A man’s soul cannot be fed by food alone. And at least in days gone by, there was an appreciation and value of fine craftsmanship and the beauty which it could create.
This could be said for many cultural artifacts, sculptures and artist contribution to the world generally. Thinking along those lines has almost a Stalinist connotation and I for one do not agree with this.
The example she cites (a policewoman wanting time to train for sports) is so far beneath what Williamson did to be laughable. But it pulls in Labour which is why she used it. Desperate. What’s she got in her closet? Only someone with something to hide would bring up such a crazily irrelevant ‘example’.
Robertson raised an issue with Collins and Collins needs to acknowledge that she asked the police.
I have had to learn the hard way that when a person goes to the minister of police because of cycles of police complaints, misleading and inaccurate statements coming from the police in reply to the minister contacting the police, that there is NOTHING that the minister of police can do to help.
When a cop has used his position to silence and bully a 19 year old because they were going to expose him that he perjured himself at an inquiry, I consider this to be a serious matter. The office told me to my face years later “that if you did it and I didn’t report it.”
Cunliffe clear, concise and in charge of the interview. Now perhaps people will start to see the real Cunliffe and not the one depicted by JK and the media.
Williams very good in my view. I agree with a comment at the bottom of the screen. Williamson is the scapegoat for the Collins affair. Not denying he behaved in an entitled and stupid way, but the saga smacks of an attempt to keep Collins out of the limelight. My God, they must be scared of her!
Watched The Nation before Q&A was on, do Farrar et el send Key actual audio files of his lines to memorise or do they employ the same media trainer? Their phonetics and speech patterns are amazingly similar, seems to go beyond sharing a similar regional NZ accent.
In Farrar’s case, it’s possibly semi-conscious mimicry of someone he absolutely worships. When I was about 3, I wanted a Lone Ranger mask and I’d say this is similar.
Collins has nurtured her off shore friends/contacts and she will not piss them off or risk losing face by being a mere MP, yes status is important when doing business.
Interesting to watch Brash’s body language on Q & A. When he refers to ‘rich,’ sorry ‘higher income’ people, he shouldn’t point so enthusiastically with both hands to himself.
Cunliffe on Q & A, again straight up, no Keysneers and no slippery circumlocution. Good PM material.Makes you want to vote.
Also the interviewer Michael Parkin of TV1 asked real but searching questions, not the innuendo ridden trolling one sees from TV3.
Williams has lifted his game today, pushing the positive Labour narrative. He even talked over the other panelists. I put it down to watching Bob Reid last week and seeing he needed to smarten his act up.
Meanwhile Bent Bankie’s performance was solely aimed at pet loving Judges. I loved the ‘rats have rights.’ I heard there is a Auckland Judge who has pet rats, Bankie pins his hopes the judge is an animal lover.
Btw I will give him credit for previously being the only MP in parliament sticking up for animal rights. With high numbers nationwide protesting in the support of animal rights, and being election year it’s little wonder Labour has a petition opposing testing on animals. And slimy Key using animal testing as the hold up in banning drug testing.
Btw I will give him credit for previously being the only MP in parliament sticking up for animal rights.
That’s not right. Greens strongly opposed animal testing and put forward an amendment to the Bill on it, unlike Banks who only voted against the Bill.
Greens voted for the Bill because after pushing as hard as they could for animal rights and other improvements they decided the overall good was the most pragmatic option. That’s a practical reality of our democratic process.
Oh right the ‘pragmatic view’ by the Greens. What are you saying this is the ‘new Green/Blue’ way of thinking? It’s a far cry from the Greens of old who stayed out of Government with Labour on the caged chickens issue.
Now we have every political party screaming the house down about animal rights. Watch for how many of them do a complete belly flop and voice strongly for animal rights ( including the rights of rats) and hello support any amendments to that effect. One can not help be cynical and say ‘it’s a populist issue and there are plenty (more so than they realised after recent protests) of votes in it.
Once again I say the record says Bent Bankie was the only MP to vote against the Bill on the grounds of animal rights. Your not disputing the facts are you Pete.
In 4.1.2 you said “Btw I will give him credit for previously being the only MP in parliament sticking up for animal rights.”
In 4.1.2.1.2 you said “Once again I say the record says Bent Bankie was the only MP to vote against the Bill on the grounds of animal rights. Your not disputing the facts are you Pete.”
Two different claims.
There was a lot of “sticking up for animal rights” in the Bill process. In the third reading Clare Curran:
I also want to commend the Greens for the amendment that they put forward on animal testing. We did support that amendment. We do not want these drugs to be tested on animals. National refused to give up animal testing, but we in Labour are proud of the fact that our MPs were able to get the Government to agree to changes to the bill to ensure that there were alternatives to animal testing—that alternatives exist that cannot be used in the evaluation of these substances. Although Mojo Mathers’ amendment did not pass, at least there will be some safeguards now around that animal testing.
Kevin Hague:
This could have been a great bill. [Interruption ] Not quite, Barbara. It could have been a great bill, but there are three major problems that hold it back from that. I am disappointed that the Government either has not understood its own bill or has needed to appease different factions within its own camp, which has resulted in these problems. One is the issue of animal testing, about which I have spoken and colleagues across the House have spoken, and I acknowledge John Banks’ particularly passionate support on that particular issue. The Green Party’s Supplementary Order Paper 260 on the bill would have ensured the same level of protection for humans but would have also resulted in protecting animals from harm, and it is a source of considerable regret that the House did not take the opportunity to ensure that that occurred.
Kris Faafoi:
I have not finished yet. I used to be a member on the Health Committee in the previous Parliament and I found that Mr Hutchison always acted with dignity. I thank the Health Committee for its work and for making sure that most of the submissions were listened to. I know there is some scepticism as to why some submissions around animal testing were not heard, and that is something that this side of the House is very disappointed about.
Ayes 119 New Zealand National 59; New Zealand Labour 33; Green Party 14; New Zealand First 7; Māori Party 3; Mana 1; Independents: Dunne, Horan.
Noes 1 ACT New Zealand 1.
…but he is not the only one who stuck up for animal rights.
There was much more sticking up for animal rights in the second reading, including the Associate Health Minister at the time Todd McClay:
The Ministry of Health established an interim expert committee, including experts on toxicology, pharmacology, and animal welfare. Mr Dunne asked that committee for advice on non-animal tests, clearly articulating his strong preference for a regime that excluded animal testing. The committee’s advice was that some animal testing would be necessary at first to ensure that the risk of products was accurately assessed. The committee went on to advise that there were some alternative tests that could be used immediately, and that it would continue to work to identify other alternatives.
After receiving this advice I asked the Health Committee to consider an amendment to the bill that would put controls on animal testing, and put a duty on the expert advisory committee to actively seek alternatives. I am very pleased to say that the committee members agreed unanimously to these amendments, which are in clause 11A of the revised bill.
The expert advisory committee will actively seek alternatives to animal tests, and, again, I want to make it clear that there will be no animal testing where there is a suitable alternative. The overriding principle remains the need to make sure that the products sold in New Zealand pose no more than a low risk of harm. The importance of that principle is why this bill is before the House.
Yes Pete but but the old cliche of “talk and do” applys.
I’ll give you an example;
Labour’s draft Policies came to our LEC, when we got to the raising super age from 65 to 67 there were some of us who spoke against the draft policy. When it came time to vote, of the 4 who spoke against the rise only 2 of us registered for the record as voting against it. My point is if you feel that strongly against something you do more than talk, you actually follow through with your convictions.
In summary the cliche is, “Talk is cheap actions speak louder than words.”
These bonds are, like all bonds, supposed to be loans that will eventually mature and be repaid, but as the economist Michael Hudson, who first began observing the phenomenon in the early ’70s, noted, they never really do:
To the extent that these Treasury IOUs are being built into the world’s monetary base they will not have to be repaid, but are to be rolled over indefinitely. This feature is the essence of America’s free financial ride, a tax imposed at the entire globe’s expense.
What’s more, over time, the combined effect of low interest payments and the inflation is that these bonds actually depreciate in value – adding to the tax effect, or as I preferred to put it in the first chapter, tribute.
Debt: the first 5000 years by David Graeber
And that’s how the US became the biggest economy in the world – tribute from the rest of us via being the ‘reserve currency’.
IMO China doing bilateral currency deals which exclude the USD, and Russia etc. starting to cut deals to trade oil without using the USD – these are all early signs of a shift away from the dollar.
NZ being a small country on the Asia Pacific rim has to walk a fine line between major powers, for the next few decades.
In 2011 NZ formalised a currency swap facility with China, equivalent to RMB 25B / NZ$5B, thereby allowing trade between the two countries to be settled without the use of say, USD.
Facilities like this give the global economy capacity to deal with any shocks the USD might face BUT transitions to and from reserve currencies are also always times of economic power redistribution. We can’t tell which way things will go exactly, but IMO we also don’t want to be putting all of our eggs in one basket. US imperial reach is waning, but we also have a good understanding and relationship with them developed over many years. It’s obviously not a relationship of equals, however and it would be naive to think that.
NB I understand that in terms of ‘purchasing power parity’ China’s GDP has now exceeded the US. This has occurred several years ahead of when most economists were expecting (and is partly a result of much less than expected growth from the US over the last several years).
Countries have always wanted to have a valuable, widely accepted currency stashed away in their national treasuries ready for instant use. There is a lot of economic functionality in having a currency which can act as that kind of on-hand “reserve.”
Gold bullion was the de facto reserve currency of choice for a very long time; in the early 20th Century pounds sterling was the choice of currency for settling international trade and hence for holding in reserve, and currently it’s the USD.
I think it’s always desirable for there to be ‘a’ reserve currency. In fact in a globalised world it seems pretty much inevitable that there will always be one currency that is desired above the rest.
Probably the only situation where there could be multiple reserve currencies would be if multiple countries had effective monopolies over essential resources. Oil is the current kingpin, but gas and coal are gaining more prominence as well; but the US has a sizeable resource base in all 3.
China has got a big advantage in the rare earth market, but it’s still not a monopoly (and trade treaties exist that require them to supply it).
Here is the IMF list of reserve currencies. The Australian dollar was added on to the list a year or two back, but as you can see, there isn’t very much holdings of it reported.
In fact in a globalised world it seems pretty much inevitable that there will always be one currency that is desired above the rest.
Actually, the exact opposite. A currency is only backed by its economy but a reserve currency becomes more in demand thus pushing its value beyond what it should be on the forex.The nation of that currency thus creates lots of it and uses it to buy huge amount of resources cheaply from elsewhere but eventually the amount of its currency far exceeds what its economy can support resulting in a crash of its value. This is the state that the US$ is in now.
Probably the only situation where there could be multiple reserve currencies would be if multiple countries had effective monopolies over essential resources.
You don’t have a reserve currency at all – not even multiple ones. What should happen is that a currencies value should be based upon that countries trade balance. More imports drops the value of the currency while more exports increases it. Eventually, all currencies will be close in value to each other and international trade will be almost non-existent.
That is because while our Cabinet ministers might seem unbelievably naive when it comes to making judgments over people like the two Lius, or Dotcom – there is no suggestion that investors are asked to stump up to party coffers in return for residencies or citizenship approvals at political levels.
Thanks, Fran. I’ll just forget all about it now and go back to my knitting.
Some investors even get a bit crazy and overbid each other at auctions so they can win prizes to play golf with the Prime Minister, whose favourite charity happens to be his own party.
Frank O’Sullivan
She bent over backwards to spread the muck over all parties in this article but I still laughed at that line.
..it is quite enlightening to go and watch some nz film/doco-footage from the 1950’s..
..and marvel at how fit and healthy everyone looks..
..at this time there was coca cola..(brought by the gi’s..)
..there was the fish and chip shop..and the ubiquitous chinese restuarant..
..(the release of the new drink ‘fanta’..was quite a big deal of/from the day..)
..and then the first kfc opened in takapuna..(to much acclaim/long queues..)
..and it was all on..
..which brings us to here/now/today..
..processed-food etc crammed with sugar..
..low-fat crammed with sugar..
..junk-food chains every ten metres..peddling ill-health..
..and children offered a dazzling array of drinks crammed with sugar..
..and now caffeine as well..(!)..(w.t.f. is with that..?..how the hell did that get past the gate-keepers..?..was it their day off..?..)
..and all of this delivering us a diabetes-epidemic…
..so..what to do..?
..just taxing sugar clearly isn’t enough..
..maximum amounts of sugar in products must be set..(with warnings on packaged-food having warnings similar to cigarette-packets..?..pictures of diabetes-outcomes..?..amputated limbs/stumps..?..)
..there are healthy-food options..there are better ways of doing this..
..and one thing you can guarantee..
..is that the free-market will not deliver this to us..
..they will just continue to peddle this poison..for as long as there is a dollar in it..
..they need to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck..
..and made to do it right..
..the freemarket that allows this wholesale poisoning of the populace..
Peter Dunne is such a petty and pathetic man. He has complained to the election commissioner about the logo of the Internet Party claiming that it clashes with UF’s purple colour.
The logos are so different and the UF just a tiny bit of purple while the entire background of the Internet Party logo has a lot of it. Dunne claims the logos will ‘confuse’ voters! Duh! In any case UF doesn’t get too much more than 0% party support anyway, and if any voter gets confused, it will be to UF’s advantage!
See the two logos yourself and decide if you too would get confused like Dunne, the drama queen.
andrea vance in SST this a.m. Gift giving is okay in China and also China is a corrupt society but there is no connection in either collins or williamsons case. Yeah right!
Rodel
I think Wayne Brittenden always worthwhile. Very good interesting points I haven’t heard before.
So nice to hear something of value, cf to Radionz constant reporting in the News the Piss Stories from South Africa and any tragedy overseas they can get cheap access too, particularly minute reports from the street, the sherriff, the fire department, tghe civil emergency spokesperson, on the latest tornado/shooting outrage.
Enough to make you weep – wasting our precious minutes set aside for information news used for sensation, shock, horror stuff of this kind.
Thanks Paul-Amazing. absolutely incredible and should be heard by every kiwi…but it won’t and the Joyces /Keys/ English’s of this world will continue to collect their pieces of silver.
I’m worried that Labour is being led into a trap by the media and the RW spinners to announce a retirement age rise as their cornerstone election policy. I’ve been following the MSM this week and there’s a continuous spin line that we have to raise retirement age because we won’t be able to afford it later and blah blah blah, the usual spin. They know Nats aren’t going to change things and that’ll be to their advantage in this year’s election. If the Labour goes ahead, you can expect a big publicity followed by a barrage from all sides, especially by John Key who has put his premiership on the line rather than raise the retirement age.
Because there has been a good amount of scandals in the National camp, the media must deflect attention from it and redirect it to the debate that is likely to polarise people. This is where Labour will be vulnerable, and boom – the election goes to the Nats, despite all the shit that has come out.
IMHO it will be a huge mistake for Labour to announce a change to the retirement policy in this election.
Australia is raising the age to 70. The UK has raised the age to 68.
It is inevitable that the age will be raised. The only question is how much notice those who are going to be affected will have. That is why we need to do it sooner, rather than later, to provide the most notice.
Australia is raising the age to 70. The UK has raised the age to 68. It is inevitable that the age will be raised.
More TINA, Lanth? No alternative other than austerity for the masses? Tell me, what are the 1% being asked to give up in terms of their lifestyle and wealth?
Why do you advocate for pushing up the size of the labour pool even further when there aren’t enough full time jobs available in most western developed countries, let alone decent paying ones?
You do realise that adding to an already surplus labour pool will simply depress wages for ordinary people further, right? Why would you agree to such a thing?
I find it incredible that such idealogical nonsense of raising the age of eligibility for super can go untested to the fact that the jobs will not be there for the majority of people let alone people above the age of 60 year olds. Computerisation & robotic’s is set to wipe out probably 50% plus of many jobs, and not just manual labour at that. When are citizens really going to stand up and force Governments to trim back the power of the rich elite and multi corporations. Until this happens the future looks terrible for the masses.
The problem is that trans-national capitalism and the power elite are never self-limiting. They never ever say “OK, that’s enough money, profit, consumption and resource extraction for now, let’s just hold things here for a while.”
Therefore the only concept they have is that of “more.” They will keep pushing harder and harder until everything eventually breaks; communities, society, the ecosystem, all of it.
When Saddam Hussein made the bold move of single handedly switching from the dollar to the euro in 2000, followed by Iran in 2001, this was quickly followed by American bombing and military occupation. How much Hussein’s decision to buck the dollar really weighed into the U.S. decision to depose him is impossible to know, but no country in a position to make a similar switch can ignore the possibility. The result, among policymakers particularly in the glbal South, is widespread terror.
No I meant more the wholesale beheading of the nobles. So when you talk about the “french option” I’m guessing you mean to skip the guillotine bit.
Secondly, and kind of off point, have you, like, only read two books? You seem to quote exclusively from Debt: The First 5000 years and The Entrepreneurial State. While those works may be of importance and value (having read neither myself I’ll assume they are quality works – they are on my ever growing list though) you should probably expand your reading.
I was always fond of Goodnight Moon.
It should also be pointed out that the US has been gunning for Iran since the 1970’s and Iraq for nearly as long so the dollar vs. Euro debate is probably moot.
No I meant more the wholesale beheading of the nobles. So when you talk about the “french option” I’m guessing you mean to skip the guillotine bit.
If it can be avoided.
Secondly, and kind of off point, have you, like, only read two books?
No, I’ve read quite widely – even got a couple of standard textbooks around here on micro and macro economics. They tend to be rather dry though. I tend to quote those two because they happen to put the fallacy of our present economic system into stark relief.
It should also be pointed out that the US has been gunning for Iran since the 1970′s and Iraq for nearly as long
Generally speaking, that’s called a Reign of Terror.
But you wouldn’t be averse to the idea? Because you seem kind of flippant to the practice.
“Generally speaking, that’s called a Reign of Terror.”
Yeah but it wasn’t ‘generally speaking’, it was specifically speaking in light of the historical narrative you raised. At any rate, it far predated the dollar vs. Euro argument.
DTB
What an interesting page you directed attention to. The French Revolution. Seeing the vague details I knew set in a timetable with summarised information I learned a lot. I liked this piece about a financial controller, whose dismissal by the King aroused hostility amongst the people who felt he represented them and their concerns.
In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after he failed to enact reforms. The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Comptroller-General of Finance. He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant.[9]
Necker realized that the country’s extremely regressive tax system subjected the lower classes to a heavy burden,[9] while numerous exemptions existed for the nobility and clergy.[10] He argued that the country could not be taxed higher; that tax exemptions for the nobility and clergy must be reduced; and proposed that borrowing more money would solve the country’s fiscal shortages.
Until this happens the future looks terrible for the masses.
Wait until the energy needed to run a global economy becomes progressively less affordable and climate change effects start to bite harder.
Presently our civilisation is caught in the ‘Red Queen Syndrome’, having to run harder and harder just to stay in the same place, and the political + business elite are making things worse not better.
Don’t worry about that now. I said that back in 1978 right after I looked at the stats departments demographics. I’d had a look at the half-arsed superannuation policy that Muldoon sicced on us.
So I’ve now had about 35 years of paying for a superannuation policy that I haven’t expected would have been worth much in my old age, if still present. I’m still of that view.
The immigration boost helped quite a lot. The boost of the age to 65 helped. The money put into Cullen fund helped the most before English canned it favour of economically useless tax cuts.
At present kiwisaver and other savings looks like the best hope for me even it it does mean that I’m still paying for my parents superannuation, having just finished paying from grandparents and great-grandparents before that – all the time whilst expecting to have to pay for my own.
So forgive me if I think you are running a bit late on this issue.
Thanks lprent
I am not sure why I was put in moderation. And it means that my comment is so far out of the order that it is almost irrelevant. Would it not have been put in moderation if I had properly logged in? It takes longer but if it would help the comment fit into place I will just have to do it.
I have observed that Key has a fair bit of Muldoonism about him. The 1975 election was lost by Labour due to Muldoon cancelling compulsory super. This was followed by the retirement age being lowered to 60.
Since 1987 Labour have been bruised by not having compulsory super, had Muldoon not cancelled compulsory super Rogernomics may have been a lot milder.
Were Labour to build 10,000 state single retirement dwellings, raising the super age to 67 would not have the same financial impact. The accommodation supplement can also be increased or a new supplement introduced so that anyone between age 65 – 67 is no worse off if they meet the threshold.
Raising the super age really only affects those with poor health, the unemployed or older people with dependants.
I noticed that it was reported on radionz this morning that Labour and ACT both backed the move to 67 for super. Deja vu. Back to the future etc.
Why does Labour have to set itself up as little goody two shoes doing the ‘right economic thing’, the commonsense Party, when new economic thinking and methods are needed. Why not raise the productivity of retired people somehow. We don’t want to be bludgeoned by the departmentus horribilus WINZ, or WANZI as a suitable acronym the W standing for Wonder or Wan..er.
We oldies don’t want to be whipped into stocking shelves at the supermarket, being dangled on a chain store’s roster key ring, sort of like a living charm bracelet bedecked with skulls. Those employers certainly don’t care about their employees as people.
Find some other way for olders to contribute. If you got down to it with suitable people to discuss, and foster thought and go through the country making the points to the older group and inviting them to comment and vote on the points raised, and also canvassing their own ideas brought to the meetings. It would initially be a conference and papers from people, academics probably who have done numerous papers on co-operative businesses and social aspects of small business, and some of us who actually think about things would contribute.
But Labour is hoist on its own petard, they’re the Un-NACTs who stand for the people who aren’t into National. Not`for’ some people, just against NACTs. And if they do think of the people who are struggling they come out with David Shearer’s roof comment, a fine piece of snotty putdown from a man who has made his name from administering professional charity to the obviously poor and needy. Nothing learned to transfer to those in NZ who haven’t or can’t jump high enough to reach the upper step from low skilled wages and uncertain, irregular employment periods of days, weeks, hours, who knows further than next week.
Asking myself why Labour keeps on with such poor policies that have damaged the Party and the country. I thought Groupthink.
Wikipedia says bout this – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or disfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the “ingroup” produces an “illusion of invulnerability” (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the “ingroup” significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making, and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the “outgroup”). Furthermore groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the “outgroup”.
Bill English admits National has no mates and is unlikely to win the next election:
Winning a third term would likely require it more than matching its 2011 election result where it registered 47.31 per cent support, which National claims is the highest of any political party since the 1951 waterfront strike.
I went to my political shop today, and heard the
Farrar principle, that I can eat more sugar because
the US uses more sugar (or carbon), and I shouldn’t
worry about becoming diabetic (or climate change) since it
will create jobs and save money if I get ill.
Yes, you heard it, Farrar wants to keep his job and the money paid
him, and if that means more diabetes and climate change, or
whatever he’s paid to spin at the moment (paid obviously for an
issue some wealthy interested party has at the moment).
Farrar just doesn’t get it, change happens, and those issues that
are consequent, have no status quo wealthy benefactor.
So Farrar will always inevitably be wrong and on the wrong side of history.
Sorry, its not clear. Farrar said on The Nation that we are doing enough on climate change, since China pollutes more. This is like saying Americans eat more sugar, so its okay we don’t consider sugar taxes. The idea that we aren’t all harmed by climate change, or obesity, i.e. in taxes to adapt, is obvious, or should be.
The simple practice of the Nation, to have in some right wing dumbnut, who is exposed for complete drolling of neo-liberalism, only next week a new twerp spouting do-nothing, means that all we get is the tired old how-to-refute lazy thinking politics. Instead what we need is a right of center party that can defend its policies and has some notion of integrity.
There are of course those who think that Williamson has done nothing wrong. I find that deplorable. The general argument is that there was nothing questionable suggested in the phone calls so he shouldn’t have been forced to resign. But this ignores that there was no actual need for the phone call in the first place. The accused surely had a Lawyer to represent his interests, so there could be no other reason for Williamson to make the call, unless he thought his position of power had some influence in the building of the case against the accused.
Williamson is unfit to stand for re-election in either the Pakuranga electorate or elsewhere.
Williamson really should be heading for prison. He, apparently, broke the law and, as it stands, he’s getting away with doing so.
Tories everywhere are selling their legislative powers for donations from Cigarettes multinationals.
Priti Patel, a Conservative MP for Essex at Westminster, who is leading a rebellion against plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes is a former tobacco lobbyist and chairs a parliamentary group whose secretariat is provided by two tobacco industry-funded organisations.
Priti Patel, a member of David Cameron’s influential policy advisory board and chair of the all-party parliamentary small shops group, argues that plain packs will be the “final nail in the coffin” of hundreds of newsagents.
It’s more a case of a failing business model, replaced by the supply of booze and mobile sims and topups. Cameron is claiming something called the conservative recovery and the errant MP is cutting across that message.
. A small asteroid about the size of a city bus zipped by Earth at a range closer than the moon early Saturday (May 3), but posed no threat to our planet.
The newly discovered asteroid 2014 HL129 came within 186,000 miles (299,338 kilometers) of Earth when it made its closest approach on Saturday morning, which is close enough to pass between the planet and the orbit of the moon. The average distance between the Earth and moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km).
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The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
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While Paula Bennett has thrown a sop to women’s refuges, it seems a government report on domestic violence has been buried.
Having seen some of the committee in action it may well be that it concludes “no problem more along here,support the staus quo”
that cant be… this government is serious about domestic violence
Yep, a cabinet minister even rings the police about it.
it is sunday..and these will make you go ‘whoar!’..
“..The Most Stunning Stained Glass Windows In The World..”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/03/stained-glass-windows-photos_n_5256052.html
Yep phillip. Stunning. Beautiful. But the cynic in me wonders how much it all cost while the peasants starved.
i get that same feeling when staring at inequality-stats..
A man’s soul cannot be fed by food alone. And at least in days gone by, there was an appreciation and value of fine craftsmanship and the beauty which it could create.
now for ‘ fine craftsmanship and the beauty which it could create.’..
..we have to make do with dunnes’ hair..
This could be said for many cultural artifacts, sculptures and artist contribution to the world generally. Thinking along those lines has almost a Stalinist connotation and I for one do not agree with this.
Judith Collins is (a)trying to muddy the field and (b) setting up a defence in advance when digging shows her doing favours for her mates.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11249106
The example she cites (a policewoman wanting time to train for sports) is so far beneath what Williamson did to be laughable. But it pulls in Labour which is why she used it. Desperate. What’s she got in her closet? Only someone with something to hide would bring up such a crazily irrelevant ‘example’.
Judith is becoming the comic stretching stretching stretching ……. twang!
Weird comment. As if checking out staff entitlements is the same as interfering in a police investigation.
a police investigation into domestic assault no less
we are not talking traffic infringements here
Yes. very strange. Perhaps the strain is getting to her. Does her comment benefit her by being published or will she be on the phone to the reporter…
The pressure is causing her bullying and narcissistic tendencies to show. She knows she’s lying and that it’s going to come out. Great fun to watch.
Robertson raised an issue with Collins and Collins needs to acknowledge that she asked the police.
I have had to learn the hard way that when a person goes to the minister of police because of cycles of police complaints, misleading and inaccurate statements coming from the police in reply to the minister contacting the police, that there is NOTHING that the minister of police can do to help.
When a cop has used his position to silence and bully a 19 year old because they were going to expose him that he perjured himself at an inquiry, I consider this to be a serious matter. The office told me to my face years later “that if you did it and I didn’t report it.”
Cunliffe on Q&A here we go the KiwiSaver policy and other stuff…
Cunliffe is doing well.
LOL Brash, Miller, and Williams panel, here we go… Hopefully Williams fires.
Cunliffe clear, concise and in charge of the interview. Now perhaps people will start to see the real Cunliffe and not the one depicted by JK and the media.
Williams very good in my view. I agree with a comment at the bottom of the screen. Williamson is the scapegoat for the Collins affair. Not denying he behaved in an entitled and stupid way, but the saga smacks of an attempt to keep Collins out of the limelight. My God, they must be scared of her!
Yeah I think Williams was quite good too.
Watched The Nation before Q&A was on, do Farrar et el send Key actual audio files of his lines to memorise or do they employ the same media trainer? Their phonetics and speech patterns are amazingly similar, seems to go beyond sharing a similar regional NZ accent.
In Farrar’s case, it’s possibly semi-conscious mimicry of someone he absolutely worships. When I was about 3, I wanted a Lone Ranger mask and I’d say this is similar.
“My God, they must be scared of her!”
Collins has nurtured her off shore friends/contacts and she will not piss them off or risk losing face by being a mere MP, yes status is important when doing business.
Collins brings in more donations?
Interesting to watch Brash’s body language on Q & A. When he refers to ‘rich,’ sorry ‘higher income’ people, he shouldn’t point so enthusiastically with both hands to himself.
Cunliffe on Q & A, again straight up, no Keysneers and no slippery circumlocution. Good PM material.Makes you want to vote.
Also the interviewer Michael Parkin of TV1 asked real but searching questions, not the innuendo ridden trolling one sees from TV3.
Williams has lifted his game today, pushing the positive Labour narrative. He even talked over the other panelists. I put it down to watching Bob Reid last week and seeing he needed to smarten his act up.
Meanwhile Bent Bankie’s performance was solely aimed at pet loving Judges. I loved the ‘rats have rights.’ I heard there is a Auckland Judge who has pet rats, Bankie pins his hopes the judge is an animal lover.
Btw I will give him credit for previously being the only MP in parliament sticking up for animal rights. With high numbers nationwide protesting in the support of animal rights, and being election year it’s little wonder Labour has a petition opposing testing on animals. And slimy Key using animal testing as the hold up in banning drug testing.
That’s not right. Greens strongly opposed animal testing and put forward an amendment to the Bill on it, unlike Banks who only voted against the Bill.
Greens voted for the Bill because after pushing as hard as they could for animal rights and other improvements they decided the overall good was the most pragmatic option. That’s a practical reality of our democratic process.
pigs’-arse..that was a sellout of basic principles..by the greens..
..they could/should have voted against the bill..
..for just those reasons..
I don’t agree. It was the possibility of some animal testing versus an attempt to alleviate (the certainty of) drug harm to people.
The Act does try to address animal testing (but doesn’t ban it) – 11A Duty of advisory committee relating to use of animals when evaluating psychoactive products
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2013/0100/latest/DLM5331116.html
The greater good was potentially a lot of people. MPs and parties are elected to represent people.
do you have a photocopier in yr office..?
..and..will you be doing any more videos..?
Bollocks Pete.
That whole line of argument relies on the assumption that there is no alternative to testing the drugs.
There is.
Oh right the ‘pragmatic view’ by the Greens. What are you saying this is the ‘new Green/Blue’ way of thinking? It’s a far cry from the Greens of old who stayed out of Government with Labour on the caged chickens issue.
Now we have every political party screaming the house down about animal rights. Watch for how many of them do a complete belly flop and voice strongly for animal rights ( including the rights of rats) and hello support any amendments to that effect. One can not help be cynical and say ‘it’s a populist issue and there are plenty (more so than they realised after recent protests) of votes in it.
Once again I say the record says Bent Bankie was the only MP to vote against the Bill on the grounds of animal rights. Your not disputing the facts are you Pete.
In 4.1.2 you said “Btw I will give him credit for previously being the only MP in parliament sticking up for animal rights.”
In 4.1.2.1.2 you said “Once again I say the record says Bent Bankie was the only MP to vote against the Bill on the grounds of animal rights. Your not disputing the facts are you Pete.”
Two different claims.
There was a lot of “sticking up for animal rights” in the Bill process. In the third reading Clare Curran:
Kevin Hague:
Kris Faafoi:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/debates/50HansD_20130711_00000044/psychoactive-substances-bill-%E2%80%94-third-reading
Banks is the only MP who voted against it…
…but he is not the only one who stuck up for animal rights.
There was much more sticking up for animal rights in the second reading, including the Associate Health Minister at the time Todd McClay:
http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/debates/debates/50HansD_20130627_00000020/psychoactive-substances-bill-%E2%80%94-second-reading
Yes Pete but but the old cliche of “talk and do” applys.
I’ll give you an example;
Labour’s draft Policies came to our LEC, when we got to the raising super age from 65 to 67 there were some of us who spoke against the draft policy. When it came time to vote, of the 4 who spoke against the rise only 2 of us registered for the record as voting against it. My point is if you feel that strongly against something you do more than talk, you actually follow through with your convictions.
In summary the cliche is, “Talk is cheap actions speak louder than words.”
I may have the solution to who should test synthetic highs!
The people who import and sell the product. “I endorse and stand by my product …”
They’re not likely to risk getting addicted to drugs, they’re too addicted to making money.
Of course JB will stick up for rats..its called kinship.
Also on fire at Living Wage campaign event. He rocked it.
Great crowd.
Winston Peters also spoke – crowd was just polite.
Cunliffe did brilliantly
Brash fudging the Oravida affair “I have been out of the country”….yeah right.
Debt: the first 5000 years by David Graeber
And that’s how the US became the biggest economy in the world – tribute from the rest of us via being the ‘reserve currency’.
ZeroHedge – Reserve currencies do not last forever
Since the 1400’s Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, France, UK and US have taken turns at having the benefit of being the world’s major reserve currency.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-08/40-central-banks-are-betting-will-be-next-reserve-currency
IMO China doing bilateral currency deals which exclude the USD, and Russia etc. starting to cut deals to trade oil without using the USD – these are all early signs of a shift away from the dollar.
Will this bring more stability or less stability to the markets we trade with?
NZ being a small country on the Asia Pacific rim has to walk a fine line between major powers, for the next few decades.
In 2011 NZ formalised a currency swap facility with China, equivalent to RMB 25B / NZ$5B, thereby allowing trade between the two countries to be settled without the use of say, USD.
Facilities like this give the global economy capacity to deal with any shocks the USD might face BUT transitions to and from reserve currencies are also always times of economic power redistribution. We can’t tell which way things will go exactly, but IMO we also don’t want to be putting all of our eggs in one basket. US imperial reach is waning, but we also have a good understanding and relationship with them developed over many years. It’s obviously not a relationship of equals, however and it would be naive to think that.
NB I understand that in terms of ‘purchasing power parity’ China’s GDP has now exceeded the US. This has occurred several years ahead of when most economists were expecting (and is partly a result of much less than expected growth from the US over the last several years).
There shouldn’t be a reserve currency.
What that’s actually describing is the Central Banks trying hard to hold on to what they know while it collapses around them.
Countries have always wanted to have a valuable, widely accepted currency stashed away in their national treasuries ready for instant use. There is a lot of economic functionality in having a currency which can act as that kind of on-hand “reserve.”
Gold bullion was the de facto reserve currency of choice for a very long time; in the early 20th Century pounds sterling was the choice of currency for settling international trade and hence for holding in reserve, and currently it’s the USD.
I think it’s always desirable for there to be ‘a’ reserve currency. In fact in a globalised world it seems pretty much inevitable that there will always be one currency that is desired above the rest.
Probably the only situation where there could be multiple reserve currencies would be if multiple countries had effective monopolies over essential resources. Oil is the current kingpin, but gas and coal are gaining more prominence as well; but the US has a sizeable resource base in all 3.
China has got a big advantage in the rare earth market, but it’s still not a monopoly (and trade treaties exist that require them to supply it).
Here is the IMF list of reserve currencies. The Australian dollar was added on to the list a year or two back, but as you can see, there isn’t very much holdings of it reported.
https://www.imf.org/external/np/sta/cofer/eng/
Actually, the exact opposite. A currency is only backed by its economy but a reserve currency becomes more in demand thus pushing its value beyond what it should be on the forex.The nation of that currency thus creates lots of it and uses it to buy huge amount of resources cheaply from elsewhere but eventually the amount of its currency far exceeds what its economy can support resulting in a crash of its value. This is the state that the US$ is in now.
You don’t have a reserve currency at all – not even multiple ones. What should happen is that a currencies value should be based upon that countries trade balance. More imports drops the value of the currency while more exports increases it. Eventually, all currencies will be close in value to each other and international trade will be almost non-existent.
i did a review of q & a..
..i get kinda caustic..
http://whoar.co.nz/2014/commentwhoar-q-a-a-review-is-it-time-to-take-this-trainwreck-of-a-show-to-the-knackers-yard-and-gulp-i-find-myself-in-agreement-with-brash-and-banks/
reports are coming in from around the country..of viewers of both q & a/the nation..
..they are calling/inundating emergency services..
..after coming down/being stricken with maurice-overdoses..
..(and a simplistic-cliche-overdose is a dangerous/ugly thing to behold..)
Regarding Maurice Williamson and party donations.
Fran O’Sullivan says nothing to see here, move along….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11248567
That is because while our Cabinet ministers might seem unbelievably naive when it comes to making judgments over people like the two Lius, or Dotcom – there is no suggestion that investors are asked to stump up to party coffers in return for residencies or citizenship approvals at political levels.
Thanks, Fran. I’ll just forget all about it now and go back to my knitting.
collins and maurice, collins especially, is not naive. fran makes herself look foolishby typing it.
Frank O’Sullivan
She bent over backwards to spread the muck over all parties in this article but I still laughed at that line.
re obesity/sugar-tax..
..it is quite enlightening to go and watch some nz film/doco-footage from the 1950’s..
..and marvel at how fit and healthy everyone looks..
..at this time there was coca cola..(brought by the gi’s..)
..there was the fish and chip shop..and the ubiquitous chinese restuarant..
..(the release of the new drink ‘fanta’..was quite a big deal of/from the day..)
..and then the first kfc opened in takapuna..(to much acclaim/long queues..)
..and it was all on..
..which brings us to here/now/today..
..processed-food etc crammed with sugar..
..low-fat crammed with sugar..
..junk-food chains every ten metres..peddling ill-health..
..and children offered a dazzling array of drinks crammed with sugar..
..and now caffeine as well..(!)..(w.t.f. is with that..?..how the hell did that get past the gate-keepers..?..was it their day off..?..)
..and all of this delivering us a diabetes-epidemic…
..so..what to do..?
..just taxing sugar clearly isn’t enough..
..maximum amounts of sugar in products must be set..(with warnings on packaged-food having warnings similar to cigarette-packets..?..pictures of diabetes-outcomes..?..amputated limbs/stumps..?..)
..there are healthy-food options..there are better ways of doing this..
..and one thing you can guarantee..
..is that the free-market will not deliver this to us..
..they will just continue to peddle this poison..for as long as there is a dollar in it..
..they need to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck..
..and made to do it right..
..the freemarket that allows this wholesale poisoning of the populace..
..is the lead-pipe-plumbing of our age..
And probably not a single loaf of bread produced in New Zealand would pass the French bread law for ingredients.
ACT got two stories and a panel rep on Q and A today. Or 3 of 8 of the manuhiri roles. How the hell does the 1% get almost 50% of the talk time?
because they are white and rich
And they are not polling as high as 1% usually
Peter Dunne is such a petty and pathetic man. He has complained to the election commissioner about the logo of the Internet Party claiming that it clashes with UF’s purple colour.
The logos are so different and the UF just a tiny bit of purple while the entire background of the Internet Party logo has a lot of it. Dunne claims the logos will ‘confuse’ voters! Duh! In any case UF doesn’t get too much more than 0% party support anyway, and if any voter gets confused, it will be to UF’s advantage!
See the two logos yourself and decide if you too would get confused like Dunne, the drama queen.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Dunne-Internet-Partys-purple-could-confuse/tabid/1607/articleID/342379/Default.aspx
Pete attracts what? 0.01 percent? Is he worried the I.P. is going to knock him down to 0.005?
pfff irrelevant man seeks attention.
UF should be hopeful that people accidentally vote for them instead of the IP.
touche
If UF voters feel confused, it just shows the very low calibre and IQ of Dunne’s supporters.
No brains, no common sense!
andrea vance in SST this a.m. Gift giving is okay in China and also China is a corrupt society but there is no connection in either collins or williamsons case. Yeah right!
executing people who oppose thegovernment is ok tpoo, or did she leave that out.
we are now so reliant on china for the economy to look passable we have become their bitches. steve braunias produces comic gold in sst this morning.
Didn’t a Labour MP end up in prison for accepting gifts a few years back? Koha really.
yup. the lack of ethics is not confined to this govt, despite their promise to have higher standards than the previous govt.
its why the number of parties i will vote for is diminishing. but you have to start somewhere.
I found Wayne Brittenden’s analysis of the Ukraine situation interesting.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2588325/wayne-brittenden%27s-counterpoint
Rodel
I think Wayne Brittenden always worthwhile. Very good interesting points I haven’t heard before.
So nice to hear something of value, cf to Radionz constant reporting in the News the Piss Stories from South Africa and any tragedy overseas they can get cheap access too, particularly minute reports from the street, the sherriff, the fire department, tghe civil emergency spokesperson, on the latest tornado/shooting outrage.
Enough to make you weep – wasting our precious minutes set aside for information news used for sensation, shock, horror stuff of this kind.
Excellent on the TPP a few weeks back
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2590769
Thanks Paul-Amazing. absolutely incredible and should be heard by every kiwi…but it won’t and the Joyces /Keys/ English’s of this world will continue to collect their pieces of silver.
Seamus Milne from the Guardian on the Ukraine also very good.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict
I’m worried that Labour is being led into a trap by the media and the RW spinners to announce a retirement age rise as their cornerstone election policy. I’ve been following the MSM this week and there’s a continuous spin line that we have to raise retirement age because we won’t be able to afford it later and blah blah blah, the usual spin. They know Nats aren’t going to change things and that’ll be to their advantage in this year’s election. If the Labour goes ahead, you can expect a big publicity followed by a barrage from all sides, especially by John Key who has put his premiership on the line rather than raise the retirement age.
Because there has been a good amount of scandals in the National camp, the media must deflect attention from it and redirect it to the debate that is likely to polarise people. This is where Labour will be vulnerable, and boom – the election goes to the Nats, despite all the shit that has come out.
IMHO it will be a huge mistake for Labour to announce a change to the retirement policy in this election.
Australia is raising the age to 70. The UK has raised the age to 68.
It is inevitable that the age will be raised. The only question is how much notice those who are going to be affected will have. That is why we need to do it sooner, rather than later, to provide the most notice.
More TINA, Lanth? No alternative other than austerity for the masses? Tell me, what are the 1% being asked to give up in terms of their lifestyle and wealth?
Why do you advocate for pushing up the size of the labour pool even further when there aren’t enough full time jobs available in most western developed countries, let alone decent paying ones?
You do realise that adding to an already surplus labour pool will simply depress wages for ordinary people further, right? Why would you agree to such a thing?
I find it incredible that such idealogical nonsense of raising the age of eligibility for super can go untested to the fact that the jobs will not be there for the majority of people let alone people above the age of 60 year olds. Computerisation & robotic’s is set to wipe out probably 50% plus of many jobs, and not just manual labour at that. When are citizens really going to stand up and force Governments to trim back the power of the rich elite and multi corporations. Until this happens the future looks terrible for the masses.
All indications are that it will happen when the citizens initiate the French Option – again. The politicians will go with the rich.
Hopefully without that whole ‘Reign of Terror’ thing, right
The problem is that trans-national capitalism and the power elite are never self-limiting. They never ever say “OK, that’s enough money, profit, consumption and resource extraction for now, let’s just hold things here for a while.”
Therefore the only concept they have is that of “more.” They will keep pushing harder and harder until everything eventually breaks; communities, society, the ecosystem, all of it.
Debt: The first 5000 years by David Graeber
You mean that sort of Reign of Terror?
No I meant more the wholesale beheading of the nobles. So when you talk about the “french option” I’m guessing you mean to skip the guillotine bit.
Secondly, and kind of off point, have you, like, only read two books? You seem to quote exclusively from Debt: The First 5000 years and The Entrepreneurial State. While those works may be of importance and value (having read neither myself I’ll assume they are quality works – they are on my ever growing list though) you should probably expand your reading.
I was always fond of Goodnight Moon.
It should also be pointed out that the US has been gunning for Iran since the 1970’s and Iraq for nearly as long so the dollar vs. Euro debate is probably moot.
If it can be avoided.
No, I’ve read quite widely – even got a couple of standard textbooks around here on micro and macro economics. They tend to be rather dry though. I tend to quote those two because they happen to put the fallacy of our present economic system into stark relief.
Generally speaking, that’s called a Reign of Terror.
“If it can be avoided.”
But you wouldn’t be averse to the idea? Because you seem kind of flippant to the practice.
“Generally speaking, that’s called a Reign of Terror.”
Yeah but it wasn’t ‘generally speaking’, it was specifically speaking in light of the historical narrative you raised. At any rate, it far predated the dollar vs. Euro argument.
DTB
What an interesting page you directed attention to. The French Revolution. Seeing the vague details I knew set in a timetable with summarised information I learned a lot. I liked this piece about a financial controller, whose dismissal by the King aroused hostility amongst the people who felt he represented them and their concerns.
In May 1776, finance minister Turgot was dismissed, after he failed to enact reforms. The next year, Jacques Necker, a foreigner, was appointed Comptroller-General of Finance. He could not be made an official minister because he was a Protestant.[9]
Necker realized that the country’s extremely regressive tax system subjected the lower classes to a heavy burden,[9] while numerous exemptions existed for the nobility and clergy.[10] He argued that the country could not be taxed higher; that tax exemptions for the nobility and clergy must be reduced; and proposed that borrowing more money would solve the country’s fiscal shortages.
Wait until the energy needed to run a global economy becomes progressively less affordable and climate change effects start to bite harder.
Presently our civilisation is caught in the ‘Red Queen Syndrome’, having to run harder and harder just to stay in the same place, and the political + business elite are making things worse not better.
So what are the chances that people of my age are going to get a state pension at all? Seems fairly dismal…
Don’t worry about that now. I said that back in 1978 right after I looked at the stats departments demographics. I’d had a look at the half-arsed superannuation policy that Muldoon sicced on us.
So I’ve now had about 35 years of paying for a superannuation policy that I haven’t expected would have been worth much in my old age, if still present. I’m still of that view.
The immigration boost helped quite a lot. The boost of the age to 65 helped. The money put into Cullen fund helped the most before English canned it favour of economically useless tax cuts.
At present kiwisaver and other savings looks like the best hope for me even it it does mean that I’m still paying for my parents superannuation, having just finished paying from grandparents and great-grandparents before that – all the time whilst expecting to have to pay for my own.
So forgive me if I think you are running a bit late on this issue.
Could my comment at under 15 1 1 1 etc at 6.56pm be taken off moderation?
[lprent: We’re all a bit slack here during the weekends. But less than 35 minutes would be good for during the week. ]
Thanks lprent
I am not sure why I was put in moderation. And it means that my comment is so far out of the order that it is almost irrelevant. Would it not have been put in moderation if I had properly logged in? It takes longer but if it would help the comment fit into place I will just have to do it.
CV & Skinny, +1,000
What about Dunne’s early retirement option at 60?
I have observed that Key has a fair bit of Muldoonism about him. The 1975 election was lost by Labour due to Muldoon cancelling compulsory super. This was followed by the retirement age being lowered to 60.
Since 1987 Labour have been bruised by not having compulsory super, had Muldoon not cancelled compulsory super Rogernomics may have been a lot milder.
Were Labour to build 10,000 state single retirement dwellings, raising the super age to 67 would not have the same financial impact. The accommodation supplement can also be increased or a new supplement introduced so that anyone between age 65 – 67 is no worse off if they meet the threshold.
Raising the super age really only affects those with poor health, the unemployed or older people with dependants.
I noticed that it was reported on radionz this morning that Labour and ACT both backed the move to 67 for super. Deja vu. Back to the future etc.
Why does Labour have to set itself up as little goody two shoes doing the ‘right economic thing’, the commonsense Party, when new economic thinking and methods are needed. Why not raise the productivity of retired people somehow. We don’t want to be bludgeoned by the departmentus horribilus WINZ, or WANZI as a suitable acronym the W standing for Wonder or Wan..er.
We oldies don’t want to be whipped into stocking shelves at the supermarket, being dangled on a chain store’s roster key ring, sort of like a living charm bracelet bedecked with skulls. Those employers certainly don’t care about their employees as people.
Find some other way for olders to contribute. If you got down to it with suitable people to discuss, and foster thought and go through the country making the points to the older group and inviting them to comment and vote on the points raised, and also canvassing their own ideas brought to the meetings. It would initially be a conference and papers from people, academics probably who have done numerous papers on co-operative businesses and social aspects of small business, and some of us who actually think about things would contribute.
But Labour is hoist on its own petard, they’re the Un-NACTs who stand for the people who aren’t into National. Not`for’ some people, just against NACTs. And if they do think of the people who are struggling they come out with David Shearer’s roof comment, a fine piece of snotty putdown from a man who has made his name from administering professional charity to the obviously poor and needy. Nothing learned to transfer to those in NZ who haven’t or can’t jump high enough to reach the upper step from low skilled wages and uncertain, irregular employment periods of days, weeks, hours, who knows further than next week.
Asking myself why Labour keeps on with such poor policies that have damaged the Party and the country. I thought Groupthink.
Wikipedia says bout this –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or disfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences.
Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the “ingroup” produces an “illusion of invulnerability” (an inflated certainty that the right decision has been made). Thus the “ingroup” significantly overrates its own abilities in decision-making, and significantly underrates the abilities of its opponents (the “outgroup”). Furthermore groupthink can produce dehumanizing actions against the “outgroup”.
Bill English admits National has no mates and is unlikely to win the next election:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10006820/Election-will-be-close-English
Yep the fear is showing.
English might be all kinds of fuckwit, but unlike many of National’s slurping slobbering supporters he knows how to count.
Fear is National’s best strategy.
Fear for National voters. “Don’t be lazy, you have to vote, it’s going to be close, if you don’t vote, who knows what might happen.”
Fear for floating voters. “Ah, come on, have we all died yet? No. See, we’re doing a pretty job. It could be a whole lot worse. Like if Labour wins.”
Bill English isn’t showing real fear, he’s showing calculated fear.
Interesting observation
Funny how English happens to be list only now for this particular election.
Again, he can count 😉
“..Uruguay marijuana legalisation..
“..Authorities in Uruguay have explained how marijuana will be produced and legally sold in the country –
-with licensed pharmacies expected to sell the drug for under $1 (59p) a gram.
The public will be allowed to grow 40g (1.4oz) per month –
a bill expected to come into force next week has set out.
However it will limit the amount people can purchase to 10 grams of marijuana per week.
The legislation was proposed by President Jose Mujica –
and said the bill could help tackle organised crime –
and drug cartels..”
(cont..)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uruguay-to-sell-marijuana-for-60p-a-gram-9319758.html
somewhere far, far, far away from all the probs .. this is special to contemplate if you need a moment …
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/05/02/saturn_s_rings_to_scale_thinner_than_paper.html
I went to my political shop today, and heard the
Farrar principle, that I can eat more sugar because
the US uses more sugar (or carbon), and I shouldn’t
worry about becoming diabetic (or climate change) since it
will create jobs and save money if I get ill.
Yes, you heard it, Farrar wants to keep his job and the money paid
him, and if that means more diabetes and climate change, or
whatever he’s paid to spin at the moment (paid obviously for an
issue some wealthy interested party has at the moment).
Farrar just doesn’t get it, change happens, and those issues that
are consequent, have no status quo wealthy benefactor.
So Farrar will always inevitably be wrong and on the wrong side of history.
Sorry, its not clear. Farrar said on The Nation that we are doing enough on climate change, since China pollutes more. This is like saying Americans eat more sugar, so its okay we don’t consider sugar taxes. The idea that we aren’t all harmed by climate change, or obesity, i.e. in taxes to adapt, is obvious, or should be.
The simple practice of the Nation, to have in some right wing dumbnut, who is exposed for complete drolling of neo-liberalism, only next week a new twerp spouting do-nothing, means that all we get is the tired old how-to-refute lazy thinking politics. Instead what we need is a right of center party that can defend its policies and has some notion of integrity.
ooops, someone broke it. At 17 by the looks.
must have got stoned..and missed it…
WILLIAMSON SHOULD NOT STAND FOR RE-ELECTION IN PAKURANGA OR ELSEWHERE
Williamson really should be heading for prison. He, apparently, broke the law and, as it stands, he’s getting away with doing so.
A very funny leader!
Tories everywhere are selling their legislative powers for donations from Cigarettes multinationals.
Priti Patel, a Conservative MP for Essex at Westminster, who is leading a rebellion against plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes is a former tobacco lobbyist and chairs a parliamentary group whose secretariat is provided by two tobacco industry-funded organisations.
Priti Patel, a member of David Cameron’s influential policy advisory board and chair of the all-party parliamentary small shops group, argues that plain packs will be the “final nail in the coffin” of hundreds of newsagents.
It’s more a case of a failing business model, replaced by the supply of booze and mobile sims and topups. Cameron is claiming something called the conservative recovery and the errant MP is cutting across that message.
NEWSFLASH! John Key says he will test drugs on himself. “after all the coke we snarfed during the 80’s this sort of shit wont even make a dent.”
Close.
.
A small asteroid about the size of a city bus zipped by Earth at a range closer than the moon early Saturday (May 3), but posed no threat to our planet.
The newly discovered asteroid 2014 HL129 came within 186,000 miles (299,338 kilometers) of Earth when it made its closest approach on Saturday morning, which is close enough to pass between the planet and the orbit of the moon. The average distance between the Earth and moon is about 238,855 miles (384,400 km).
http://news.discovery.com/space/asteroids-meteors-meteorites/bus-sized-asteroid-buzzes-earth-closer-than-moon-140503.htm
http://www.space.com/25739-space-rock-to-zip-between-earth-and-moon-orbit-animation.html