully it won’t harm the independence vote ( keep your feet on the ground Alex Salmond).
Boris will win the London mayoralty it seems. He’s done well to position himself as a Cameron dissenter.
Edit: from the Guardian – “1.12pm: Labour have now won so many seats that the number (1,404, since you ask) is having trouble fitting into its box in our graphic.” 🙂
But it makes no difference does it, what colour has how ever many…
New Labout did a good job in centrasl power didn’t they under Blair and Brown!
What point in time will people accept by giving their energy to politics, they are being taken for a ride, and endorsing by playing along, as if it make a differnece!
Newsflash, : It makes no difference, your government is not making the decisions, rather certain that this is painfully obvious by now…
We had a unexpected glitch last night with adding new posts. I’m trying to find out what the problem is. FYI: it uses all available memory when putting up the page before dying – classic bug.
In the meantime OpenMike for today will be delayed.
5 May
A pleasure to listen to Radionz interview Kim and documentary maker on our economics which has a go at the mess. On now till about 8.40 am Ross Ashcroft: renegade economics.
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This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
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.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
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The number one reason to keep John Banks on (from todays Herald)….
Mr Wall said he was a “good friend” of Mr Banks and had little to say. “He’s a patriot who has given 40 years of service to his country.”
Jeez thats funny! Any advances?
Service? Emptying troughs?
“He’s a patriot”
Hmm, I think you may get very little response to your challenge, there Bored.
Banks claimed exactly the same thing for Don Brash during the election campaign. At least once during every public speech in defence of his embattled and unpopular leader, Banks would proclaim that Don Brash is a patriot who loves his country.
Unfortunately to my ears it sounded like faint praise at the time, and indeed it was, as revealed in the teapot tapes.
Apart from loving their country, no one, not even their supporters, can point to any other positive quality that these individuals possess.
When people, start spouting about how patriotic they are, I am always reminded of Oscar Wilde’s statement about refuges and scoundrels.
I have a funny feeling that ACT might be stuffed full of such patriots.
or
Samuel Johnson, 1775
Bin Laden’s inner circle also was frustrated when, in 2010, attention in the US shifted to the weak economy without apparently crediting al Qaeda for the economic damage that terrorist attacks had caused.
Well they certainly got given all the credit for taking out the Seal Team 6, in a “revenge attack”. You simply would never “give” your “enemy” that sort of PR “victory”
Can’t recall Iran getting credit for taking out the drone, it was deny deny deny!
Digitized “letters” of OBL “fretting”.
You could not make this stuff up…woops hold on, they’re digital, of course you can!
I can’t believe the shit they come up with!! Here is my two cents on it: On Osama, Obama and diaries. If you still believe this BS you have not been paying attention
I have mixed feelings about this announcement:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/6857009/TVNZ7-scrapped-in-favour-of-repeats-channel
I am glad that the channel remains in TVNZs hands, and hope this means it would be relatively easy to re-purpose it as a PBS channel at a later date….?
I also like the +1 concept. I use TV3+1 sometimes – e.g. if I miss the news, or there is a clash of programmes on at the same time. Often the small number of dramas I DO watch are all on at the same time, with nothing worth watching at other times – and I can only record one channel showing on Freeview at a time, using my DVD recorder.
But my much preferred option is for a channel that is developed s a significant public service channel.
You like the +1 concept? Man, I think its such a hideous waste of broadcasting time
+1
Those resources would be better put into on demand viewing.
Yes, and spreading publicly funded programmes around channels that can attract a few more viewers.
OMG – PG your boss has finally said something worthwhile and for once I agree with him. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10803512
He’s not my boss and I only partly agree with him. TVNZ is terrible and I rarely watch it and they self celebratise far too much.
But I don’t think TV7 is the best use of resources. If they put some effort into having watchable programs on TV1 they wouldn’t have needed TV7 in the first place.
+1 is an ok idea for a bit of flexibility in watching, especially for times they have 60 minutes and Close Up (is that what that one’s called?) clash as they make sure they do – but repeating what mostly seems to be repetitive rubbish is a waste of time.
Its a nice safe protest – pitching as the ‘reasonable man’, that somehow by design sort of can’t in this case actually do anything about it – but its great to be able to pretend to have a different view from National! The question is still whether he will listen to his own poll and vote against the second reading of the privatising of strategic New Zealand assets. . .
+1
Yeah, the usual criticised if he says nothing, criticised if he says something. Do you think he shouldn’t comment on anything?
On asset sales I think he’s likely to listen to his pre-election and post-election commitments. If he didn’t do that he’d get lambasted from certain quarters, who lambast him when he does. At least he’s consistent, the lambast brigade aren’t.
I would prefer a better ondemand offer, and a bigger, better public service channel. But I do find +1 can be useful sometimes.
I watch ondemand a bit, but often find the programmes I want to pick up there aren’t offered – House, lately for instance, and the programmes that run quite late like Damages.
Also I find TV3s videos often freeze on me. I do find it a better experience to watch programmes on my TV than on ondemand. And there’s been 1 or 2 occasions when I’ve watched the start of a movie on TV3, switched to watch another programme at 9.30pm, then switched onto TV3 +1 to watch the end of the movie.
I do watch dramas and the best ones always seem to be put up against each other, sometimes on 3 different channels. That doesn’t happen a lot, but when it does +1 can be helpful. Maybe that’s not a problem to people with “my sky” or “my freeview”. But I just have a DVD recorder and a freeview box.
And it does help with watching some key bit of news on TV3 that was on before I got home, but everyone is talking about online.
The +1 concept works when you have content which has value.
Like Sky Movies running blockbusters at a +1 delay across their channels, because maybe you have something else to watch at 8:30 but still want to catch the movie (or, these days, you’re MySkying too many things at 8:30…)
I simply cannot name any piece of TVOne content I care enough about to be grateful it’ll be on an hour later if I need it. But at least their utterly pointless “do a news show at 4.30 to prove we’re totally cooler than Prime even though it makes zero sense” news show will be bumped to a more plausible timeslot …
Unless it’s alive broadcast, I find the whole concept of watching something at a specific designated time quite odd these days.
Another disconnect within Labour?
No Cullen Fund restart until surplus, says Shearer– but did he tell his MPs?
David Shearer today:
Trevor Mallard on Tuesday speaking in the House:
Maybe Mallard has since come on board with his leader’s plans.
There will not be a reply forthcoming.
I see a round of Labour party BBQs coming up and Labour’s “Hollow Man” will not be invited.
Of course, it was more of a grilling than he gets from the New Zealand media:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/6857056/PM-gets-grilling-but-emerges-unscathed
Telling answer here:
What do you always carry in your pocket?
Money, “Cause you never know when you’ll need to buy something … and my wife takes the money from my wallet”.
Let them eat cake, eh?
ha ha, that is telling. I sometimes purposely take money out of my pockets so nothing can be spent and it is also quite the liberating thing. Try it next time you head somewhere. I do often carry a pocket-knife though.
National’s announcement around student loans and allowances seems to have hit a nerve, if the Stuff comments are anything to go by:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/6853057/Student-loan-repayments-hiked-allowances-restricted
It’s an amusing read. So many people who loved National and their cutbacks – until it affects them.
You might think it would make a lefty happy to see people turning against the Government, but it only made me sad. So many educated people who don’t give a shit about others, only about themselves.
Particularly like the 27yo grad earning $110k suggesting that government instead needs to be cutting welfare and raising the retirement age. Middle-class welfare is apparently more productive.
It makes me sad to see solecisms such as “Pay check” sprinkled in amongst the comments. (That happens here as well, but after being being denigrated for saying anything, had vowed not to express how my head aches so much, seeing American spellings larded in amongst what would decades ago, have been NZ usage. Ah, heck with it, a young Island man once told my brother that his ambition was to “go to the Capital, man”. When my brother pointed out that they were both in Wellington, the youth said “I mean the capital, Washington”. That was 10 years back, and it seems everyone thinks that we live in the USA now.
Solecism – my new word for the day, thank you Vicky.
The New Zealand dollar fell below 80 US cents for the first time since January after weaker-than-expected US data and a surprise gain in local unemployment stoked bets the Reserve Bank may cut interest rates
Yup, just like I said 2 days ago!
Are SOEs covered by the OIA? Just been told by one that they’re a private company and therefore an OIA request won’t do any good.
Yes, they are except the ports for some reason.
Ta.
So now if you go to a rugby match there’s always the chance that some security camera operator is reading your texts. Apparently a police officer who saw it happen thought there “might be privacy issues” (considering the source, that’s a major flag).
Unlawful interception of a communication, anyone?
I dont think the cops are very interested in anything I have to say.
A variation on the “nothing to hide” argument in favour of big brother?
The point isn’t whether they’re interested – the point is whether you’ve got a right to sext your boyfriend or say the game of rugby is shit, without becoming the next target of a club bouncer who wants to get on tv.
Coupled with that is the fact that the harm of invasions of privacy isn’t the objective, in context meaning of the full text message, it’s the partial snapshot out of context that is used to colour in a pixelated image that exists solely in the mind of the privacy intruder – whether that being a camera operator taking home a copy to stroke off to, or an armed police officer operating under a misapprehension and shooting a Brazilian electrician in the head.
Anyone worried about their privacy has not been paying attention over the past 10-15 years primarily, but in reality its much longer than that…
Your privacy is not a consideration, in fact your privacy, and protection of your data is , not only for sale, but publically available freely, thanks to social networking!
We lost that battle long ago, and most had no idea it was even happening.
Too busy lusting after the “amazing gadgets”
There’s a lot of difference between anonymised aggregate data and random datapoints being permanently and possibly erroneously attributed to an individual.
It’s like pollution – yeah, it’s all around, but that doesn’t mean we can’t clean up the worst bits to a reasonable standard.
“Your privacy is not a consideration, in fact your privacy, and protection of your data is , not only for sale, but publically available freely, thanks to social networking!”
Sorry, but that is such a crock. RNZ’s tech expert said the other day the old chestnut about how unencrypted emails are just like a postcard. If that’s true that means that the staff at vodafone can read my emails in the same way that the sorters and posties at NZPost can read a postcard I send. Is that true?
Do you know who I am? No? Then I have a degree of privacy that I enjoy and want to keep. How is my identity “publically available freely”?
I agree with you that many people have made choices about technology without understanding the implications very well. But that’s completely different than saying that we have no privacy anymore. Privacy is not an absolute.
The thing is that the postal worker sorting a postcard does not automatically store the entire contents and file it with every other piece of data that travelled through the sorting room that day. Then another dude runs a search and finds something to sell to an insurance company, or put on the interwebz, or decides that “great cocktails” was a reference to an improvised munition so puts you on a watch list / raid list.
No, that’s right. So the analogy (and the fearmongering) is wrong (or at least, it’s the wrong fearmongering). Worse than people not knowing what is going on, is people who do know putting out misleading and confusing information that makes it impossible for lay people to make good choices.
So who is storing my emails and then using them to spam me?
Well, facebook for one – only they call it “targeted advertising”.
But I’m not sure who mentioned emails. But I have been in CCTV ops rooms where the operator has cycled the monitor to the camera which shows the hot woman in a low-cut top. And then there’s the entire pan/tilt/zoom issue. ISTR Princess Diana had an issue with that on more than one occasion.
Do you mean that FB has the ability to collect email content that has nothing to do with FB, from people with FB accounts?
Nah. Just that large-scaledata-matching is their business, often in ways that aren’t plainly obvious to their users.
What’s the line – “if you’re not paying for their product, then you are their product”?
For email intercepts, most intelligence organisations do that as a matter of course – e.g. Echelon.
weka – Facebook app on smartphones IS accessing your personal txts.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/6485221/Facebook-app-accessing-texts-report
I don’t see why they would stop there. Facebook of course denies they are using the functionality even though they designed it in. In other words, they are saying that they did not inhale.
Captian Cook
That exactly what the unsuspecting Jewish people said in Germany in he 1930s
So what about your leader announcing that a future Labour government would freeze payments to the Superfund?
How about that for copying National after all the protests that Labourites and its MPs hurled at the government?
And how about his private dinner with that SKY lobbyist?
Clare Curran must be spitting chips!
I’m glad. It was a stupid policy, especially when National were beating the drum about fiscal competence.
so what about it?
do you think other people are mindreaders or your own prose is so riveting that the menaings are clear and evident to anyone with an iq under 70.
yah yah yah.
Try replying to the post you are referring to and then we might know what you are talking about (or maybe not).
Wow! Peter Dunne has come out spitting tacks and I agree with every word he says. Why didn’t he say it sooner.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Peter-Dunne-slams-TV-One/tabid/1607/articleID/252973/Default.aspx
Oops Anne. Mr Key reckoned to a bunch of 10year olds yesterday, that his best channel was TV 1. Perhaps Pete and John could have a quiet cup of tea and agree.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/6858916/Super-moon-bad-news-for-Tuvalu
Huge moon this weekend. One such that the moonman said would create another time of increased risk of earthquake activity. Let’s see what happens this time. Put the breakables away and fill the car with fuel Cantabrians…
I predict no big earthquakes, here or anywhere else.
That’s bold Lanth. Even bolder then the moonman. Remember he got the March 20 ones.
If the moon’s extra gravity can pull giant oceans that much further than it usually can surely there is substantial increased force exterted on everything upwards and sideway? After all, the oceans can react to it. We will probably all weigh both less and more this weekend.
It’s not bold. It’s an understanding of science and statistical probabilities.
Size of moon. It is a strange thing that again an astronomer says that a moon at moonrise is the same size as the moon high in the sky. He said this morning that it is just a trick and he can’t explain it. He says that high tech measuring gear shows that the moon is the same at rise as high.
Another astronomer reckoned that it was an illusion because at rise, there are land based things like hills and buildings for the eye to measure against and they are missing high in the sky.
Place your bets. Moon @ rise same size as high in the sky? Yes. No.
I think the moon is the same size all the time 😉
This is a well-known and well-studied phenomenon, and it is true that astronomers, and more relevantly psychologists, cannot adequately explain why the human brain interprets a moon low on the horizon as being apparently larger than one up high in the sky. There are many many theories for it, but as I understand none of them has been conclusively shown to be the best description. Most likely it’s a whole bunch of different factors all playing different roles.
Bad Astronomy puts forward an idea that might explain it unfortunately he puts the idea forward as fact when there’s still doubt. Wikipedia mentions this stuff to.
I did not see anyone mention a Sextant. It is a hi-tech instrument that has been used by navigators for measuring celestial objects for 100’s of years. I believe James Cook was skilled at using it. It was still being used 30 years ago. Nor did anyone refer to the refraction of light. A beautiful example of this is the primary and secondary Rainbow. In the case of the moon, light from a rising moon is travelling at an angle from space into the atmosphere. From a “less dense” to a “more dense” medium. In doing so the light changes direction. Something Navigators, Astronomers, etc. can measure. This does have an effect on the observed diameter of the moon when it is close to the horizion.
Regarding the possiblity of an eathquake, I will not be sleeping under the table but I do have an Emergency Kit at the end of the bed. Baden Powell’s motto for the Scouts.”Be Prepared”.
I predict at least one mag6.0 or greater somewhere on the Pacific Rim within 5 days of perigee.
Why Cantabrians? They’re not the only ones with a moon this weekend. Why doesn’t everyone hop in their cars and get away to somewhere safe from the moon?
Where would you go? About the furthest from anywhere is the middle of the Southern Alps, why not try that?
Don’t want to be too close to the coast though, or somewhere with lots of hills (sorry Pete). They reckon Invercargill is one of the safer places to be in an earthquake (despite being near the sea) – it’s flat, not too many big buildings, not too close to major faults.
To the centre of the earth!
Isn’t that where all the weird bacteria live?
I was looking at the moon last night, high in the sky, and thinking shit that’s big this month, imagine what it will look like on the horizon when its full. It will be worth going out for.
I saw it about a week ago on the horizon and thought it looked unusually large then.
ipredict that mathew hootn will take the elevator lifts out of his shoes when john banks leaves parliament.
Key will front on Campbell Live tonight. He must be worried!
Under what conditions? That Campbell rolls over and treats Key “nice”?
I lost the piece of carpet from just inside my front door the other month,a close up of Slippery’s nut on Campbell live tonight tends to suggest that Slippery has glued it on to hide a bad spot of hair loss,
When asked if He knows anything about the missing carpet piece or anything else, Slippery sez He doesn’t know…
I am back to thinking that Labour should roll Shearer sooner rather than later, I look on today’s granny Herald and hello here’s a story of Dave having dinner with Rupert Murdoch’s paid mouth-piece in New Zealand, business as usual obviously,
Next I turn on Prime and catch the Labour leader on the news there,Shearer sez that under a Government He lead the Cullen Super fund was a dead duck until such time as it was affordable to put money into it,which under the current tax regime that Dave doesn’t appear to be about to change will be like the Minister of Guessing Bill English’s balancing of the books, the stuff of fairy tales,
Gets better tho,Dave is going to look for cross party support to raise the age of national super to 67, I doubt that one Dave, not that you and the Treasury want to raise the age of the pension to 67 instead of raising the taxes to pay for it,
I doubt with such policy Labour are going to be governing any time soon…
Shearer’s change of policy on Cullen fund contributions may end up being a millstone around his (and Labour’s) neck. (even though it needed to happen)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10803473
The difficulty with him accepting the need to with hold payments until the country returns to surplus is that it is accepting National’s argument that the budget needs to be balanced before new spending can be promised.
The difficulty is that from now on National can hold this principle against Labour every time they come out with a new policy. They will be asked, ‘where is the money coming from?’, ‘what are you cutting to get the money for this new policy?’.
It will be a lot harder for Shearer to come up with an answer that satisfies his own supporters and the general voter. (It is a realistic policy to have – he had no choice)
This will make the 2014 election very interesting – how will Shearer (if he is still the leader) differentiate himself from Key with economic policy? If the economy does start to pick up in 2013 & and early 2014, Key will be able to say, ‘ I told you so. We have seen NZ through the tough times, and now economic growth is returning.’
How will Shearer (or Cunliffe/Robertson) counter this?
Needed to happen???dont think there is any such need, Nationals wonky tax changes simply make the Cullen super fund unaffordable even if economic activity was to pick up to 3% growth,
Instead of manning up with a realistic progressive tax policy Shearer is playing lets not scare the horses hoping to ride high in the polls off of the back of Slippery and Nationals sleazy behaviour,
Dave thinks He can sleep walk the Labour Party into Government to implement an economic policy written by the Treasury…
There will be no sustained per capita economic growth. Ever.
Labour has finally admitted today that it wont put contributions into the Super fund it has done a Flip Flop on its election promise. As John Key said it has only taken them 3 years to work out that its not good fiscal management to borrow money to invest it on the share market. The rest of New Zealand worked that out straight away .Good to see Labour admitting they were going to make yet another economic blunder if the did do it. Must be a sign of things to come under New Labour. The capital gains tax will be gone next
Labour has finally accepted that it will always be NACT Lite and continue to push the unsustainable Ponzi scheme that is capitalism.
The shareprice of infrastructure companies Infratil, Contact Energy and Trustpowerare probably lower than they otherwise would be, given the appetite for low risk investments stemming from global financial unease.
The explanation given by a sharebroker is that the prices are down due to a reduction in demand from potential infrastructure investors who are waiting for Mighty River Power shares to be available to them at a discount.
This would mean investors are expecting to buy Mighty River Power shares on the cheap.
The Government, I suspect is going to sell them cheaper than they are worth to encourage investment away from residential property and to stoke confidence in the NZX.
The Government is appealing to investor’s greed, where they should be encouraging them to take a longer view and forego the chance of a quick buck.
I suspect they have swallowed the false doctrine that “greed is good”.
Encouraging long term investment in companies that are good employers and produce goods and services that are beneficial to people and not irreversibly harmfull to the environment should be the basis of goverment policy in this sphere.
Swallowed it? The government and their ilk are the type of people who invented it.
Now this is interesting:-
Such a finding could possibly break open software monopolies such as Windows.
Labour absolutely smashing the Tories and the Lib Dems in the council elections. SNP also looking solid north of Hadrian’s Wall.
Jack Straw:
“It is a matter of record that I didn’t vote for Ed Miliband for leader but I think he is doing increasingly well. But I also think the scales are falling from people’s eyes about Mr Cameron, who has enjoyed quite high ratings above his own party for some time. But since the budget people have seen the real David Cameron and the real George Osborne and they are not terribly keen on what they see.”
Labour will be doing well if they manage to hold Glasgow. All the talk was that it would fall to SNP. So far 9-7 to Lab. It’s being seen as a key indicator after the debacle of the general election.
Overall, it looks like the Lib Dems are the biggest losers, Wales in particular going red again. Good job, too. They did have the option of going with Labour once Brown said he wouldn’t carry on, but they chose Cameron. So yah boo sucks to them.
+1 I think the true understanding between the 2 Oxbridge boys decided that set of negotiations.
Also
It looks as if SNP has conceded it cannot win outright in Glasgow. Labour will be relieved and hopefully it won’t harm the independence vote ( keep your feet on the ground Alex Salmond).
Boris will win the London mayoralty it seems. He’s done well to position himself as a Cameron dissenter.
Edit: from the Guardian – “1.12pm: Labour have now won so many seats that the number (1,404, since you ask) is having trouble fitting into its box in our graphic.” 🙂
Forget the politics, it’s Boris on a bike and his orangutan fan club you’ve got to check out 😉
http://www.buzzfeed.com/greggdd69/15-orangutans-that-look-like-london-mayor-boris-jo-5v0w
But the apes do way better with ipads than Boris. Can’t find any images of Boris using one.
http://www.torontolife.com/daily/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Toronto-Zoo-orangutans-ipad.jpg
But it makes no difference does it, what colour has how ever many…
New Labout did a good job in centrasl power didn’t they under Blair and Brown!
What point in time will people accept by giving their energy to politics, they are being taken for a ride, and endorsing by playing along, as if it make a differnece!
Newsflash, : It makes no difference, your government is not making the decisions, rather certain that this is painfully obvious by now…
We had a unexpected glitch last night with adding new posts. I’m trying to find out what the problem is. FYI: it uses all available memory when putting up the page before dying – classic bug.
In the meantime OpenMike for today will be delayed.
5 May
A pleasure to listen to Radionz interview Kim and documentary maker on our economics which has a go at the mess. On now till about 8.40 am Ross Ashcroft: renegade economics.