Is there no end to msm promoting this family? It’s become an obsession with media!
This time it’s Stephie Key (aka Cherry Lazar) once more, indulging in public self advancement through her soft porn “art.” Incidentally it’s interesting to note most, if not all of her “art” involves mainly herself!
Never ending self gratification through public promotion seems to be a genetic trait, obviously passed from father to both offspring!
Nope, no end. Watch as Max is the new phenom, the PM is invincible, the Greens are the worst bullies out there, and expert opinion on that face book face time thingy thats all the rage these days.
Gawd, I wonder how many new social problems are created by people reading this crap.
I read the article out of curiosity – it wasn’t much different to a similar story about a year or so ago about Ms Key. Her father has no shame : a real caring father would not be putting his children thru the media like that. Because you can bet your bottom dollar that these stories about his children are all designed to make him look good ! Yuk !
If you’re happy about Key’s family being used like this when the going is good … you don’t get to use the ‘keep his family out of it’ excuse when the shit hits the fan.
All part of the setup, get the kids out there with the msm promoting and praising them as good honest nice kids making their way in the big bad world who just happen to have a rich powerful dad.
It’s what script writers call building empathy so you feel sorry for them when the big bad world does what it’s always done. Better call Saul runs along this line.
What intrigues me is how much the DP crew will be involved in the big bad world phase with staged cyber bullying etc like their recent dog whistling rant on RNZ site.
Yep – although the obsession is more about generating clicks than it is about promoting the Key whanau, IMHO. I’d like to think its entirely mercantile as opposed to political chicanery designed to promote John Key. Either way, the MSM knows that it is, in effect, dangling Max and Stephie over an Otago University orientation piss-up like a piñata. The MSM fawning adulation of the Key Kids is designed to bring out the bullies (egged on by agent provocateurs) in order to generate more click-bait stories about “all those nasty lefties”.
Its got to the stage now where the MSM is generating its own news and, in deliberately using the Key Kids, exposing itself as the real bully.
Bullying that may or may not lead to the suicide of children of politicians doesn’t get worse than this….
During an aggressive campaign in 1975, Muldoon dubbed Rowling “a shiver looking for a spine to run up”. …”Being a nice guy is clearly a disability in politics and it was certainly not a good attribute in the 1975 campaign,” Rowling said ruefully years later, “It was played as a weakness against strength. I didn’t fight a very good campaign. I was tentative and people didn’t want that.”
And it didn’t stop there. The bullying of Rowling (btw the man who sacked Roger Douglas) was so bad that a ‘citizens for Rowling’ group was formed – it included Edmund Hillary. I remember the talk at the time of the pressure on the Rowling family.
His daughter, Kim, killed herself in 1978.
The cynical me thinks the current PM knows his history and is using it in reverse.
Brian Gould drew parallels between John Key and Robert Muldoon back in 2011. In his article, Brian said the two were quite different personalities because Key is “by nature a conciliator and seeker of consensus” but, like Muldoon, he dominates the media narrative.
Now, in 2015, we know that the nature of Key as discerned by Brian is actually a Crosby-Textor confection and, really, he is just as nasty as Muldoon ever was. Worse, I reckon. The difference between Muldoon’s era and Key’s reign comes down to the exponential use of PR by government and the internet. Key can, on the surface, be all about conciliation and consensus but that image is supported by a well-funded and clandestine Dirty Politics Machine doing the wetwork for him. Muldoon, at least, had the guts to do his out in the open, mostly.
Incessant joking, Key is so unlike Muldoon. Key much more like Trump, that aged vulture who is current picking over the corpse that is modern converativism, the grand old party, whose years of arrogant deliberate we wont change nothing politics has finally died.
Edit to add: one small action you can take against the MSM is to install an advertising and trackers blocker. I use these ones. They require a bit of fiddling about with to block everything and you sometimes have to tweak them for particular sites in order to, say, play a video or fill in a form or comment. But, wow, do they speed up page loading and eliminate screen clutter. There are versions for cell phones too.
Unfortunately for some they also just create problems or slow systems down (I’ve used ghostery a couple of times and always end up turning it off. I can’t even get my normal flashblocker to work properly now, so many new websites simply don’t work, or the blocker works very unevenly).
I really wish the geek community would sort this out, because at the moment in order to stop tracking one needs a higher level of skill that most of the population possess. EFF have some good guides and I’ve had some good advice here on ts, but never managed to find something that didn’t cause more problems than it solved.
Research shows that most people want more privacy controls but end up using the internet without them because they need the internet.
They are used by us for putting the name details into your comments, and by the google and statcounter trackers for us to keep track of visitors for stats.
If you drop the cookies, then the latter former means you will probably have to enter your details for each comment. In the case of the former latter, it just means the stats for visits and unique visitors are out – but those are deeply inaccurate measures anyway.
The Herald for one needs to take a long hard look at itself and then get sorted.
A quick search on the website shows about 60 odd hits for Max Key for the 2015 year alone. A number of those seem to have been sourced off his public postings. So there they are busy feeding the flames then crying out “oh look it’s getting to hot for him”.
And if people who set their social media settings to private attract a whole lot less attention.
“Democrats have a lot riding on Hillary Clinton. Which is why the word ‘immunity’ should make them very nervous.
….”
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Well, at least you are being even handed, Penny.
You are polluting both The Standard and Kiwiblog with your cut and paste drivel.
I see there’s more from you below.
If we had a voting mechanism here, like they do over at Kiwiblog, I’m sure you would find that very few people are interested in your view.
I don’t think he’s finished just yet. Thom Hartmann on The Big Bicture had a good piece on how the media are mischievously adding the super delegate votes to Hillary’s total, when the super delegates can change their vote right up until the end of the Primaries.
And the super delegates have done that to Hillary before when she was running against Obama. At one point she led Obama by a 2-1 ratio but over the course of the campaign many saw her as too divisive a leader and they gradually trickled Obama’s way. History could well repeat.
Careful people……Key Schlong Ill and family must be gushed over……..they are our New Camelot after all. Any departure from awed gush you’re cyberbullying.
Hang on…….who said anything about ‘cyberbullying’ ? Oh that’s right, it was Key Schlong Ill……..followed (on cue) by Watkins, Young and Trev’ of the Herald I daresay, Soper…….
Yes we are witnessing a very cynical and staged event to garner sympathy for the kids to compensate for dads rough ride.
Also further distractions required as a prominent nz’er is closer to being unmasked which is likely to trigger key loyalists to re-evaluate their Demi god in all his shonky dodgy ways.
tc – you don’t think the prominent nzer who now has such a cushy job up north is going to be named and shamed in the MSM when he comes up for trial, do you ? This secrecy around him is going to continue right up to the type of sentence he gets – or even if he gets one. Plus there is also word around that the long “delay” in the trial has been designed to make him look better, and to somehow fudge the evidence coming from witnesses. ie the longer its delayed the less inclined the witnesses might be in talking about it.
A lengthy wait for any trial would usually just aggravate the distress of the complainants as they have to keep reliving it at lengthy intervals and can’t get on with reconstructing their lives.
Facebook looks set to pay more UK tax but it might not be as much as you think
March 5, 2016 4.48am AEDT
Facebook has said it will pay more in UK taxes from 2017.
The news comes hot on the heels of the much-derided settlement of Google’s decade-long tax dispute with the UK tax authority. It also comes a day after it emerged that Facebook is paid more by HMRC for adverts than it pays in tax.
Facebook has encountered heavy criticism for its tax dealings – not for their legality, but for how fair they are. In 2014 the company’s UK operations, Facebook UK Limited, reported a corporation tax payment of only £4,327. The company’s UK subsidiary reported a turnover of £105m and a gross profit of £103m, but this was wiped out by a massive administrative expense of £131m, leaving a pre-tax operating loss of £28m.
Companies trade with a view to making a profit, but since 2011 Facebook has been reporting accounting losses. Its audited UK accounts for 2014 do not provide any information about the composition of the administrative expenses, a key element in its reported losses and a possible reason for low tax.
Facebook has promised to change its business model and the way it records its sales revenues from advertising.
Currently, Facebook books a number of its sales to UK customers through its Irish subsidiary, Facebook Ireland Limited.
But it is set to pay millions more in taxes after a decision to allow profits from major advertisers initiated in the UK to be taxed in the UK.
Facebook executives said in an internal post reported by the BBC that “UK sales made directly by our UK team will be booked in the UK, not Ireland.
Facebook UK will then record the revenue from these sales”.
The change in Facebook’s business model does not necessarily signal a new era in which Facebook will pay millions in tax that some might assume.
One way to prevent Facebook and other big multinational companies from minimising their taxes would be to implement a system known as unitary taxation, which can eliminate the tax advantages of all intra-group transactions.
But unitary taxation has received virtually no attention from the OECD’s recent Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which was geared toward reforming the international system for taxing companies.
…..
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Hadn’t you noticed that nobody responds to you apart from the occasional sarcastic coment about your rates? It is not that people agree with you – it is more like they just don’t care enough to enter into any sort of dialogue.
Fuck off you disingenuous troll. That’s what I say to anyone who puts words in my mouth and misrepresents my political views and values. Right now it’s hard to imagine a worse candidate for a Mayor than someone who lies about other people’s views and thinks it’s ok to do so for their own agenda.
Kim Hill lets another shameless propagandist have his say, uninterrupted.
RNZ National, Saturday 5 March 2016, 8:12 a.m.
His C.V., as printed on the RNZ website, certainly sounds impressive: “Jamie McIntyre consults on national security issues, blogs on the military and media (Jamie McIntyre’s Behind Frenemy Lines), and is Adjunct Professor of Multimedia Journalism at the University of Maryland. His career spans four decades, from the local news round at WTOP radio in Washington D.C. to Al Jazeera America’s National Security Correspondent based at the Pentagon. He was in the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, and he broke the news of Saddam Hussain’s capture. He is currently on special assignment at PBS NewsHour, where he has investigated the Pentagon’s plans to spend $US1 trillion on upgrading America’s nuclear arsenal, some of which is 60 years old.”
The actuality, however, is not so impressive….
KIM HILL: How come you haven’t been captured by the establishment?
JAMIE McINTYRE: Y’know, I and other reporters are allowed to roam the corridors of the Pentagon at will. I doubt whether you can do that in any other country in the world, even over there in New Zealand.
………..
KIM HILL: Why is Iran not allowed to have nuclear weapons? It just seems to be taken for granted that they can’t have them. Why?
JAMIE McINTYRE: Well, the United States sees itself as the good guys. [snickers awkwardly at the absurdity of that statement]
KIM HILL: Of COURSE.
JAMIE McINTYRE:[adopting a serious tone] But Iran has a track record of supporting organisations deemed to be terrorist, and of being anti-Israel.
Hill, who cannot be so dim as to believe a word of that unsupported stream of nonsense, failed to challenge it. I decided to send her a wake-up message….
Why did you suggest Jamie McIntyre is something other than he is?
Dear Kim,
You asked Jamie McIntyre why he had “not been captured by the establishment”. That question implied that he is an independent and rigorous journalist; what he said during the interview demonstrated he was anything but independent or rigorous.
When you asked him why Iran should not have a nuclear arsenal, McIntyre claimed that the United States are “the good guys” and then he launched into a reiteration of official rhetoric, claiming that Iran “has a track record of supporting organisations deemed to be terrorist and of being anti-Israel.”
Jamie McIntyre spoke with wonderment about how he is allowed to wander freely about the corridors of the Pentagon. His bland endorsement of Pentagon—and State Department—rhetoric shows just why he and other “journalists” like him are allowed to wander so freely: with their credulous repetition of black propaganda against official enemies, “journalists” like Jamie McIntyre are effectively agents of the Pentagon.
No National MP could be bothered attending the tangi for the late, great Ranginui Walker. Absolutely shameful considering his immense mana and all the work he did for the Waitangi Tribunal.
He used to write in the Listener before Pamela Stirling turned it into the rightwing travesty it is today. Here he is on the Don Brash Orewa speech:
Thank for the link Karen, I looked the other day for Listener columns and couldn’t find any. Am hoping some of the pre-internet ones will get republished.
That is shameful that no Nats attended his tangi. This is where we are now.
Did any Labour MPs have the nerve to go? (Bearing in mind Helen Clark’s cynical decision to out-Brash Brash after she was spooked by the success of the Orewa speech.)
What is it with this site? I couldn’t access The Standard home page yesterday. Still can’t today – just get this:
This web page is not available
ERR_CONTENT_DECODING_FAILED
Seems the only pages I can access today are “Open Mike 05032016” and “Jeanette Fitzsimons Call to Scrap the ETS”. The only way I can get in to these is by using my bookmark to the Comment Formatting page, then clicking on threads via the right side Comments summary box.
Even so, I can’t access the “Intersections” post, “Young Nats Run Away…” yesterdays “Daily Review”, “John Key Lies…” in fact pretty much most other pages I click on in Comments are producing the above “page not available” result.
Looks like I might as well just give up on here because I have constant access problems and no idea why that is. It only ever happens here. Not a caching problem. Clearing cache does nothing. 🙁
Edit: Update. Oh FFS, I managed to post this comment, and now suddenly everything’s available!! Stuffed if I know what’s going on.
I’ve been having the same issue over the last 24hrs.
Why is this site the ONLY one I continually have trouble with when it comes to loading, Not just recently but ever since I started visiting?
osx 10.6.8 / firefox 44.0.2 (no ad blockers etc)
Great discussion on the latest Keiser Report with Steve Keen and Ross Ashcroft on Australia’s housing bubble and exposure to mortgage debt, and, by default (mentioned), New Zealand’s exposure too…
It’s not what you eat, it’s how it’s produced that determines the ethics. Here’s an interesting exploration of omnivore vs vegan ethics, which also shows that context is everything (it’s looking at site specific food production, in this case in Australia).
Replacing red meat with grain products leads to many more sentient animal deaths, far greater animal suffering and significantly more environmental degradation. Protein obtained from grazing livestock costs far fewer lives per kilogram: it is a more humane, ethical and environmentally-friendly dietary option.
So, what does a hungry human do? Our teeth and digestive system are adapted for omnivory. But we are now challenged to think about philosophical issues. We worry about the ethics involved in killing grazing animals and wonder if there are other more humane ways of obtaining adequate nutrients.
Relying on grains and pulses brings destruction of native ecosystems, significant threats to native species and at least 25 times more deaths of sentient animals per kilogram of food. Most of these animals sing love songs to each other, until we inhumanely mass-slaughter them.
…
The challenge for the ethical eater is to choose the diet that causes the least deaths and environmental damage. There would appear to be far more ethical support for an omnivorous diet that includes rangeland-grown red meat and even more support for one that includes sustainably wild-harvested kangaroo.
There is a wild meat group in Australia – I have not been aware of one here, but perhaps there is. I know that when I ordered a pasta dish with the little blue mussels at the the pub in Melbourne, someone from the wild foods camp commented approvingly. I yearn for old school ways of eating, with the farms close to the cities and meat being a high days/holy days kind of food. I am not opposed to meat eating per se, but do not think that animals should be reduced to fodder either.
That’s pretty much where I’m at too Olwyn. Family farms whose purpose is to produce food and provide a living for multiple people rather than big business that treats animals as stock units (not that some family farms haven’t been prone to animal cruelty as well). Often in these arguments we are comparing one set of bads for another. Let’s replace feedlot beef with Monsanto soy. Whereas the vision you present allows us to behave ethically on a number of fronts and produce food sustainably with regard for the wider ecosystems. I like the meat on high days concept. There’s also the idea from many cultures that you eat small amounts of meat often, but the end result is less meat than we eat now without going to the hard extreme of veganism (which is never going to be sustainable).
I know lots of people that eat feral rabbit, venison, goat, pig etc. I liked the Australian perspective of large tracts of land being able to support smaller populations of feral animals for harvest. We could do this in a smaller scale in NZ too.
I like the meat on high days concept. There’s also the idea from many cultures that you eat small amounts of meat often, but the end result is less meat than we eat now without going to the hard extreme of veganism (which is never going to be sustainable). I think those ways of doing things are consistent with each other – the “small amounts of meat often” bit adds up to a whole animal being used, and not just the most desirable bits.
Often in these arguments we are comparing one set of bads for another. Let’s replace feedlot beef with Monsanto soy. I couldn’t agree more! Everything gets reduced to “How would you like your corporatism?”
How long before something is done about the, in my view, significant ‘conflict of interest’ in Auckland Council being a member of the private sector lobby group for developers – the NZ Property Council?
FYI – I raised this matter directly at the following Auckland Council Special Governing Body meeting:
(Scroll to 7.50 minutes to see/ hear for yourself my presentation to the Special Auckland Council Governing Body held on 24 February 2016, on the ‘out of scope’ rezoning changes made behind closed doors by the Auckland Council Unitary Plan Committee.)
FYI – I was the only Auckland Mayoral candidate who addressed Auckland Council at this meeting.
Same dodgy buzz here in Wellington Penny. Councillor for Northern ward, Deputy Mayor and now Mayoral candidate on the Labour ticket, Justin Lester, sits on the executive of the Wellington branch of the NZ Property Council.
No conflict of interest has been declared.
Our city planning manager, is the former husband of one of Wellington biggest residential developers and did at least declare a conflict of interest over his relationship with that person, although nobody seems to have told the Mayor, as it is was her office that requested he sort out issues regarding anti social behaviour by developers and contractors in my neighbourhood. They simply denied he had a conflict of interest when I raised it.
The northern suburbs are at the mercy of mass development. All work is undertaken on a non notified basis. There are no plans on any of the developments to mitigate environmental damage, outside of rules about not letting sediment get into creeks.
After battling with the council, including the above mentioned councillor, and the developer for 18 months I’ve come to the conclusion that there is an incredibly unhealthy relationship between the council and developers here in Wellington.
Had there been plans in place to protect and enhance the environment, build in areas close to public transport and close to shops and amenities, or at least allow for commercial areas within residential areas, to undertake construction in a way that is respectful towards residents and to build low cost housing I wouldn’t see a problem. It has been the complete opposite and theres only two winners, the developers and the council.
All you ever wanted to know about neoliberal economics and Global Housing Bubbles …in particular Australia (NZ bank implications) and UK…and elsewhere…and where to for baby boomers, millennials, aspirationals etc
“In this special episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy are joined by Professor Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics, and Ross Ashcroft of RenegadeInc.com and the crowd-funded series, Meet the Renegades. They discuss housing bubbles in Australia, housing policy in the UK, and the rise of Donald Trump as a sign of the great recession happening outside the property bubble cities in which both politicians and journalists live.”
And while you lot are at it, why don’t you “Give a little” to Penny Bright to help pay her rates and arrears, she seems hard done by !!
[lprent: Completely off topic. Banned one week for diversion and another week for trolling. Moved to Open Mike. If I see you deliberately do this kind of stupidity again, I’ll be less lenient. ]
“American presidential election politics is a cross between a talent show and a beauty contest. Being smart and coherent does not necessarily pay dividends. Case in point: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both are front-runners of their parties. Trump is idiosyncratic and raw; Clinton the ultimate establishment insider. Is this a choice, or merely bad theater?
CrossTalking with Brandon Andrews, David Paul Kuhn, and Lionel.”
Just found out about this wee historical gem – which, in my view, is both pertinent and potentially politically embarrassing for Hillary Clinton?
So – back in 1964 now Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton – worked (as a Republican?) on the 1964 election campaign of Republican segregationist Presidential candidate – Barry Goldwater.
So much for Hillary Clinton’s ‘civil rights’ credentials?
Barry Goldwater was never supposed to be supported as the Republican Presidential candidate at their convention, because he was regarded by ‘establishment’ Republicans as being ‘unelectable’.
Is history going to repeat itself?
This time I’m referring to Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Convention?
A 1996 NPR interview with Hillary Clinton has recently resurfaced, in which the current Democratic front-runner shockingly embraced conservatism and reiterated how proud she was to support a segregationist presidential candidate.
In the interview, Clinton told NPR’s Scott Simon that her political beliefs were “rooted in the conservatism that I was raised with,” and talked about being a “Goldwater girl” in 1964:
……
Barry Goldwater served five terms as a United States Senator for Arizona and was the Republican nominee for President in the Election of 1964. He is credited with reviving the conservative movement in the United States in the 1960’s.
Although rebuffed nationally by the electorate, he mobilized a new wave of young conservatives who transferred their support toRonald Reagan, the winner in the election of 1980.
……
Goldwater’s book, Conscience of a Conservative, published in 1960, made him a hero to anti-communist and anti-New-Deal Republicans. The movement to get the 1964 Republican nomination for Goldwater was not taken seriously by establishment Republicans, who regarded him as so obviously unelectable that the convention would never nominate him.
However, Goldwater’s principal opponent in 1964 was Nelson Rockefeller, whose divorce and remarriage to a younger woman created a backlash. The birth of a child to his new wife just before the California primary probably cost him that election and provided Goldwater with a huge delegate count.
After that, no plausible opponent emerged capable of stopping Goldwater. He was nominated at the national convention in xxx and gave a ringing defense of conservatism in his acceptance speech which energized his supporters but appalled moderates.
….
So – while Hillary Clinton is supporting the Republican Presidential candidate who supports segregation, Barry Goldwater – Bernie Sanders is getting arrested for desegregation?
Who has the most trustworthy track record in supporting the civil liberties of Afro-Americans?
2. Being Arrested For Desegregation: As a student at the University of Chicago, Sanders was active in both the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1962, he was arrested for protesting segregation in public schools in Chicago; the police came to call him an outside agitator, as he went around putting up flyers around the city detailing police brutality.
…..
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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 ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
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 Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
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 ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Is there no end to msm promoting this family? It’s become an obsession with media!
This time it’s Stephie Key (aka Cherry Lazar) once more, indulging in public self advancement through her soft porn “art.” Incidentally it’s interesting to note most, if not all of her “art” involves mainly herself!
Never ending self gratification through public promotion seems to be a genetic trait, obviously passed from father to both offspring!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11600258
Nope, no end. Watch as Max is the new phenom, the PM is invincible, the Greens are the worst bullies out there, and expert opinion on that face book face time thingy thats all the rage these days.
Gawd, I wonder how many new social problems are created by people reading this crap.
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/77561157/Political-Week-Max-Key-cyberbullying-a-sign-that-politics-is-getting-too-nasty
“Gawd, I wonder how many new social problems are created by people reading this crap.”
You can take solace from the fact the print MSM will not be with us for much longer
Absolutely sickening.
I read the article out of curiosity – it wasn’t much different to a similar story about a year or so ago about Ms Key. Her father has no shame : a real caring father would not be putting his children thru the media like that. Because you can bet your bottom dollar that these stories about his children are all designed to make him look good ! Yuk !
You need to get you KDS under control.
You’re seeing stuff that’s not there.
If you’re happy about Key’s family being used like this when the going is good … you don’t get to use the ‘keep his family out of it’ excuse when the shit hits the fan.
As it inevitably will.
Just don’t read that shit, if you can avoid it. If the Herald notices people aren’t clicking on their clickbait, they’ll stop putting it out.
No they will not. If it gets many clicks that’s a bonus, granny is an integral part of nacts pr machine.
Saturation and repetition of memes requires a consistent presence so the sheeple sub consciously take it in.
All part of the setup, get the kids out there with the msm promoting and praising them as good honest nice kids making their way in the big bad world who just happen to have a rich powerful dad.
It’s what script writers call building empathy so you feel sorry for them when the big bad world does what it’s always done. Better call Saul runs along this line.
What intrigues me is how much the DP crew will be involved in the big bad world phase with staged cyber bullying etc like their recent dog whistling rant on RNZ site.
Yep – although the obsession is more about generating clicks than it is about promoting the Key whanau, IMHO. I’d like to think its entirely mercantile as opposed to political chicanery designed to promote John Key. Either way, the MSM knows that it is, in effect, dangling Max and Stephie over an Otago University orientation piss-up like a piñata. The MSM fawning adulation of the Key Kids is designed to bring out the bullies (egged on by agent provocateurs) in order to generate more click-bait stories about “all those nasty lefties”.
Its got to the stage now where the MSM is generating its own news and, in deliberately using the Key Kids, exposing itself as the real bully.
Bullying that may or may not lead to the suicide of children of politicians doesn’t get worse than this….
And it didn’t stop there. The bullying of Rowling (btw the man who sacked Roger Douglas) was so bad that a ‘citizens for Rowling’ group was formed – it included Edmund Hillary. I remember the talk at the time of the pressure on the Rowling family.
His daughter, Kim, killed herself in 1978.
The cynical me thinks the current PM knows his history and is using it in reverse.
‘
Brian Gould drew parallels between John Key and Robert Muldoon back in 2011. In his article, Brian said the two were quite different personalities because Key is “by nature a conciliator and seeker of consensus” but, like Muldoon, he dominates the media narrative.
Now, in 2015, we know that the nature of Key as discerned by Brian is actually a Crosby-Textor confection and, really, he is just as nasty as Muldoon ever was. Worse, I reckon. The difference between Muldoon’s era and Key’s reign comes down to the exponential use of PR by government and the internet. Key can, on the surface, be all about conciliation and consensus but that image is supported by a well-funded and clandestine Dirty Politics Machine doing the wetwork for him. Muldoon, at least, had the guts to do his out in the open, mostly.
Incessant joking, Key is so unlike Muldoon. Key much more like Trump, that aged vulture who is current picking over the corpse that is modern converativism, the grand old party, whose years of arrogant deliberate we wont change nothing politics has finally died.
Quite the little swot our current PM.
He probably has that piece on one of his toilet doors so he can read and have a laugh every time he sits down for a pee.
[Sorry – angry that he gets away with this manipulation]
‘
Everyone should be so angry.
Edit to add: one small action you can take against the MSM is to install an advertising and trackers blocker. I use these ones. They require a bit of fiddling about with to block everything and you sometimes have to tweak them for particular sites in order to, say, play a video or fill in a form or comment. But, wow, do they speed up page loading and eliminate screen clutter. There are versions for cell phones too.
https://adblockplus.org/
https://www.ghostery.com/
Unfortunately for some they also just create problems or slow systems down (I’ve used ghostery a couple of times and always end up turning it off. I can’t even get my normal flashblocker to work properly now, so many new websites simply don’t work, or the blocker works very unevenly).
I really wish the geek community would sort this out, because at the moment in order to stop tracking one needs a higher level of skill that most of the population possess. EFF have some good guides and I’ve had some good advice here on ts, but never managed to find something that didn’t cause more problems than it solved.
Research shows that most people want more privacy controls but end up using the internet without them because they need the internet.
EFF have their own browser extension that gives you control over tracking cookies. Works a treat: https://www.eff.org/privacybadger
That one makes my computer go crazy too, so I just end up turning it off. I probably need to upgrade the OS and try again.
You can happily block cookies on this site.
They are used by us for putting the name details into your comments, and by the google and statcounter trackers for us to keep track of visitors for stats.
If you drop the cookies, then the
latterformer means you will probably have to enter your details for each comment. In the case of theformerlatter, it just means the stats for visits and unique visitors are out – but those are deeply inaccurate measures anyway.[lprent: oops – fixed. ]
Meh.
Whether or not you like her outputs, she’s at least trying it overseas under a different brand name.
Barack Obama’s kids are really nice, aren’t they…real role models. JK take note.
The Herald for one needs to take a long hard look at itself and then get sorted.
A quick search on the website shows about 60 odd hits for Max Key for the 2015 year alone. A number of those seem to have been sourced off his public postings. So there they are busy feeding the flames then crying out “oh look it’s getting to hot for him”.
And if people who set their social media settings to private attract a whole lot less attention.
Absolutely sure that Bernie Sanders is finished?
Perhaps not …..
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/03/03/democrats-have-a-lot-riding-on-hillary-clinton-which-is-why-the-word-immunity-should-make-them-very-nervous/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na
“Democrats have a lot riding on Hillary Clinton. Which is why the word ‘immunity’ should make them very nervous.
….”
_____________________________________________
In my view – it ain’t over till it’s over …..
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Well, at least you are being even handed, Penny.
You are polluting both The Standard and Kiwiblog with your cut and paste drivel.
I see there’s more from you below.
If we had a voting mechanism here, like they do over at Kiwiblog, I’m sure you would find that very few people are interested in your view.
charming
I don’t think he’s finished just yet. Thom Hartmann on The Big Bicture had a good piece on how the media are mischievously adding the super delegate votes to Hillary’s total, when the super delegates can change their vote right up until the end of the Primaries.
And the super delegates have done that to Hillary before when she was running against Obama. At one point she led Obama by a 2-1 ratio but over the course of the campaign many saw her as too divisive a leader and they gradually trickled Obama’s way. History could well repeat.
Careful people……Key Schlong Ill and family must be gushed over……..they are our New Camelot after all. Any departure from awed gush you’re cyberbullying.
Hang on…….who said anything about ‘cyberbullying’ ? Oh that’s right, it was Key Schlong Ill……..followed (on cue) by Watkins, Young and Trev’ of the Herald I daresay, Soper…….
Yes we are witnessing a very cynical and staged event to garner sympathy for the kids to compensate for dads rough ride.
Also further distractions required as a prominent nz’er is closer to being unmasked which is likely to trigger key loyalists to re-evaluate their Demi god in all his shonky dodgy ways.
Gotta mitigate potential damage to the brand
tc – you don’t think the prominent nzer who now has such a cushy job up north is going to be named and shamed in the MSM when he comes up for trial, do you ? This secrecy around him is going to continue right up to the type of sentence he gets – or even if he gets one. Plus there is also word around that the long “delay” in the trial has been designed to make him look better, and to somehow fudge the evidence coming from witnesses. ie the longer its delayed the less inclined the witnesses might be in talking about it.
A lengthy wait for any trial would usually just aggravate the distress of the complainants as they have to keep reliving it at lengthy intervals and can’t get on with reconstructing their lives.
How should multinational companies be taxed so that they pay their fair share of taxes?
https://theconversation.com/facebook-looks-set-to-pay-more-uk-tax-but-it-might-not-be-as-much-as-you-think-55781
Facebook looks set to pay more UK tax but it might not be as much as you think
March 5, 2016 4.48am AEDT
Facebook has said it will pay more in UK taxes from 2017.
The news comes hot on the heels of the much-derided settlement of Google’s decade-long tax dispute with the UK tax authority. It also comes a day after it emerged that Facebook is paid more by HMRC for adverts than it pays in tax.
Facebook has encountered heavy criticism for its tax dealings – not for their legality, but for how fair they are. In 2014 the company’s UK operations, Facebook UK Limited, reported a corporation tax payment of only £4,327. The company’s UK subsidiary reported a turnover of £105m and a gross profit of £103m, but this was wiped out by a massive administrative expense of £131m, leaving a pre-tax operating loss of £28m.
Companies trade with a view to making a profit, but since 2011 Facebook has been reporting accounting losses. Its audited UK accounts for 2014 do not provide any information about the composition of the administrative expenses, a key element in its reported losses and a possible reason for low tax.
Facebook has promised to change its business model and the way it records its sales revenues from advertising.
Currently, Facebook books a number of its sales to UK customers through its Irish subsidiary, Facebook Ireland Limited.
But it is set to pay millions more in taxes after a decision to allow profits from major advertisers initiated in the UK to be taxed in the UK.
Facebook executives said in an internal post reported by the BBC that “UK sales made directly by our UK team will be booked in the UK, not Ireland.
Facebook UK will then record the revenue from these sales”.
…….
_____________________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Is it time to introduce ‘unitary taxation’ for multinational companies?
https://theconversation.com/facebook-looks-set-to-pay-more-uk-tax-but-it-might-not-be-as-much-as-you-think-55781
The change in Facebook’s business model does not necessarily signal a new era in which Facebook will pay millions in tax that some might assume.
One way to prevent Facebook and other big multinational companies from minimising their taxes would be to implement a system known as unitary taxation, which can eliminate the tax advantages of all intra-group transactions.
But unitary taxation has received virtually no attention from the OECD’s recent Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, which was geared toward reforming the international system for taxing companies.
…..
__________________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate
What is ‘Unitary Taxation’?
http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/Towards_Unitary_Taxation_1-1.pdf
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
[These posts are increasingly resembling spam. That’s enough for today. Stop now, please. BLiP]
SO sorry.
Apologise is all I can do.
Silly me thought ‘Open Mike’ was the place to raise ideas for informed debate and discussion?
Making sure multinational companies can’t evade tax isn’t a topic worthy of debate?
In my view it is.
I for one had not heard of the concept of ‘Unitary Tax’.
Had others?
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Hadn’t you noticed that nobody responds to you apart from the occasional sarcastic coment about your rates? It is not that people agree with you – it is more like they just don’t care enough to enter into any sort of dialogue.
I’m guessing many people scroll on past (I do). Lynn could probably tell how many people follow links from her comments.
I can’t be bothered saying anything to her about the spam, because she’s always right and everyone else is always wrong.
So Weka – you don’t care about tax evasion by multinational companies?
I do.
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
Fuck off you disingenuous troll. That’s what I say to anyone who puts words in my mouth and misrepresents my political views and values. Right now it’s hard to imagine a worse candidate for a Mayor than someone who lies about other people’s views and thinks it’s ok to do so for their own agenda.
So Weka – why don’t you have a civilised debate about this issue?
It’s a rather important one – isn’t it?
I ASKED you a question and got, in my view, an unnecessary offensive and semi-hysterical, apoplectic reply.
Sheesh!
Some of you ‘commenters’ on The Standard, in my view (and experience) can be worse than those on Kiwiblog!
(And that’s saying something … 🙂
Have a cuppa and calm yourself Weka ….
Kind regards
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
When not even the trolls bother to reply you Penny – time to get the message.
more charming comments. such nice people exist. eh penny?
Generally, we expect people on here to come up with some thinking of their own, not just post the thinking of others.
Try harder.
Kim Hill lets another shameless propagandist have his say, uninterrupted.
RNZ National, Saturday 5 March 2016, 8:12 a.m.
His C.V., as printed on the RNZ website, certainly sounds impressive: “Jamie McIntyre consults on national security issues, blogs on the military and media (Jamie McIntyre’s Behind Frenemy Lines), and is Adjunct Professor of Multimedia Journalism at the University of Maryland. His career spans four decades, from the local news round at WTOP radio in Washington D.C. to Al Jazeera America’s National Security Correspondent based at the Pentagon. He was in the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, and he broke the news of Saddam Hussain’s capture. He is currently on special assignment at PBS NewsHour, where he has investigated the Pentagon’s plans to spend $US1 trillion on upgrading America’s nuclear arsenal, some of which is 60 years old.”
The actuality, however, is not so impressive….
KIM HILL: How come you haven’t been captured by the establishment?
JAMIE McINTYRE: Y’know, I and other reporters are allowed to roam the corridors of the Pentagon at will. I doubt whether you can do that in any other country in the world, even over there in New Zealand.
………..
KIM HILL: Why is Iran not allowed to have nuclear weapons? It just seems to be taken for granted that they can’t have them. Why?
JAMIE McINTYRE: Well, the United States sees itself as the good guys. [snickers awkwardly at the absurdity of that statement]
KIM HILL: Of COURSE.
JAMIE McINTYRE: [adopting a serious tone] But Iran has a track record of supporting organisations deemed to be terrorist, and of being anti-Israel.
Hill, who cannot be so dim as to believe a word of that unsupported stream of nonsense, failed to challenge it. I decided to send her a wake-up message….
Why did you suggest Jamie McIntyre is something other than he is?
Dear Kim,
You asked Jamie McIntyre why he had “not been captured by the establishment”. That question implied that he is an independent and rigorous journalist; what he said during the interview demonstrated he was anything but independent or rigorous.
When you asked him why Iran should not have a nuclear arsenal, McIntyre claimed that the United States are “the good guys” and then he launched into a reiteration of official rhetoric, claiming that Iran “has a track record of supporting organisations deemed to be terrorist and of being anti-Israel.”
Jamie McIntyre spoke with wonderment about how he is allowed to wander freely about the corridors of the Pentagon. His bland endorsement of Pentagon—and State Department—rhetoric shows just why he and other “journalists” like him are allowed to wander so freely: with their credulous repetition of black propaganda against official enemies, “journalists” like Jamie McIntyre are effectively agents of the Pentagon.
Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point
More ignorant—or is it deliberate—recycling of propaganda by Kim Hill….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12092015/#comment-1069487
If she wants to stay employed in the words of Dylan ‘you gonna have to serve somebody….’
No National MP could be bothered attending the tangi for the late, great Ranginui Walker. Absolutely shameful considering his immense mana and all the work he did for the Waitangi Tribunal.
He used to write in the Listener before Pamela Stirling turned it into the rightwing travesty it is today. Here he is on the Don Brash Orewa speech:
http://www.listener.co.nz/uncategorized/state-of-the-nation/
National MP’s do as they are told and he wasn’t on their side so it’s not surprising
Thank for the link Karen, I looked the other day for Listener columns and couldn’t find any. Am hoping some of the pre-internet ones will get republished.
That is shameful that no Nats attended his tangi. This is where we are now.
Did any Labour MPs have the nerve to go? (Bearing in mind Helen Clark’s cynical decision to out-Brash Brash after she was spooked by the success of the Orewa speech.)
Yes, Labour MPs did attend.
We don’t have the Clark Labour govt any more Morrissey. I expect current MPs have their own relationship with Maoridom now.
What is it with this site? I couldn’t access The Standard home page yesterday. Still can’t today – just get this:
Seems the only pages I can access today are “Open Mike 05032016” and “Jeanette Fitzsimons Call to Scrap the ETS”. The only way I can get in to these is by using my bookmark to the Comment Formatting page, then clicking on threads via the right side Comments summary box.
Even so, I can’t access the “Intersections” post, “Young Nats Run Away…” yesterdays “Daily Review”, “John Key Lies…” in fact pretty much most other pages I click on in Comments are producing the above “page not available” result.
Looks like I might as well just give up on here because I have constant access problems and no idea why that is. It only ever happens here. Not a caching problem. Clearing cache does nothing. 🙁
Edit: Update. Oh FFS, I managed to post this comment, and now suddenly everything’s available!! Stuffed if I know what’s going on.
+1
I had the same problem. I noticed that, while this blog did not appear, a link to Whaleoil’s cesspit was the second from the top.
Why on earth would THAT be the case?
I’ve been having the same issue over the last 24hrs.
Why is this site the ONLY one I continually have trouble with when it comes to loading, Not just recently but ever since I started visiting?
osx 10.6.8 / firefox 44.0.2 (no ad blockers etc)
Meet the new ACT Party spokesman for Youth Affairs
He’s actually a step up in quality from the likes of John “Cabbage” Banks, Jamie “Lock Up His Sisters” Whyte, David “Gruesome” Garrett, Stephen Franks, Dr Muriel Newman and David Seymour….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11600143
Great discussion on the latest Keiser Report with Steve Keen and Ross Ashcroft on Australia’s housing bubble and exposure to mortgage debt, and, by default (mentioned), New Zealand’s exposure too…
https://www.rt.com/shows/keiser-report/334369-episode-max-keiser-883/
That was an excellent episode of the Keiser Report.
It’s not what you eat, it’s how it’s produced that determines the ethics. Here’s an interesting exploration of omnivore vs vegan ethics, which also shows that context is everything (it’s looking at site specific food production, in this case in Australia).
Replacing red meat with grain products leads to many more sentient animal deaths, far greater animal suffering and significantly more environmental degradation. Protein obtained from grazing livestock costs far fewer lives per kilogram: it is a more humane, ethical and environmentally-friendly dietary option.
So, what does a hungry human do? Our teeth and digestive system are adapted for omnivory. But we are now challenged to think about philosophical issues. We worry about the ethics involved in killing grazing animals and wonder if there are other more humane ways of obtaining adequate nutrients.
Relying on grains and pulses brings destruction of native ecosystems, significant threats to native species and at least 25 times more deaths of sentient animals per kilogram of food. Most of these animals sing love songs to each other, until we inhumanely mass-slaughter them.
…
The challenge for the ethical eater is to choose the diet that causes the least deaths and environmental damage. There would appear to be far more ethical support for an omnivorous diet that includes rangeland-grown red meat and even more support for one that includes sustainably wild-harvested kangaroo.
https://theconversation.com/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-theres-more-animal-blood-on-your-hands-4659
There is a wild meat group in Australia – I have not been aware of one here, but perhaps there is. I know that when I ordered a pasta dish with the little blue mussels at the the pub in Melbourne, someone from the wild foods camp commented approvingly. I yearn for old school ways of eating, with the farms close to the cities and meat being a high days/holy days kind of food. I am not opposed to meat eating per se, but do not think that animals should be reduced to fodder either.
That’s pretty much where I’m at too Olwyn. Family farms whose purpose is to produce food and provide a living for multiple people rather than big business that treats animals as stock units (not that some family farms haven’t been prone to animal cruelty as well). Often in these arguments we are comparing one set of bads for another. Let’s replace feedlot beef with Monsanto soy. Whereas the vision you present allows us to behave ethically on a number of fronts and produce food sustainably with regard for the wider ecosystems. I like the meat on high days concept. There’s also the idea from many cultures that you eat small amounts of meat often, but the end result is less meat than we eat now without going to the hard extreme of veganism (which is never going to be sustainable).
I know lots of people that eat feral rabbit, venison, goat, pig etc. I liked the Australian perspective of large tracts of land being able to support smaller populations of feral animals for harvest. We could do this in a smaller scale in NZ too.
I like the meat on high days concept. There’s also the idea from many cultures that you eat small amounts of meat often, but the end result is less meat than we eat now without going to the hard extreme of veganism (which is never going to be sustainable). I think those ways of doing things are consistent with each other – the “small amounts of meat often” bit adds up to a whole animal being used, and not just the most desirable bits.
Often in these arguments we are comparing one set of bads for another. Let’s replace feedlot beef with Monsanto soy. I couldn’t agree more! Everything gets reduced to “How would you like your corporatism?”
NZ law defines an organised criminal group as a structured group of three or more persons.
The video below contains a good discussion on the Government’s latest response to gangs and more.
https://youtu.be/zUoHZO0DLd0
+100…very good discussion thanks
Could TTIP Privatise the NHS?
https://youtu.be/WQOZwhA-Dyk
Could Tpp stop the sun rising ?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/04/08/obama-may-block-sun-rays-to-end-global-warming.html
If Key could figure out a way to monetise it.
+100…a must watch!…possible serious implications for New Zealand’s free health system with the signing of TPPA ?
…do we want a privatised health care system like USA’s corporate captured health system?….hell no!
If you can stand it – live feed of Trump rally in New Orleans.
How long before something is done about the, in my view, significant ‘conflict of interest’ in Auckland Council being a member of the private sector lobby group for developers – the NZ Property Council?
FYI – I raised this matter directly at the following Auckland Council Special Governing Body meeting:
(Scroll to 7.50 minutes to see/ hear for yourself my presentation to the Special Auckland Council Governing Body held on 24 February 2016, on the ‘out of scope’ rezoning changes made behind closed doors by the Auckland Council Unitary Plan Committee.)
FYI – I was the only Auckland Mayoral candidate who addressed Auckland Council at this meeting.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FpAH0Grs9TA
Kind regards,
Penny Bright
Same dodgy buzz here in Wellington Penny. Councillor for Northern ward, Deputy Mayor and now Mayoral candidate on the Labour ticket, Justin Lester, sits on the executive of the Wellington branch of the NZ Property Council.
No conflict of interest has been declared.
Our city planning manager, is the former husband of one of Wellington biggest residential developers and did at least declare a conflict of interest over his relationship with that person, although nobody seems to have told the Mayor, as it is was her office that requested he sort out issues regarding anti social behaviour by developers and contractors in my neighbourhood. They simply denied he had a conflict of interest when I raised it.
The northern suburbs are at the mercy of mass development. All work is undertaken on a non notified basis. There are no plans on any of the developments to mitigate environmental damage, outside of rules about not letting sediment get into creeks.
After battling with the council, including the above mentioned councillor, and the developer for 18 months I’ve come to the conclusion that there is an incredibly unhealthy relationship between the council and developers here in Wellington.
Had there been plans in place to protect and enhance the environment, build in areas close to public transport and close to shops and amenities, or at least allow for commercial areas within residential areas, to undertake construction in a way that is respectful towards residents and to build low cost housing I wouldn’t see a problem. It has been the complete opposite and theres only two winners, the developers and the council.
+100 Go Penny ( Auckland is hotting up in more ways than one)
All you ever wanted to know about neoliberal economics and Global Housing Bubbles …in particular Australia (NZ bank implications) and UK…and elsewhere…and where to for baby boomers, millennials, aspirationals etc
https://www.rt.com/shows/keiser-report/334369-episode-max-keiser-883/
“In this special episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy are joined by Professor Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics, and Ross Ashcroft of RenegadeInc.com and the crowd-funded series, Meet the Renegades. They discuss housing bubbles in Australia, housing policy in the UK, and the rise of Donald Trump as a sign of the great recession happening outside the property bubble cities in which both politicians and journalists live.”
And while you lot are at it, why don’t you “Give a little” to Penny Bright to help pay her rates and arrears, she seems hard done by !!
[lprent: Completely off topic. Banned one week for diversion and another week for trolling. Moved to Open Mike. If I see you deliberately do this kind of stupidity again, I’ll be less lenient. ]
She’s a greenhouse effect denier, you lot can have her.
Now you really have crossed the line in cruelty and unusual punishmentsOAB 😀
Thank you. I hope you will be very happy together.
I suggest an Auction, Kiwiblog vs Standard,
Highest bidders get to ban Penny and restrict her to the opposing blog. All proceeds to Child Cancer.
I suggest Princess Party Pinko Penguin is not the sort of person that anyone other than a right winger would want to be associated with.
His low character is well documented.
Appears to be loading without the error messages for me, Lynn.
A bit slow but you did say that..
thx.. I’ll try putting on the one layer of compression that it is meant to have.
Figured my way through it (eventually) I think.
This should be correct now
Killing Joke — New Cold War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ebJbU0najk
http://www.metrolyrics.com/new-cold-war-lyrics-killing-joke.html
+100 adam…like it!
A Change is Gonna come…lets hope it is a good one….
Sam Cooke ‘A Change is Gonna Come’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sam-cooke-dies-under-suspicious-circumstances-in-la
‘Trump’ s hostile takeover’
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/334499-trump-clinton-presidential-election/
“American presidential election politics is a cross between a talent show and a beauty contest. Being smart and coherent does not necessarily pay dividends. Case in point: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both are front-runners of their parties. Trump is idiosyncratic and raw; Clinton the ultimate establishment insider. Is this a choice, or merely bad theater?
CrossTalking with Brandon Andrews, David Paul Kuhn, and Lionel.”
Just found out about this wee historical gem – which, in my view, is both pertinent and potentially politically embarrassing for Hillary Clinton?
So – back in 1964 now Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton – worked (as a Republican?) on the 1964 election campaign of Republican segregationist Presidential candidate – Barry Goldwater.
So much for Hillary Clinton’s ‘civil rights’ credentials?
Barry Goldwater was never supposed to be supported as the Republican Presidential candidate at their convention, because he was regarded by ‘establishment’ Republicans as being ‘unelectable’.
Is history going to repeat itself?
This time I’m referring to Bernie Sanders and the Democratic Convention?
http://usuncut.com/politics/npr-interview-hillary-clinton-was-proud-of-her-conservatism/
A 1996 NPR interview with Hillary Clinton has recently resurfaced, in which the current Democratic front-runner shockingly embraced conservatism and reiterated how proud she was to support a segregationist presidential candidate.
In the interview, Clinton told NPR’s Scott Simon that her political beliefs were “rooted in the conservatism that I was raised with,” and talked about being a “Goldwater girl” in 1964:
……
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h4011.html
Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater served five terms as a United States Senator for Arizona and was the Republican nominee for President in the Election of 1964. He is credited with reviving the conservative movement in the United States in the 1960’s.
Although rebuffed nationally by the electorate, he mobilized a new wave of young conservatives who transferred their support toRonald Reagan, the winner in the election of 1980.
……
Goldwater’s book, Conscience of a Conservative, published in 1960, made him a hero to anti-communist and anti-New-Deal Republicans. The movement to get the 1964 Republican nomination for Goldwater was not taken seriously by establishment Republicans, who regarded him as so obviously unelectable that the convention would never nominate him.
However, Goldwater’s principal opponent in 1964 was Nelson Rockefeller, whose divorce and remarriage to a younger woman created a backlash. The birth of a child to his new wife just before the California primary probably cost him that election and provided Goldwater with a huge delegate count.
After that, no plausible opponent emerged capable of stopping Goldwater. He was nominated at the national convention in xxx and gave a ringing defense of conservatism in his acceptance speech which energized his supporters but appalled moderates.
….
_______________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
+100 Penny…interesting about Hillary Clinton !…doesnt surprise me….anyone on the Left who supports her should read a bit more history imo
Cheers Chooky – there’s more ….
So – while Hillary Clinton is supporting the Republican Presidential candidate who supports segregation, Barry Goldwater – Bernie Sanders is getting arrested for desegregation?
Who has the most trustworthy track record in supporting the civil liberties of Afro-Americans?
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/20-examples-bernie-sanders-powerful-record-civil-and-human-rights-1950s
2. Being Arrested For Desegregation: As a student at the University of Chicago, Sanders was active in both the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1962, he was arrested for protesting segregation in public schools in Chicago; the police came to call him an outside agitator, as he went around putting up flyers around the city detailing police brutality.
…..
_________________________
Penny Bright
2016 Auckland Mayoral candidate.
yes Sanders is authentic….Hillary is a phony and worse
http://libaryofimages.com/image.php?pic=https://cdn2.thestandard.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Albania_flag-5.jpg
that should be Hillary’s flag