It is mildly reassuring that as Wall St slides down into negative figures for the last year (after a euphoric rise based upon simple wishful thinking) that the local district has been occupied by the young of the American nation. Around 700 were arrested yesterday but the protesters are still there. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/kristof-the-bankers-and-the-revolutionaries.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
What is really interesting is how long they have been there and how long it has taken the MSM to notify us. Says it all.
Iterestimg article on the impitus and organisation behind
#occupyeverywhere and the fact that those demanding specific demands miss the point of participatory democracy.
I think some of the people criticising the lack of coherent or specific demands from the occupy movement, are just trying to undermine what is clearly a movement that has struck a chord and is gaining momentum. This morning I watched a heated discussion on Inside Story on Al Jazeera. A right wing guy kept saying the occupy movements criticisms of “Wall Street” made no sense and was silly because these institutions and entrepreneurs are the wealth creators and the market needs to be free from government regulation to create wealth, jobs etc for all….yadda yadda yadda. He stuck to his “senseless” mantra even when another guy gave examples showing that the right-wing mantra and slogans didn’t match the reality.
I saw the same type of “debate” on RTS…some Tea Party tinder dry and a New York liberal flagellating the subject matter to no great effect. All pretty laughable really.
There is a man called http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/ who fought some substantial corporate interests to save his beloved Skye. He made the point that successful protest CANNOT engage its opponents using the opponents LANGUAGE and INSTITUTIONS. Best to do it on your own terms, redefine the language and institutions. On that basis why should the OWSers define their “demands” in a language that sets out to control them?
Make the bastards talk in your terms, your way at your behest.
Read http://www.kunstler.com today, he sites an OWSER (occupier) with a sign saying:
$70,000 College Debt
$12,000 Medical Bills
I’m 22
Where’s My Bailout?
Reading last night a journalist talking about being in the cells post Brooklyn bridge, she note that the arrests had the unintended consequences of putting the relatively wet behind the airs actinides with experienced activists, who were essentially given a forum within which to teach activism.
Posted this late last night, so for those who missed it..
Can’t post the pictures of these t-shirts obviously and no web site unfortunately. But those familiar with Sex Pistols fashion can probably get the picture, just swap Queenie for Key n bobs your uncle.
“Hello fellow Hobbits my name is John Key and I am here
to sell off your land and assets to foreign corporations,
privatise your water, jails, schools, hospitals under TPPA
public private partnerships and basically leave you up a
proverbial (effluent infested) river without a paddle.
I am proud to say that during my term as Prime Sinister I’ve:
• Doubled NZ’s international debt to $36+ billion
• Provided excellent tax cuts to the rich, helping increase
the top 150 peoples wealth last year by $7 billion
• Made inflation go up to 5.3% by introducing
a GST rise to 15% last year
• Helped triple the number of people receiving
unemployment benefits
• Passed 17 pieces of undemocratic emergency
legislation without any form of public debate
• Helped oversee a massive rise in child poverty
• Made sure 7000 families won’t be eligible for
Working for Families tax credits next year
• Dished out a 5 year deepsea exploratory oil permit
to Petrobras which has absolutely no conditions for
environmental protection, and that would leave the
NZ tax payer to pay the clean up bill for any oil leak
• Agreed to not mine the National Parks, yet changed the
boundary of the Oteake Conservation Park to exclude
a 195 hectare area over the Hawkdun lignite deposit
As you can see I am a great choice to lead you forward
into oblivion, so I really hope you will support me by
purchasing one of these campaign t-shirts I have had kindly
donated by the kind folks at Anarkey & Lovely Ltd.
If you could be so kind as to spread the good word about
these I’d be most grateful. As an extension of my thanks
I personally promise to gift you an extra dollar per week
in the next round of tax cuts, should we be reelected.
God Save New Zealand T-Shirts
> 100% organic non-bleached cotton tees
> Available in Sml, Med, Lge, XL, XXL
> $30 +postage (or free pick up)
For orders email [email protected]
or contact Roxanne on 021 701 494″
A brief mention on the early RNZ news today that a record 100,000+ hectares of NZ land was approved and sold off overseas in the last year. This included dairy farms to German and other European interests and large areas of Ngai Tahu forests. This is asset selling on a large scale, and also questions the assumption that Maori corporates care about the environment.
I expect we will now see some serious examination of the issues on prime time public television, such as Close Up or Sunday.
Interesting that it’s German and other (northern?) European interests. Watching Al Jazeera, I keep hearing complaints from Germans and other northern European countries complaining that they are being asked to pay for Greece’s bad financial/economic management. But wasn’t it German and other financial corporations that were profiteering from investments in Greece before the financial problems were acknowledged? Why were they investing in or lending to a country that they claim was being badly managed in the first place?
Exactly Carol. Various politicians bemoan the recent penchant for borrowing. But wtf do they expect? The stupid lenders lent the stuff. They should bemoan the lenders and their drug-dealer like parasitic nature – get someone loaded up and hooked knowing full well that they will not be able to dig themselves out of their hole thereby opening the way to take assets and other items in exchange. The lenders are sick parasites.
we’ve not seen Maori corporates care about the people working their commercial fisheries, and working closely together with the Michael Fay types. Why would they hold environmental values higher than other corporates in the money chase?
I would like to know who is on the Overseas Investment commission, what their qualifications are and what are the terms of reference? Does protecting the environment figure at all?
Criminologist expert from victoria university this morning was saying that the drop in crime stats has been seen in other western countries recently too, and suggests that part of it is going to be demographic change with an aging population.
In general he thought there wasn’t much that the government could specifically take credit for, and specifically not the 3 strikes law.
Well the Select Committee has reported back on the Video Search and Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill and it has benefitted from the select committee process. The retrospective effect with one important exception has been removed. Powers of search have been reduced. The Bill if enacted will only be in effect for 6 months.
But there is one dead rat lurking in the Bill. The power to appeal a conviction because of video surveillance evidence being improperly admitted has been removed. Previously an appeal could be lodged on the basis that Hamed represents a change in the law. Generally the chances of an appeal succeeding are poor, it has to be shown that there was a miscarriage of justice. As shown in Hamed the Court has a discretion to admit otherwise improperly acquired evidence.
But the Rule of Law requires that access to the courts is maintained and the effect of a law change not be retrospective unless there are good reasons. As far as I can see no estimate of the number of cases that may have been affected was made and I suspect it would be few. But Parliament should not shut off chances of an appeal on the basis that it may not like the decision. Besides historical cases only would be affected and there would be no implications for current video surveillance.
Labour went along with it. They have improved the bill greatly but I am sure the Nats put this dead rat in so that Labour would be tainted.
Keith Locke is right. He said:
The bill retrospectively denies any person already convicted the right to use the Hamed decision as part of an appeal. That is contrary to a fundamental legal principle, that people engaged in court proceed- ings have resort to the law as it applied at the time of the alleged offence …
Just wondering, but weren’t “criminals are going to go free” comment taints the chance of
a fair trial. Surely juries will now debate video evidence for its legacy to their personal
rights?
On 9toNoon Kathryn Ryan has interviewed a US patriot who is programmed to see politics and economics in the world from the glamor spin of his US viewpoint. He has managed to stuff double the content normally in an interview because he is such a fast, manic speaker. Kathryn managed to rein in and interrupt some of his statements to ascertain the bias and the reality behind his rhetoric.
He sounds robotised, angry, and obssessed with US might and achievement all at the same time – really unbalanced with a skewwhiff approach to both the US and the rest of the world. It’s enlightening and frightening and it is no wonder that after our nuclear protest we couldn’t get heard in the States if the officials there think like this zealot..
10:05 The Rise of Asia – is China’s economic boom sustainable?
China’s economic boom and America’s political and economic paralysis have some predicting that the US is on the slide and that this will be the Chinese century — yet NZ is dependent in different ways on both, so what will it mean for us?
Dr Dan Twining is a former Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator John McCain, and an expert on Asia’s political and economic relationships. Dan is in NZ speaking about US policy and ongoing US engagement in the Asia Pacific – China’s rise and the “return” of Asia, plus Asia’s economic/political future and the implications for New Zealand.
Kathryn managed to rein in and interrupt some of his statements to ascertain the bias and the reality behind his rhetoric.
Your assessment of Ryan’s performance is extraordinarily indulgent. She couldn’t even handle Hekia “ummmm, errrr, ahhh, ummm” Parata a few weeks back, and she certainly lacks the wherewithal to seriously challenge someone like Twining.
Originally eleven ships consisting of nine passenger boats and two cargo ships, carrying 200 activists from all over the world intended to participate in the second Freedom Flotilla…
“The Treasury: Implementing and managing the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme.
On Sunday 12 October 2008, at the peak of the global financial crisis, the Government decided that it needed to implement a form of retail deposit guarantee scheme to avoid a flight of funds from New Zealand institutions to those in Australia. It needed to do this urgently: the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme (the Scheme) was designed and announced that same day.
The Scheme offered a Crown guarantee over the money that people deposited or invested with financial institutions – specifically banks and “non-bank deposit takers”, which is a group that includes finance companies and savings institutions (such as building societies and credit unions). If a financial institution in the Scheme failed, the Crown would repay all of the money that eligible people had deposited or invested, up to a cap of $1 million each.
This was a major decision in both financial and policy terms. In financial terms, this decision resulted in the Crown guaranteeing up to $133 billion in investor funds. In policy terms, it was a significant departure from the longstanding setting in New Zealand of minimal state intervention in the market. However, the Government considered the Scheme necessary to maintain depositor and public confidence in our financial markets.
I considered it important to tell the story of this Scheme, because it was so significant to our economy and because it was designed and implemented with such speed. After any crisis, there is value in pausing to reflect on how the response was managed and what lessons can be learned……
………………………………..
Overall, the Scheme achieved its goal. No banks in New Zealand failed, and there was no run on banks. Many of the other finance institutions also survived the global financial crisis. The economy was stabilised.
However, there have been costs. Nine finance companies in the Scheme failed, causing the Crown to pay out about $2 billion to depositors. It will be some time before the various receiverships are completed and the total amount recovered from the finance companies is known. Expected recoveries are currently estimated at about $0.9 billion…………..”
WHO exactly were these Treasury officials who were responsible for ‘implementing and managing the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme?
WHAT were their connections (if any) with the ‘finance industry’?
” Nine finance companies in the Scheme failed, causing the Crown to pay out about $2 billion to depositors.”
YAY ‘Nanny State’?
Penny Bright
Independent ‘Public Watchdog’.
Candidate for Epsom
There is a power of difference between a deposit guarantee scheme that protects:
* small deposit holders… the genuine rank and file of us, you, me, the average Joes so we can spend our cash at the supermarket and perhaps put aside a little to help us get ahead.
AND
* those institutions and those individuals who took a calculated risk with their investments, and who in general have substantially more than the rest of us.
What National have chosen to do is to lump us all together to justify the saving of risky deposits for the wealthy AT THE EXPENSE OF THE REST OF US. Socialising the pain, privatising the gain. Our taxes paid to bail out those who got tax cuts. I am disgusted.
Treasury should be disbanded they employ rwnjs and claim to know whats good for the economy all they have done is promote Nact policy and look at their track record SFO should investigate.THEN they should be all sacked we would be better off without this politically motivated Govt dept.
Getting the money back isn’t entirely straight forward or easy, but I’d imagine a fair way to go about doing it would just be to reduce the total kitty by $500,000 for the next 5 years before divvying it up between the schools. That way they’d each feel only a very small amount of pain over a period of 5 years. I guess inflation would have eaten a lot of the value out by then, but surely a better plan than simply writing it off. I mean, we could have gotten a whole ‘nother tupperwaka for that kind of coin.
a bit of a ramble.
Labour has done it at last. I’m a 54 year old, lifetime Labour voter, but this latest bullshit with video surveilance bill is the last straw. Never again will I vote for labour. I like the policies they are putting out, hell I’m one of the few who like Phil Goff. But this anti bill of rights bullshit has broken me. I will, from here untill I die vote Greens.
I see Smile and Wave is accusing the previous Labour Government for our credit downgrade. WTF three years in and it’s still their fault? Seriously, 3 yeaars in and his government has nothing to do with the state of the countries books? If a National Government is votedin this November then the idiots who did it, given that the majority of people who vote in any govt are working class, then they absolutely deserve what they get. Unfortunately, those of us who don’t vote for the thieves get the same crap. Ah well, as a Transexual at least I’m used to wearing other people’s crap.
More to come, some time. right now I have cats to feed.
A sad, sad day when Labour vote for this disgusting loss of civil liberties after all but 1 or 2 submission were opposed, once again they show that they are eletist and don’t understand that they are our servants, NOT our rulers
Hi CV
Gee, no spine eh. ah ok then I guess I’m like the parliamentary Labour party. After all they’ve been a completely useless opposition for the last 3 years constantly giving into the Govt when ever Jokey wanted to pass another law under urgency to take away our civil liberties
CV, I very much doubt that the Greens willgo into coalition with National. Even if they did it would be more honest than the faux grand coalition with national that labour has been conducting over the last 2.5 years. I used to be a labour member in years past, before I was Joanne, my input didn’t make a great deal of difference, doubt that it would now
final straw, indicates lots of other straws. See my response to cv. what isa wrong withe video surveillance bill is this. It’s purpose is to legitrimize the illegal activities of police and, whilst the retrospectivity has gone they have denied those covicted using illegally collected video evidence the right to challenge that in court. Seems to be a conflict there with a) the rule of law and b) the BOR. But what would I know,I am apparently a spineless troll.
By the way, my name is Joanne, it is not a psuedonym, I live in Kilbirnie and drive buses for a living. I’m fat and ugly so feel free to greet me next time you’re travelling on my bus.
Video evidence was always going to be admissible in court if the charges were serious enough under the Evidence Act. The issue was that the cowboys in the police were using it whenever they had a vague idea that they didn’t like someone. Which appears to have been the case with dicks for brains special unit cops at Otahuhu who seem to have initiated the operation 8 and other legal debacles over the last decade.
The real problem was that it’s use was unregulated. The police were setting up continuous video surveillance on the most tenuous theories, invading private property without owner permissions to do it, and generally acting like boys with new toys. All it winds up doing is wasting the time of the courts, police sources, and probably most pertinently keeping scores of police in essentially useless anti terrorism units from being assigned to more productive tasks. They practice on activists. Any activists. Without any more reason than they are trying to change society peaceably.
The activities have to be regulated. This act even after having most of the absolute crap stripped out is definitely not perfect – but at least it has some pretty clear rules in it.
The search and survelliance bill is better – but even after languishing around the order paper for something like five years will not get passed until next year. Personally I would like to have parliament revisit that bill with changes before it is passed. There is a lot more evidence about abuses by the police that could and should be limited with some penalties. Perhaps give the IPCA some teeth to directly lay criminal charges on offenders in the police for abuses of process.
According to Radio Live, the PM’s Hour had nothing to do with the staged licence fee arrangement. They put forward a strong argument against such paranoia:
“That is not true.”
Also:
“It has nothing to do with radio spectrum licensing payments.”
I’m convinced.
I’m also convinced that they hope this will be an annual event regardless of who is PM.
“Friday’s show was the first broadcast of what we hope will become an annual event for Radio Live.”
I wonder if the timing will always ensure that it will be during an election campaign? I also wonder for how many years this annual event will occur – I guess, being a business, they can’t guarantee anything. It was just that, right now, for some inexplicable, random reason some ‘body’ at Radio Live thought it would be a good idea.
Apparently:
“The idea is loosely based on an overseas example I heard about earlier in the year and which has been developed by my team at Radio Live.” (Who is ‘I’ here?)
I wish people would stop treating me as if I’m a mushroom.
People have been criticising Labour’s ‘comms,’ but whoever wrote this really needs some lessons in how to sound convincing.
If I wasn’t already, I’m definitely suspicious now.
Seeing as how the staged licence fee arrangement is with the parent company Mediaworks, and this “RadioLive Press Release” deals with that very arrangement, it must’ve been issued by someone in a position to speak for both organisations.
Someone who can refer to themselves as “I” when speaking on behalf of the company.
Only one person I can think of who fits that description and he happens to be John Key’s buddy.
As an aside, seriously – am I the only one thinking that this is the most corrupt govt since at least muldoon (even he’s doubtful as such)?
I mean simply on decisions that seem to have apparent coincidental connections to family members (eCan), personal funding (double dipton), non-tendered appointments (ahem), new support from honours recipients (guess), or “free” airtime.
I was a bit young for Lange govt, but Bolger – even Shipley – at least appeared to be more misguided than downright corrupt. The worst accusation tories can come up with about clark is that they were as bad at electoral funding accounting as every other party at the time (not minimising the principle, just putting into perspective against apparent quid pro quo). But the current fuckers seem to be running the country like a fiefdom.
The owner of the El Faro Spanish Tapas bar in the Elliott Stables, Mark Ansley, said the whole industry was talking about the tournament having a detrimental effect.
“I’ve spoken to people at the Wynyard Quarter, the Viaduct, people in the CBD; I’ve spoken to a lot of restaurateurs to gauge what’s happening – and everyone’s saying it’s down big-time,” Mr Ansley said.
“I’m sure we would be busier if the World Cup wasn’t on.”
But businesses should have known what was coming, Mr Ansley said.
“Anyone who was sucked into the hype is an idiot. The council wants to make its books look better so it was always going to funnel all the customers into the fan zone it set up.”
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If those elected to the Māori Seats refuse to take them, then what possible reason could the country have for retaining them?Chris Trotter writes – Christmas is fast approaching, which, as it does every year, means gearing up for an abstruse general knowledge question. “Who was ...
The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.Brian Easton writes – The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he ...
The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out – for excuses that might sell this health policy U-turn to the public. The less charitable ...
As Deb Te Kawa writes in an op-ed, the new Government seems to have immediately bought itself fights with just about everyone. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Here’s my pick of the top 10 news and analysis links elsewhere as of 10 am on Monday December 4, including:Palau’s President ...
Let’s begin today by thinking about job interviews.During my career in Software Development I must have interviewed hundreds of people, hired at least a hundred, but few stick in the memory.I remember one guy who was so laid back he was practically horizontal, leaning back in his chair until his ...
New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-US positioning when it comes to the Pacific – where Peters will be picking up where he left off. Peters sought to align ...
Auckland’s city rail link is the most expensive rail project in the world per km, and the CRL boss has described the cost of infrastructure construction in Aotearoa as a crisis. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The 3.5 km City Rail Link (CRL) tunnel under Auckland’s CBD has cost ...
The first big test of the new Government’s approach to Treaty matters is likely to be seen in the return of the Resource Management Act. RMA Minister Chris Bishop has confirmed that he intends to introduce legislation to repeal Labour’s recently passed Natural and Built Environments Act and its ...
Time to revisit something I haven’t covered in a while: the D&D campaign, with Saqua the aquatic half-vampire. Last seen in July: https://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/2023/07/27/the-song-of-saqua-volume-ii/ The delay is understandable, once one realises that the interim saw our DM come down with a life-threatening medical situation. They have since survived to make ...
A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 26, 2023 thru Dec 2, 2023. Story of the Week CO2 readings from Mauna Loa show failure to combat climate changeDaily atmospheric carbon dioxide data from Hawaiian volcano more ...
Affirmative Action was a key theme at this election, although I don’t recall anyone using those particular words during the campaign.They’re positive words, and the way the topic was talked about was anything but. It certainly wasn’t a campaign of saying that Affirmative Action was a good thing, but that, ...
It was at the end of the Foxton straights, at the end of 1978, at 100km/h, that someone tried to grab me from behind on my Yamaha.They seemed to be yanking my backpack. My first thought was outrage. My second was: but how? Where have they come from? And my ...
There’s no news to be gleaned from the government’s official website today – it contains nothing more than the message about the site being under maintenance. The time this maintenance job is taking and the costs being incurred have us musing on the government’s commitment to an assault on inflation. ...
Don’t you sometimes wish they’d just tell the truth? No matter how abhorrent or ugly, just straight up tell us the truth?C’mon guys, what you’re doing is bad enough anyway, pretending you’re not is only adding insult to injury.Instead of all this bollocks about the Smokefree changes being to do ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Friday Under New Management Week in review, quiz style1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. ...
Like earlier this year, members from our team will be involved with next year's General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU). The conference will take place on premise in Vienna as well as online from April 14 to 19, 2024. The session catalog has been available since November 1 ...
1. Which of these best describes Aotearoa?a. Progressive nation, proud of its egalitarian spirit and belief in a fair go b. Best little country on the planet c. Under New Management 2. Which of these best describes the 100 days of action announced this week by the new government?a. Petulantb. Simplistic and wrongheaded c. ...
Sorry to say, the government’s official website is still out of action. When Point of Order paid its daily visit, the message was the same as it has been for the past week: Site under maintenanceBeehive.govt.nz is currently under maintenance. We will be back shortly. Thank you for your ...
Radio NZ reports: Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has accused the new government of “deliberate .. systemic genocide” over its policies to roll back the smokefree policy and the Māori Health Authority. The left love hysterical language. If you oppose racial quotas in laws, you are a racist. And now if you sack ...
Open access notables From this week's government/NGO section, longitudinal data is gold and Leisorowitz, Maibachi et al. continue to mine ore from the US public with Climate Change in the American Mind: Politics & Policy, Fall 2023: Drawing on a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, the authors describe how registered ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Winston Peters reckons media outlets were bribed by the $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund. He is not the first to make such an accusation. Last year, the Platform outlined conditions media signed up to in return for funds from the PJIF: . . . ...
Wow, it’s December already, and it’s a Friday. So here are few things that caught our attention recently. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt covered the new government’s coalition agreements and what they mean for transport. On Tuesday Matt looked at AT’s plans for fare increases ...
Late 1996, The Dogs Bollix, Tamaki Makaurau.I’m at the front of the bar yelling my order to the bartender, jostling with other thirsty punters on a Friday night, keen to piss their wages up against a wall letting loose. The black stuff, long luscious pints of creamy goodness. Back down ...
Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and other National, ACT and NZ First MPs applaud the signing of the coalition agreements, which included the reversal of anti-smoking measures while accelerating tax cuts for landlords. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote ...
Completed reads for November: A Modern Utopia, by H.G. Wells The Vampire (poem), by Heinrich August Ossenfelder The Corpus Hermeticum The Corpus Hermeticum is Mead’s translation. Now, this is indeed a very quiet month for reading. But there is a reason for that… You see, ...
The coalition party agreements are mainly about returning to 2017 when National lost power. They show commonalities but also some serious divergencies.The two coalition agreements – one National and ACT, the other National and New Zealand First – are more than policy documents. They also describe the processes of the ...
First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
First QuestionYou’re going to crack down on people ram-raiding dairies, because you say hard-working dairy owners shouldn’t have to worry about getting ram-raided.But once the chemist shops have pseudoephedrine in them again, they're going to get ram-raided all the time. Do chemists not work as hard as dairy owners?Second QuestionYou ...
Labour’s immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford is calling on the Government to follow the example of Australia and help New Zealanders’ close family members stuck in Gaza to escape and take shelter here. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to recognise its commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi so our tamariki and mokopuna can grow up in an Aotearoa where their language is celebrated, their health is prioritised, and their whenua is protected. ...
By scrapping Aotearoa’s world-leading smokefree laws, this government is sacrificing Māori lives to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Not only is this plan revolting, but it doesn’t add up. Treasury has estimated that the reversal of smokefree laws to pay for tax cuts will cost our health system $5.25bn, ...
Figures showing National needs to find another $900 million for landlords highlights the mess this coalition Government is in less than a week into the job. ...
Community organisations, mana whenua and the Greens have written to the incoming Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to call for the progression without delay of the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill. ...
"On behalf of the Labour Party I would like to congratulate Christopher Luxon on his appointment as Prime Minister,” Labour Party Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
NZ First has gotten their wish to ‘take our country back’ to the 1800s with a policy program that will white-wash Aotearoa and erase tangata whenua rights. By disestablishing the Māori Health Authority this Government has condemned Māori to die seven years earlier than Pākehā. By removing Treaty obligations from ...
Te Pāti Māori have called for the resignation of the Ministry of Foreign and Trade chief executive Chris Seed following his decision to erase te reo Māori from government communications. While the country still waits for a new government to be formed, Mr Seed took it upon himself to undermine ...
The New Zealand Labour Party is urgently calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel to put a halt to the appalling attacks and violence, so that a journey to a lasting peace can begin, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
The Government has begun the process of disestablishing Te Pūkenga as part of its 100-day plan, Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills Penny Simmonds says. “I have started putting that plan into action and have met with the chair and chief Executive of Te Pūkenga to advise them of my ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will be leaving for Dubai today to attend COP28, the 28th annual UN climate summit, this week. Simon Watts says he will push for accelerated action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement, deliver New Zealand’s national statement and connect with partner countries, private sector leaders ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins yesterday announced New Zealand will host next year’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM). “Having just returned from this year’s meeting in Nouméa, I witnessed first-hand the value of meeting with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security and defence matters. I welcome the opportunity to ...
The Government is committed to lifting school achievement in the basics and that starts with removing distractions so young people can focus on their learning, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. The 2022 PISA results released this week found that Kiwi kids ranked 5th in the world for being distracted ...
Today I met with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to set out my expectations, which he has agreed to, says Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Under section 16(1) of the Policing Act 2008, the Minister can expect the Police Commissioner to deliver on the Government’s direction and priorities, as now outlined in ...
New Zealand needs a strong and stable Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that is well placed for the future, after emission units failed to sell for the fourth and final auction of the year, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. At today’s auction, 15 million New Zealand units (NZUs) – each ...
With 2022 PISA results showing a decline in achievement, Education Minister Erica Stanford is confident that the Coalition Government’s 100-day plan for education will improve outcomes for Kiwi kids. The 2022 PISA results show a significant decline in the performance of 15-year-old students in maths compared to 2018 and confirms ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today departed for New Caledonia to attend the 8th annual South Pacific Defence Ministers’ meeting (SPDMM). “This meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet face-to-face with my Pacific counterparts to discuss regional security matters and to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the Pacific,” Judith Collins says. ...
Putting more money in the pockets of hard-working families is a priority of this Coalition Government, starting with an increase to Working for Families, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. “We are starting our 100-day plan with a laser focus on bringing down the cost of living, because that is what ...
Most weeks, following Cabinet, the Prime Minister holds a press conference for members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. This page contains the transcripts from those press conferences, which are supplied by Hansard to the Office of the Prime Minister. It is important to note that the transcripts have not been edited ...
The Government has axed the $16 billion Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme championed by the previous government, Energy Minister Simeon Brown says. “This hugely wasteful project was pouring money down the drain at a time when we need to be reining in spending and focussing on rebuilding the economy and ...
New Zealand welcomes the further one-day extension of the pause in fighting, which will allow the delivery of more urgently-needed humanitarian aid into Gaza and the release of more hostages, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said. “The human cost of the conflict is horrific, and New Zealand wants to see the violence ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today expressed on behalf of the New Zealand Government his condolences to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who has passed away at the age of 100 at his home in Connecticut. “While opinions on his legacy are varied, Secretary Kissinger was ...
Every child deserves a world-leading education, and the Coalition Government is making that a priority as part of its 100-day plan. Education Minister Erica Stanford says that will start with banning cellphone use at school and ensuring all primary students spend one hour on reading, writing, and maths each day. ...
I would like to begin by echoing the Prime Minister’s thanks to the organisers of this Summit, Fran O’Sullivan and the Auckland Business Chamber. I want to also acknowledge the many leading exporters, sector representatives, diplomats, and other leaders we have joining us in the room. In particular, I would like ...
Good morning. Thank you, Rosemary, for your warm introduction, and to Fran and Simon for this opportunity to make some brief comments about New Zealand’s relationship with the United States. This is also a chance to acknowledge my colleague, Minister for Trade Todd McClay, Ambassador Tom Udall, Secretary of Foreign ...
Good morning, tēnā koutou and namaskar. Many thanks, Michael, for your warm welcome. I would like to acknowledge the work of the India New Zealand Business Council in facilitating today’s event and for the Council’s broader work in supporting a coordinated approach for lifting New Zealand-India relations. I want to also ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has laid out the Coalition Government’s plan for its first 100 days from today. “The last few years have been incredibly tough for so many New Zealanders. People have put their trust in National, ACT and NZ First to steer them towards a better, more prosperous ...
A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
Labour's leader says O'Connor is "incredibly passionate" about the issue but party policy is that relevant international bodies will determine whether Israel's actions are lawful. ...
The first regular sitting day of the new Parliament took place on Thursday and the country got a peek at what Question Time will look like over the next three years. The sitting started with a rare moment of cross-party unity, when the Government adopted Labour MP Phil Twyford’s ...
It could be the most consequential international climate change conference yet, but it’s being held in the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s major oil producers and led by one of the country’s top oil bosses. Newsroom journalist Rod Oram is attending COP28 and joins The Detail from ...
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Opinion: Courts are halls of justice, but they are also well-financed institutional purchasers of goods and services, outsourcing much of their work to private consultants and contractors, including lawyers, advocates, psychologists, social workers, and drug counsellors who earn their living from court contracts. Though there is nothing inherently wrong ...
Analysis: The United Nations’ COP28 climate negotiations have begun their final phase with only five days or so left to agree a wide range of measures designed to accelerate nations’ climate responses in coming years. While the draft text prepared by government officials over the past week has some ...
Liv McGoverne has just returned from an enjoyable season playing rugby in England, but playing there in a Black Ferns jersey, on the sport’s biggest stage, remains the ultimate goal. McGoverne, 26, played the 2022-23 campaign for Exeter Chiefs in the Premier 15s competition. Coached by former England half-back ...
FICTION 1 The Girl from London by Olivia Spooner (Hachette, $37.99) An ideal Xmas present for the commercial fiction reader who would relish a wartime story of a shipboard romance. 2 The Axeman’s Carnival by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $35) An ideal Xmas present for the ...
After most of a billion dollars and six years’ work, the Puhoi to Warkworth section of State Highway 1 has been warmly received by long-distance motorists no longer slowed down by small town traffic lights. Where once cars would back bumper to bumper on a Sunday evening, now the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University Fiji was flooded by a severe cyclone in 2016.ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock The federal government has announced an extra A$150 million for climate finance – including $100 million for the Pacific to help protect its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Bill Shorten, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Government Services, has released the review of the NDIS, which recommends sweeping changes to the scheme. The reforms to come will see the states take ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra It’s not just kids who get report cards (PDFs these days) as school breaks up. So do government ministers, when parliament rises at year’s end. Judgments about how members of the team have performed, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bradley Smith, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Shutterstock For many of us, dogs are our best friends. But have you wondered what would happen to your dog if we suddenly disappeared? Can domestic dogs make do without people? ...
He's refusing to express confidence in Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt, and while he won't abolish the commission like ACT wants, changes will be made. ...
A new chapter in the controversial dispute between an Auckland tech company and a government agency, with the tabling of a withering report in parliament today. A highly critical report from the auditor general has been tabled in parliament today, the latest twist in an acrimonious dispute between government agency ...
After most of a billion dollars and six years of work, the Puhoi to Warkworth section of State Highway One has been warmly received by long-distance motorists no longer slowed by small town traffic lights. Where once cars would back bumper to bumper on a Sunday evening, the road ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Downie, Associate Professor, Australian National University Shutterstock Until recently, financing fossil fuel projects has been relatively easy. But that is slowly changing. At the COP28 climate negotiations yesterday, Australia announced it will sign the Glasgow Statement and will ...
The prime minister has appeared to suggest that Act’s Treaty principles bill will not be allowed to proceed beyond the select committee stage. Supporting such legislation to select committee is promised in the Act-National coalition agreement, which implies the bill won’t go any further, but Luxon has not said it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Brown, Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University Shutterstock Findings from an extensive review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) have been released with ideas on how to transform it. Led by co-chairs Bruce Bonyhady and Lisa Paul, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Plum, Senior Research Fellow in Applied Labour Economics, Auckland University of Technology New Zealand has made substantial progress on promoting LGBTQ+ rights over the past 20 years, including legalising same-sex civil unions in 2004, legalising same-sex marriage in 2013, and banning ...
Sentencing judges need to stop going lightly on those convicted of illegal hunting and the killing or stealing of livestock, Federated Farmers rural policing spokesperson Richard McIntyre says. And to keep pressure on the Government to ensure rural areas ...
The following quote can be attributed to Lisa Woods, Campaigns Director at Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand. This statement is in response to the news that the New Zealand Government has passed a motion indicating the government’s support ...
The motion by deputy prime minister Winston Peters to call for “urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire” in Gaza has passed in parliament, after the majority of amendments suggested by the opposition were rejected. Labour leader Chris Hipkins said New Zealand should be calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has continued with National's approach in calling for "steps towards" a ceasefire, saying that must be in place before a ceasefire can begin. ...
$50,000 brand development package awarded to Rescued’s sustainable solution to surplus food Rescued, a social enterprise with a sustainable and delicious solution for food waste, has been named as the winner of the Brand For Good Competition. The ...
Responding to Hamilton City Council’s decision to spend $700,000 moving and re-developing a bus stop due to its location outside an adult toy store, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “Only a couple of weeks ago, Hamilton City Council ...
During the first question time of the new parliament, MPs have debated a motion proposed by deputy prime minister Winston Peters for all parties involved in the conflict in Gaza to “take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire”. Members have spoken passionately about the conflict, with Labour MP Damien O’Connor ...
Aotearoa was one of only a few OECD countries missing from the initial list of 118 signatories to the pledge, but a spokesperson for the Climate Change Minister has confirmed NZ is supporting it. ...
The government’s policy to ‘restore balance to the Aotearoa New Zealand Histories curriculum’ could work to undermine more inclusive and honest ways of engaging with the past, argues history teacher Christopher Burns.When the plans for compulsory New Zealand history content were announced, Jacinda Ardern presented them as an opportunity ...
Three reviews of this year’s Basement Theatre Christmas Show.It pains me to say it but I’m a veteran of the annual Basement Theatre Christmas show at this point. In the decade that I’ve been a regular of the theatre, I’ve seen Kura Forrester do a tour-de-force 10-minute monologue that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James D Metzger, Senior Lecturer in Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney How many times have you booked travel – like a cruise or a tour – and simply clicked that you’ve read and agreed to the terms and conditions for your trip ...
The first question time of the new parliament is under way. Deputy prime minister Winston Peters has called on parties involved in the Gaza conflict to take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire. Greens co-leader Marama Davidson is currently seeking amendments to the motion. ...
The new Parliament's first Question Time today is coming after a motion from the Foreign Minister calling for urgent steps towards a ceasefire in Gaza. ...
As the death and injury tolls mount in Gaza, this is the least that can be done to save lives and begin a peace and reconciliation process. O ver a month ago, UNICEF was already calling Gaza “ a graveyard for children, ” and now warns in the strongest ...
At a rally in the grounds of Parliament attended by about 400 people, Bishop Brian Tamaki has asked for Foreign Minister Winston Peters not to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. ...
At a rally in the grounds of Parliament, Bishop Brian Tamaki said "we have to stand on the right side of history and standing with Israel is right". ...
Having a nicely scented, well-dressed guest in the corner of your living room is always a festive treat. But has it always been this pricey?Despite often being put in a corner, she’s Christmas’s main character. Green, fragrant, and usually the best-dressed member of your household throughout the festive period, ...
The Taxpayers' Union is dismayed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (MFAT) outrageous expenditure on its delegation to the COP 27 climate conference. New information revealed under the Official Information Act shows that the total ...
Commenting on the Human Rights Commission’s appointment of a second “shared leader” to work alongside the existing Chief Executive , Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said: “The cushy jobs-for-lefties culture at the top of the ...
Responding to Wellington city’s earthquake-strengthening crisis, which sees the city on track to upgrade just 20% of vulnerable buildings , Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said: “Hundreds of millions of dollars are being burnt upgrading ...
The housing crisis is hitting senior renters especially hard, and their numbers are set to double in 25 years. Rachel Judkins explores this unsettling trend.When retired nurse Jenny* bought her first house with her husband in 1986, it felt like she was starting down a road of financial security ...
This morning at 10:30am around 20 Restore Passenger Rail supporters staged a sleep-in at the Auckland Council, to highlight the Council’s decision to slow progress on sustainable transport options. “We don’t want Auckland Council ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karleen Gribble, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University b-finity/Shutterstock Extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and intense in Australia. This can cause illness or worsen existing conditions. During hot weather, hospital admissions and deaths ...
Peters is expected, later today, to call on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict - including countries with influence in the region - to "take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire". ...
Local authority statistics provides information on the performance of core non-trading activities of New Zealand's territorial and regional councils. Visit our website to read this information release and to download CSV files: Local authority ...
In a small office in Manukau, a ngahere of artists is growing tall. The ecosystem of a ngahere is a delicate balance. From nutrient-dense soil grows life; tall trees reach up towards the sunlight, providing a canopy for the smaller life below. And the smaller living things – from silver ...
In response to growing concern at the Government’s policies regarding the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Kīngitanga has announced a national hui to which ‘all are invited’, to foster dialogue and greater unity on these contentious ...
Peters is expected, later today, to call on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict - including countries with influence in the region - to "take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire". ...
Parliament's environment watchdog has written to ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden to say she is sharing misinformation about his findings on the oil and gas. ...
Encouraging progress has been made in reducing child poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand but more focus on the issue is urgently needed to maintain it, according to a new report from UNICEF. UNICEF’s 18th Report Card, ‘Child Poverty in the Midst of ...
Animal Rights organisation SAFE is urging the Government to follow quickly on the heels of Los Angeles and ban rodeo, to uphold the country’s animal welfare status. As rodeo season kicks off in Aotearoa, the Los Angeles City Council has voted in ...
I have tried supporting him the best I can and I love him so much, but I’m finding the cycles of relief, anxiety and heartache almost too much to bear.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to [email protected]Dear Hera,Is it possible to stay in a (happy) relationship with an addict? When ...
Peters is expected, later today, to call on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict - including countries with influence in the region - to "take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire". ...
Peters is expected, later today, to call on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict - including countries with influence in the region - to "take urgent steps towards establishing a ceasefire". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Lee, Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne), Curtin University Mircea Moira/Shutterstock Last week two young Australian women spoke candidly to the ABC about being sexually assaulted while on holidays. The alleged incidents occurred in Greece in 2022 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nigel Andrew, Professor of Entomology, Southern Cross University Christian Mueller/Shutterstock Cabbage white butterflies – Pieris rapae – are one of the most common garden visitors across southern and eastern Australia. The butterfly looks elegant in white with black dots on ...
A decline in our Pisa scores was described as ‘disastrous’ and ‘disappointing’, but plenty of educators question the merit of the OECD-backed testing scheme, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Pisa ...
New Zealand will need to spend billions on projects cutting emissions in other countries to make up for what the Climate Change Commission says was a late start to cutting greenhouse gases at home. ...
With the new government pledging to scrap the Māori Health Authority, board member Dr Mataroria Lyndon tells Ronan Payinda that while the exact path forward may not yet be known, there’s no stopping the fight for Māori health equity. Dr Mataroria Lyndon (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Whātua, Waikato) is ...
National’s ban on phones in schools is poorly researched, won’t work and misses the real problem, argues high-schooler Caspar Levack. On a typical weekday, I wake up, hurriedly get ready, and rush off to school, barely making it there in time. At this point, because I haven’t had the chance ...
A top transport expert lays out some new ideas to fix the capital’s transport troubles. Let’s Get Wellington Moving is dead. The three-headed transport monster, run equally by Waka Kotahi, Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council, but somehow less effective than any of them individually, is set to ...
An animal rights group will ask the Commerce Commission to investigate claims chicken meat producers are misleading consumers The post Misleading packaging claims headed to ComCom appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Analysis: With the phase-out of fossil fuels on the negotiating table at the COP28 climate negotiations, could producing nations be persuaded to sign up? After all the stakes are stratospheric, and the science crystal clear. Humanity must sharply cut fossil fuels emissions to forestall catastrophic climate change. The rewards ...
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Wellington mayor Tory Whanau’s admission that she has a drinking problem is another new headline for a not-so-new issue. The New Zealand Health Survey says that 4 in 5 Kiwi adults have had a drink in the past year, and 1 in 5 have a hazardous drinking pattern. So ...
Opinion: People don’t choose to get diabetes, yet there is a perception that they do, that their condition is a ‘lifestyle disease’, that it’s all their own fault, purely a consequence of eating an unhealthy diet , of not getting enough exercise. Diabetes stigma is alive, and unfortunately, kicking where ...
It is mildly reassuring that as Wall St slides down into negative figures for the last year (after a euphoric rise based upon simple wishful thinking) that the local district has been occupied by the young of the American nation. Around 700 were arrested yesterday but the protesters are still there. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/opinion/sunday/kristof-the-bankers-and-the-revolutionaries.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
What is really interesting is how long they have been there and how long it has taken the MSM to notify us. Says it all.
Iterestimg article on the impitus and organisation behind
#occupyeverywhere and the fact that those demanding specific demands miss the point of participatory democracy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/youre-creating-a-vision-of-the-sort-of-society-you-want-to-have-in-miniature/2011/08/25/gIQAXVg7HL_blog.html
I think some of the people criticising the lack of coherent or specific demands from the occupy movement, are just trying to undermine what is clearly a movement that has struck a chord and is gaining momentum. This morning I watched a heated discussion on Inside Story on Al Jazeera. A right wing guy kept saying the occupy movements criticisms of “Wall Street” made no sense and was silly because these institutions and entrepreneurs are the wealth creators and the market needs to be free from government regulation to create wealth, jobs etc for all….yadda yadda yadda. He stuck to his “senseless” mantra even when another guy gave examples showing that the right-wing mantra and slogans didn’t match the reality.
I saw the same type of “debate” on RTS…some Tea Party tinder dry and a New York liberal flagellating the subject matter to no great effect. All pretty laughable really.
There is a man called http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/ who fought some substantial corporate interests to save his beloved Skye. He made the point that successful protest CANNOT engage its opponents using the opponents LANGUAGE and INSTITUTIONS. Best to do it on your own terms, redefine the language and institutions. On that basis why should the OWSers define their “demands” in a language that sets out to control them?
Make the bastards talk in your terms, your way at your behest.
Read http://www.kunstler.com today, he sites an OWSER (occupier) with a sign saying:
$70,000 College Debt
$12,000 Medical Bills
I’m 22
Where’s My Bailout?
http://wilderside.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/occupy-wall-street-finally-releases-their-one-demand/
p
Reading last night a journalist talking about being in the cells post Brooklyn bridge, she note that the arrests had the unintended consequences of putting the relatively wet behind the airs actinides with experienced activists, who were essentially given a forum within which to teach activism.
And it’s not just #occupytheworld. Imagine if all American port were shut down.
http://www.truth-out.org/longshore-workers-make-stand-labor/1317217164
Posted this late last night, so for those who missed it..
Can’t post the pictures of these t-shirts obviously and no web site unfortunately. But those familiar with Sex Pistols fashion can probably get the picture, just swap Queenie for Key n bobs your uncle.
“Hello fellow Hobbits my name is John Key and I am here
to sell off your land and assets to foreign corporations,
privatise your water, jails, schools, hospitals under TPPA
public private partnerships and basically leave you up a
proverbial (effluent infested) river without a paddle.
I am proud to say that during my term as Prime Sinister I’ve:
• Doubled NZ’s international debt to $36+ billion
• Provided excellent tax cuts to the rich, helping increase
the top 150 peoples wealth last year by $7 billion
• Made inflation go up to 5.3% by introducing
a GST rise to 15% last year
• Helped triple the number of people receiving
unemployment benefits
• Passed 17 pieces of undemocratic emergency
legislation without any form of public debate
• Helped oversee a massive rise in child poverty
• Made sure 7000 families won’t be eligible for
Working for Families tax credits next year
• Dished out a 5 year deepsea exploratory oil permit
to Petrobras which has absolutely no conditions for
environmental protection, and that would leave the
NZ tax payer to pay the clean up bill for any oil leak
• Agreed to not mine the National Parks, yet changed the
boundary of the Oteake Conservation Park to exclude
a 195 hectare area over the Hawkdun lignite deposit
As you can see I am a great choice to lead you forward
into oblivion, so I really hope you will support me by
purchasing one of these campaign t-shirts I have had kindly
donated by the kind folks at Anarkey & Lovely Ltd.
If you could be so kind as to spread the good word about
these I’d be most grateful. As an extension of my thanks
I personally promise to gift you an extra dollar per week
in the next round of tax cuts, should we be reelected.
God Save New Zealand T-Shirts
> 100% organic non-bleached cotton tees
> Available in Sml, Med, Lge, XL, XXL
> $30 +postage (or free pick up)
For orders email [email protected]
or contact Roxanne on 021 701 494″
Thanks..Fantastic summary. I am ordering my T-shirt stat!
Ah, the power of blogs to influence the lazy reef fish of the media…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10756375
“…Their opponents are calling it desperate opportunism..,”
By which Derek Cheng actually means “I logged into kiwiblog then wrote this story”.
A brief mention on the early RNZ news today that a record 100,000+ hectares of NZ land was approved and sold off overseas in the last year. This included dairy farms to German and other European interests and large areas of Ngai Tahu forests. This is asset selling on a large scale, and also questions the assumption that Maori corporates care about the environment.
I expect we will now see some serious examination of the issues on prime time public television, such as Close Up or Sunday.
Interesting that it’s German and other (northern?) European interests. Watching Al Jazeera, I keep hearing complaints from Germans and other northern European countries complaining that they are being asked to pay for Greece’s bad financial/economic management. But wasn’t it German and other financial corporations that were profiteering from investments in Greece before the financial problems were acknowledged? Why were they investing in or lending to a country that they claim was being badly managed in the first place?
Exactly Carol. Various politicians bemoan the recent penchant for borrowing. But wtf do they expect? The stupid lenders lent the stuff. They should bemoan the lenders and their drug-dealer like parasitic nature – get someone loaded up and hooked knowing full well that they will not be able to dig themselves out of their hole thereby opening the way to take assets and other items in exchange. The lenders are sick parasites.
we’ve not seen Maori corporates care about the people working their commercial fisheries, and working closely together with the Michael Fay types. Why would they hold environmental values higher than other corporates in the money chase?
Maori corporates have the same psychopathic profile as every other corporate.
I would like to know who is on the Overseas Investment commission, what their qualifications are and what are the terms of reference? Does protecting the environment figure at all?
BLingish will love this
These new crimes stats seem a little too good to be true.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/180655/recorded-crime-falls-103-south
As they say on The Wire – “Juking the Stats”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCNLiHmEUxA
My guess is that senior police in NZ are more like Rawls than Daniels.
Criminologist expert from victoria university this morning was saying that the drop in crime stats has been seen in other western countries recently too, and suggests that part of it is going to be demographic change with an aging population.
In general he thought there wasn’t much that the government could specifically take credit for, and specifically not the 3 strikes law.
And on nine-to-noon, it was reported that there has been an increase in (reported) sexual assaults.
Well the Select Committee has reported back on the Video Search and Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill and it has benefitted from the select committee process. The retrospective effect with one important exception has been removed. Powers of search have been reduced. The Bill if enacted will only be in effect for 6 months.
But there is one dead rat lurking in the Bill. The power to appeal a conviction because of video surveillance evidence being improperly admitted has been removed. Previously an appeal could be lodged on the basis that Hamed represents a change in the law. Generally the chances of an appeal succeeding are poor, it has to be shown that there was a miscarriage of justice. As shown in Hamed the Court has a discretion to admit otherwise improperly acquired evidence.
But the Rule of Law requires that access to the courts is maintained and the effect of a law change not be retrospective unless there are good reasons. As far as I can see no estimate of the number of cases that may have been affected was made and I suspect it would be few. But Parliament should not shut off chances of an appeal on the basis that it may not like the decision. Besides historical cases only would be affected and there would be no implications for current video surveillance.
Labour went along with it. They have improved the bill greatly but I am sure the Nats put this dead rat in so that Labour would be tainted.
Keith Locke is right. He said:
The bill retrospectively denies any person already convicted the right to use the Hamed decision as part of an appeal. That is contrary to a fundamental legal principle, that people engaged in court proceed- ings have resort to the law as it applied at the time of the alleged offence …
Politics is a absolute mud pit sometimes …
Just wondering, but weren’t “criminals are going to go free” comment taints the chance of
a fair trial. Surely juries will now debate video evidence for its legacy to their personal
rights?
Quiz time
the link is faulty, it heads to homepage
Fixed.
Thanks. Didn’t realise that the original link didn’t have the http:/ in it.
On 9toNoon Kathryn Ryan has interviewed a US patriot who is programmed to see politics and economics in the world from the glamor spin of his US viewpoint. He has managed to stuff double the content normally in an interview because he is such a fast, manic speaker. Kathryn managed to rein in and interrupt some of his statements to ascertain the bias and the reality behind his rhetoric.
He sounds robotised, angry, and obssessed with US might and achievement all at the same time – really unbalanced with a skewwhiff approach to both the US and the rest of the world. It’s enlightening and frightening and it is no wonder that after our nuclear protest we couldn’t get heard in the States if the officials there think like this zealot..
10:05 The Rise of Asia – is China’s economic boom sustainable?
China’s economic boom and America’s political and economic paralysis have some predicting that the US is on the slide and that this will be the Chinese century — yet NZ is dependent in different ways on both, so what will it mean for us?
Dr Dan Twining is a former Foreign Policy Advisor to Senator John McCain, and an expert on Asia’s political and economic relationships. Dan is in NZ speaking about US policy and ongoing US engagement in the Asia Pacific – China’s rise and the “return” of Asia, plus Asia’s economic/political future and the implications for New Zealand.
Kathryn managed to rein in and interrupt some of his statements to ascertain the bias and the reality behind his rhetoric.
Your assessment of Ryan’s performance is extraordinarily indulgent. She couldn’t even handle Hekia “ummmm, errrr, ahhh, ummm” Parata a few weeks back, and she certainly lacks the wherewithal to seriously challenge someone like Twining.
Flotilla for Freedom
Originally eleven ships consisting of nine passenger boats and two cargo ships, carrying 200 activists from all over the world intended to participate in the second Freedom Flotilla…
http://kochbrothersexposed.com/education/
How competent and fiscally responsible were the NZ Treasury in October 2008 when implementing and managing the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme?
The Auditor-General’s report:
http://www.oag.govt.nz/2011/treasury
“The Treasury: Implementing and managing the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme.
On Sunday 12 October 2008, at the peak of the global financial crisis, the Government decided that it needed to implement a form of retail deposit guarantee scheme to avoid a flight of funds from New Zealand institutions to those in Australia. It needed to do this urgently: the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme (the Scheme) was designed and announced that same day.
The Scheme offered a Crown guarantee over the money that people deposited or invested with financial institutions – specifically banks and “non-bank deposit takers”, which is a group that includes finance companies and savings institutions (such as building societies and credit unions). If a financial institution in the Scheme failed, the Crown would repay all of the money that eligible people had deposited or invested, up to a cap of $1 million each.
This was a major decision in both financial and policy terms. In financial terms, this decision resulted in the Crown guaranteeing up to $133 billion in investor funds. In policy terms, it was a significant departure from the longstanding setting in New Zealand of minimal state intervention in the market. However, the Government considered the Scheme necessary to maintain depositor and public confidence in our financial markets.
I considered it important to tell the story of this Scheme, because it was so significant to our economy and because it was designed and implemented with such speed. After any crisis, there is value in pausing to reflect on how the response was managed and what lessons can be learned……
………………………………..
Overall, the Scheme achieved its goal. No banks in New Zealand failed, and there was no run on banks. Many of the other finance institutions also survived the global financial crisis. The economy was stabilised.
However, there have been costs. Nine finance companies in the Scheme failed, causing the Crown to pay out about $2 billion to depositors. It will be some time before the various receiverships are completed and the total amount recovered from the finance companies is known. Expected recoveries are currently estimated at about $0.9 billion…………..”
WHO exactly were these Treasury officials who were responsible for ‘implementing and managing the Crown Retail Deposit Guarantee Scheme?
WHAT were their connections (if any) with the ‘finance industry’?
” Nine finance companies in the Scheme failed, causing the Crown to pay out about $2 billion to depositors.”
YAY ‘Nanny State’?
Penny Bright
Independent ‘Public Watchdog’.
Candidate for Epsom
There is a power of difference between a deposit guarantee scheme that protects:
* small deposit holders… the genuine rank and file of us, you, me, the average Joes so we can spend our cash at the supermarket and perhaps put aside a little to help us get ahead.
AND
* those institutions and those individuals who took a calculated risk with their investments, and who in general have substantially more than the rest of us.
What National have chosen to do is to lump us all together to justify the saving of risky deposits for the wealthy AT THE EXPENSE OF THE REST OF US. Socialising the pain, privatising the gain. Our taxes paid to bail out those who got tax cuts. I am disgusted.
Actually, it was Labour – National just carried it on and gave it to finance companies that it shouldn’t have.
Treasury should be disbanded they employ rwnjs and claim to know whats good for the economy all they have done is promote Nact policy and look at their track record SFO should investigate.THEN they should be all sacked we would be better off without this politically motivated Govt dept.
Ta-Nehisi Coates: ‘Niggerhead’.
http://problembanklist.com/
I heard about this last week on Morning Report, and now there’s a handy stuff article on it.
Turns out the government overpaid private schools by $2.5M this year. And they’re letting them keep it.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/5722674/Ministry-mishap-turns-into-2-5m-bonus-for-schools
I heard about it too.
Now, if that was a beneficiary being overpaid …
Getting the money back isn’t entirely straight forward or easy, but I’d imagine a fair way to go about doing it would just be to reduce the total kitty by $500,000 for the next 5 years before divvying it up between the schools. That way they’d each feel only a very small amount of pain over a period of 5 years. I guess inflation would have eaten a lot of the value out by then, but surely a better plan than simply writing it off. I mean, we could have gotten a whole ‘nother tupperwaka for that kind of coin.
Various Occupy events planned for New Zealand.
Start your search for a local meeting here
a bit of a ramble.
Labour has done it at last. I’m a 54 year old, lifetime Labour voter, but this latest bullshit with video surveilance bill is the last straw. Never again will I vote for labour. I like the policies they are putting out, hell I’m one of the few who like Phil Goff. But this anti bill of rights bullshit has broken me. I will, from here untill I die vote Greens.
I see Smile and Wave is accusing the previous Labour Government for our credit downgrade. WTF three years in and it’s still their fault? Seriously, 3 yeaars in and his government has nothing to do with the state of the countries books? If a National Government is votedin this November then the idiots who did it, given that the majority of people who vote in any govt are working class, then they absolutely deserve what they get. Unfortunately, those of us who don’t vote for the thieves get the same crap. Ah well, as a Transexual at least I’m used to wearing other people’s crap.
More to come, some time. right now I have cats to feed.
A sad, sad day when Labour vote for this disgusting loss of civil liberties after all but 1 or 2 submission were opposed, once again they show that they are eletist and don’t understand that they are our servants, NOT our rulers
What’s wrong with the surveillance bill? It’s not retroactive and only has a 6-month time frame.
I think Joanne is a concern troll
It does seem rather strange for that to be the straw that broke the camels back.
Don’t think she had much of a spine to start with.
Hey Joanne you gonna be one of those Green voters who approves of a coalition with The Tories?
Hi CV
Gee, no spine eh. ah ok then I guess I’m like the parliamentary Labour party. After all they’ve been a completely useless opposition for the last 3 years constantly giving into the Govt when ever Jokey wanted to pass another law under urgency to take away our civil liberties
Hey Joanne Bus Driver answer the question, you gonna be one of those Green-National supporters now?
I am in there getting change happening in Labour and making sure the party goes left left left.
You are a professional driver, why didn’t you do the same before bailing.
CV, I very much doubt that the Greens willgo into coalition with National. Even if they did it would be more honest than the faux grand coalition with national that labour has been conducting over the last 2.5 years. I used to be a labour member in years past, before I was Joanne, my input didn’t make a great deal of difference, doubt that it would now
final straw, indicates lots of other straws. See my response to cv. what isa wrong withe video surveillance bill is this. It’s purpose is to legitrimize the illegal activities of police and, whilst the retrospectivity has gone they have denied those covicted using illegally collected video evidence the right to challenge that in court. Seems to be a conflict there with a) the rule of law and b) the BOR. But what would I know,I am apparently a spineless troll.
By the way, my name is Joanne, it is not a psuedonym, I live in Kilbirnie and drive buses for a living. I’m fat and ugly so feel free to greet me next time you’re travelling on my bus.
Video evidence was always going to be admissible in court if the charges were serious enough under the Evidence Act. The issue was that the cowboys in the police were using it whenever they had a vague idea that they didn’t like someone. Which appears to have been the case with dicks for brains special unit cops at Otahuhu who seem to have initiated the operation 8 and other legal debacles over the last decade.
The real problem was that it’s use was unregulated. The police were setting up continuous video surveillance on the most tenuous theories, invading private property without owner permissions to do it, and generally acting like boys with new toys. All it winds up doing is wasting the time of the courts, police sources, and probably most pertinently keeping scores of police in essentially useless anti terrorism units from being assigned to more productive tasks. They practice on activists. Any activists. Without any more reason than they are trying to change society peaceably.
The activities have to be regulated. This act even after having most of the absolute crap stripped out is definitely not perfect – but at least it has some pretty clear rules in it.
The search and survelliance bill is better – but even after languishing around the order paper for something like five years will not get passed until next year. Personally I would like to have parliament revisit that bill with changes before it is passed. There is a lot more evidence about abuses by the police that could and should be limited with some penalties. Perhaps give the IPCA some teeth to directly lay criminal charges on offenders in the police for abuses of process.
Fracking coming to Canterbury…
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2499474/fracking-could-be-coming-to-the-outskirts-of-chch.asx
According to Radio Live, the PM’s Hour had nothing to do with the staged licence fee arrangement. They put forward a strong argument against such paranoia:
“That is not true.”
Also:
“It has nothing to do with radio spectrum licensing payments.”
I’m convinced.
I’m also convinced that they hope this will be an annual event regardless of who is PM.
“Friday’s show was the first broadcast of what we hope will become an annual event for Radio Live.”
I wonder if the timing will always ensure that it will be during an election campaign? I also wonder for how many years this annual event will occur – I guess, being a business, they can’t guarantee anything. It was just that, right now, for some inexplicable, random reason some ‘body’ at Radio Live thought it would be a good idea.
Apparently:
“The idea is loosely based on an overseas example I heard about earlier in the year and which has been developed by my team at Radio Live.” (Who is ‘I’ here?)
I wish people would stop treating me as if I’m a mushroom.
People have been criticising Labour’s ‘comms,’ but whoever wrote this really needs some lessons in how to sound convincing.
If I wasn’t already, I’m definitely suspicious now.
Hmm.
Seeing as how the staged licence fee arrangement is with the parent company Mediaworks, and this “RadioLive Press Release” deals with that very arrangement, it must’ve been issued by someone in a position to speak for both organisations.
Someone who can refer to themselves as “I” when speaking on behalf of the company.
Only one person I can think of who fits that description and he happens to be John Key’s buddy.
Funny that.
Yeh, I’m laughing. On the inside.
As an aside, seriously – am I the only one thinking that this is the most corrupt govt since at least muldoon (even he’s doubtful as such)?
I mean simply on decisions that seem to have apparent coincidental connections to family members (eCan), personal funding (double dipton), non-tendered appointments (ahem), new support from honours recipients (guess), or “free” airtime.
I was a bit young for Lange govt, but Bolger – even Shipley – at least appeared to be more misguided than downright corrupt. The worst accusation tories can come up with about clark is that they were as bad at electoral funding accounting as every other party at the time (not minimising the principle, just putting into perspective against apparent quid pro quo). But the current fuckers seem to be running the country like a fiefdom.
We can learn a lot from Europe as regards transport and sophisticated lifestyles:
http://localbodies-bsprout.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-transport-and-green-ties.html
RWC inflicting massive pain on small businesses
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10756611