Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
It was 4 degrees in Auckland last night.
It was 4 degrees in Dunedin last night.
Not very warm to be sleeping in a car.
Not very warm to be sleeping in a container.
Not very warm to be sleeping in a garage.
Not very warm to be sleeping on the street.
The New Zealand Herald may think that ‘Chris Evans quits Top Gear’ and ‘Furore over Wimbledon crotch shots’ are news items, but they are not.
The majority of the media are doing everything they can to support Paula Bennett and move homelessness off the headlines.
“Try walking in my shoes, it’s not actually that easy.”
This was the challenge TA set to Prime Minister John Key. But really it’s a challenge for us all.
Key when pressed said something to the effort of he’ll work harder. A guy sleeping rough ends up dead. He’ll work harder, how so?
You’re not a winner to walk into WINZ. All spectrum, pathologies, legal histories turnup at winz at their worse. Is there a bonus culture, are managers rewarded to skimp on assistance, how would such a culture be exposed, by their nature the powerless have least assistanced from govt that espouse profit and avoid intervention. But we’d recognize the effects. People turned away, or not even considering it an option, or culturally self denying. A man dies by cardboard. A child dies by babysitter as family prent at star ship. A loose cannn explodes at winz staff with a shotgun. Maori turning to a Maeri to get winz help.
Yeah what gives. How does a rural community where shotguns are common, access a man, who failed overseas, returned to his hometown, living rough?, with a culture of move to Auckland depopulating them, and not realize, or did but did not act, when a sociopath goes berserk again, this time with a shotgun? wtf, it was the furniture!! Not the manager/s? enacting policies few would know about as there are few votes from people withou homes to goto. but reaaly, the furniture! the fault wathe furnishings. Or worse, they dont have to do anything coz its going to happen eventually, wtf, or worse, that he’d have just waited outside and only killed one and maybe some innocent bystanders … …which as we know he did not. No, really,
Lies, prejudice and ignorance seem pretty standard for the far right. It’s the level of political chaos and ignoring what they’ve done that has take Farage and Johnson to a level of bastardry that hasn’t been seen in the western world for a several decades.
In the wake of the assassination of Jo Cox, I won’t ever forget Farage saying it was a revolution without a shot being fired. The jury is out on whether the unleashed racism will result in more lost lives.
they have essentially sown the seeds for something like ‘civil war’, created a huge divide within the country and now collect their baubles to run away.
fuckwits that should be tried for high treason.
You seem to have forgotten it was the people who voted for exit.
Yes, Farange campaigned for exit and in fact to have a referendum, but how is that “high treason”. Presumably in a democracy people are entitled to have a view on such issues without being accused of high treason.
I personally thought remain was the better option, but I would hardly accuse the other side of high treason.
Farage was just saving taxpayers money on a bielection to election… …or replace him from a party list. Its not about his pay, or that he won, its about how the Conservative Party built a shotgun, then Cameron put the barrel in the mouth of the patry, and begged the Thatcherite children to burn done what wasn’t personally working out for them by pulling the trigger. Brain splatter across the wall, now the press can gloat, its like the British let a global immigrant buy out their media and destroy his favored political party. Global immigrants, live everywhere pay no tax anywhere.
Homeless people in cars doesn’t seem to stir the conscience of the government.
Working people struggling to pay their rent doesn’t seem to stir the conscience of the government.
Maybe these stories of the Auckland housing crisis failing the middle class will prompt some action.
And if not, will ensure this regime will be turfed out at the next election.
“You can’t compete in the auctions. What you think is the maximum you can go to is where the auctions start – which is about 20 per cent over the CV.” – That’s what my brother tells me up there.
I don’t care about blaming the baby boomers for all our ills but I am thinking they might be fucking things up for themselves & they may want to think about that.
1.)the first thing they should do is repair existing State houses …NOT sell them off ( unless to existing tenants at an affordable price)!
2.) the second thing they should do is put a capital gains tax on all Auckland houses bought in the last 5 years
3.) the the third thing they should do is ban foreign owned housing in NZ until all NZers are housed
4.) the fourth thing they should do is give squatter rights to empty houses
5.) the fifth thing they should do is put a freeze on rental properties rents down to an affordable level for NZers to live in for life ( like they do in European cities)
The party will return him and the rump of MPs will turn on a dime and support him because everyone can see the tories imploding and getting press, getting compared with tories and coming out as not parliaments choice… …now how to get press attention, pick at the festering scab that is Israel…
Or alternatively Labour splits into two. It has happened before with the SDP, in the 1981, in similar circumstances, with Militant Tendency instead of Momentum. They merged with the Liberals 1988 which was strengthened as a result, though in 2015 the tide turned against the Liberals.
Is there a mood for a moderate centrist party, especially with a strong green and social aspect in the UK? I guess people are already polling on that point.
But it is hard to start and sustain a new party especially in a FFP situation, unless there is a specific regional strength, which the Liberals used to have in the west of England. The traditional parties have great reservoirs of strength that has lasted for 100 years. All that strengthens Corbyn’s situation.
Though that might be the only scheme that could (briefly) save the failed far-right neoliberal governments of the world, there is no credible left cleavage point. If the Blairates candidly abandon the traditional left they won’t take a voter base with them large enough to support much of a rump – they’d be like Peter Dunne – a harrumphing non-entity with negligible support.
Politician seek attention. The tories implosion takes burns of the oxygen. So ask the question what would Labour be like if they were not having rumbles, and then add that if there were a time to shake the leader and create a stronger party then when the tories are headless running around the coup.
Split in the tories along the EU fissure got us here, they were never in th EU so its not like Ffrance exiting.
Avert your eyes all you moistie save the planet types, the rest of you welcome to the great world of America again. I give you: the rise of competitive hot dog eating.
Beer Pong. Hot Dogs. Yoyo Champs. Competitive breakdancing. Dressage.
Here you get to some of the great human impulses about the human desire for sport itself:
– The more crowds it draws, the more it draws us.
– There’s a little self-loathing in every sports fan. Some sports more than others.
– It appears to have nothing to do with politics or policy; it appears to be a realm of freedom from the machines of the world
– You get to see a body rail against language
– You get to see them beat the other guy
– You get to see losers, and find an ethical way to cheers for or against the loser
– You see the results in minutes, unlike life
-You revel in common ecstatic impulse, without all the emotional baggage of sex or intimacy
My reading is that he is saying labour should ditch all that old fashioned socialist, “applied christianity” shit and try to muscle in on on some of that National Party buzz.
It’s hard to imagine National Party members prostrating themselves before images of Sid Holland or Rob Muldoon at a party anniversary, longing for a revival of those “good old days”.
Probably because National have already ditched their traditional values, are no longer old school conservatives, and instead have adopted neoliberalism.
Labour led into Keynesianism and National both followed and doubled down on it until we got to Muldoon with massive subsidies to sheep farmers and debt.
Labour led into neo-liberalism and National both followed and doubled down on it until we got to Key with massive subsidies to multinational corporations, huge increases in poverty and homelessness and massive debt.
He spends the article outlining how amazing Savage was, and then the last three paragraphs trying to justify not following Savage’s principles.
Doesn’t seem like he logically thought through the article – it reads like the first third of an article, then one paragraph each out of the last two thirds of the article. Maybe he was heavily paraphrased by some editor. That’s the charitable explanation, at least.
Yeah true, I guess re-reading it sounds like hes not sure what Labour should do or was that what he was trying to say?
Maybe trying to say that Labour should either go back to what Labour was like under Savage or stop paying lip service to Labours history, one or the other maybe but not both?
Maybe the whole object of the article is to keep portraying Labour as a party in turmoil , you know the standard dirty politics that has been going on for fucking ages.
nah, puckish wouldn’t link to just any old muckraking, surely. There’s genuine concern behind pr’s faithful linking of every slight rumour about Labour… /sarc
When we hear about Key’s new plans to forcibly take land ‘for housing’ Ha ha (read private developers of his choosing), let us look at how the practise of privatising public land has been in the USA…. extract
“The land heist, which is being masterminded by the American Lands Council as well as Koch brothers-funded groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Americans for Prosperity, has two basic fronts: 1) Lobby Republicans to pass bills, often written directly by ALEC, that make the corporate land grab possible, 2) Propagandize to the public about how their rights are supposedly being violated by having publicly accessible land that is owned by the American people.
The lobbying efforts are fairly straightforward. Here, for instance, is a photo of AFP staffers visiting Alaska Rep. Don Young’s office on June 10. A few days later, Young, who gets hefty amounts of campaign funding from oil/gas and fishery interests, kickstarted his efforts to pass a bill to transfer 2 million acres of national forests from federal to state hands, where it can then be sold off to corporate interests.
The amount of sleaze and dishonesty in the propaganda effort is truly stunning. Witness, for instance, this excerpt from an AFP brochure on federal land management, which a wonderland of doublespeak.
afp
This is the kind of propaganda that snakes its way down to people like the Bundys and their supporters, convincing them that the existence of national forests is somehow hurting them.
But nearly every word in that paragraph is a lie. The land is already owned by We the People, and AFP is agitating to take it from us and sell it off to private interests. And it is not sitting idle or inaccessible. National forests and other lands are used for hiking, camping, rafting, fishing or just sitting in to enjoy the bounty of nature. By “inactive,” they obviously mean that the land is not being strip-mined for corporate profit, but it’s a small mind that thinks that the only value nature can provide is squeezing every penny you can get out of it.”
More bad news for those clinging onto neoliberalism….
“Millennials are ripe for socialism: A generation is rising up against neoliberal oppression
Gallup finds up to 70 percent of young Americans favor wealth redistribution. Elites have only themselves to blame”
All talk of “wealth redistribution” typically frames it as something which doesn’t currently exist, as if the current system is some sort of natural order..
.. as does this above “Gallup finds up to 70 percent of young Americans favor wealth redistribution”
This framing must be resisted at all costs and at every opportunity because the implication that there is currently no wealth redistribution is not true.
Currently wealth is redistributed towards certain groups in society and away from other groups in society. This is done by way of subsidies, tax rates, tax groupings, regulations, legislation, tax loopholes, welfare, minimum wage rates, import export tariffs, the list goes on and on and on …
.. this issue must be framed as..
“a new model of wealth redistribution”
or
“change away from the current wealth redistribution”
Imo this is very important. Currently many people seem to think the current settings are some sort of natural order ….
“re-distribution” itself is a loaded term. IMO It’s current meaning is something akin to ‘taking the hard earned income of the self made and giving freebies and handout to losers, wasters and the undeserving poor’.
Really this argument should be about getting fair shares and fair rewards.
Even the way the rich and privileged now term themselves ‘elites’ is telling.
“a new model of wealth redistribution” – that used to be called fairness or social democracy!
As for the use of language, I don’t have a problem with wealth or elites – it is how they are using it!!
ie Edmund Hillary – elite – but in a good way! Not due to money or privilege but his personal actions!
And wealth, a word that means different things to different people – is wealth a safety net? Is wealth ability to retire early, Is wealth ability to rest and do what you have always wanted to do with your life, Is wealth having a healthy happy family and society, is wealth having a low crime rate?
Wealth to me, is not a $ amount and sometimes when I see people hating the idea of ‘wealth’ I feel it is counter productive in terms of gaining traction and votes for the left to the centre and right.
According to staffers, he is “a good minister”, which I read as “acquiescent” and indeed the writer damns Dunne as a facilitator for hire in contrast with “an avatar of greed” like Collins or a showman like Peters.
Interesting read, though I still consider Dunne to be something I’d scrape off the sole of my boot.
Yet if the polls get closer Labour may end up needing his seat (I personally think that if either National or Labour get enough seats to win with out Dunne then he should be ditched)
Dunne is the only Party leader currently receiving net Negative ratings in UMR Research Leader Favourability polling. Last Poll – Dunne on minus 12
In contrast to other leaders, he’s been down in negative territory for more than 5 years. (Winston – previously seen negatively by voters – has found himself in positive territory since 2014 and everyone else has enjoyed positive ratings for quite some time – albeit Key down to a mere + 2 rating a few months ago).
Helen Kelly, bless her tenacious yet tender self, will never be honoured or acknowledged by this heartless nat govt but we can now honour her at the portrait gallery.
I hope Labour/Green does not take the bait, like last election where the talk about crashing property was met by Natz winning the election and decimating our country.
For those that think crashing house prices 40% will be positive and somehow redistribute wealth, have a look at the fall out from the crashed property prices from the GFC in the USA. Did it somehow make poorer, working and middle class people better off, or did it make them lose everything and be worse off than before? Likewise the Greece crash – are the poor better off?
“Former Reserve Bank economist Arthur Grimes suggests a radical solution to the housing crisis: crash the house price by 40% by building 150,000 houses in six years:
In March 2016, the REINZ Auckland median house price reached $820,000. Four years previously, it was $495,000 – that’s a 66% increase in 4 years. What’s more alarming is that in 2012, many people considered that house prices were already getting out of reach for most people. That was particularly the case for young people and low income earners.”
We have had left wing economists talking about this crash for 20 years but because they refused to take account the growing immigration levels, their forecasting falls short. I have personally had a lot of friends listening to these experts and refusing to buy years ago thinking prices would come down, now they can’t afford to!
I notice Arthur Grimes does not mention halting immigration. So the idea seems to be, crash property 40% so that families with mortgages go into negative equity (like the 1980’s).
Here are some ideas I put up couple of mths ago to help the housing market
Introduce transaction tax about the same size as cc charge on all financial transitions
Differentional interest rate- ie 1% surcharge as tax to council
Increased deposit e.g. 40%
Only sell existing to residents
Only allow over seas resident new builds.
Interesting to hear Winston advocating a major port in Northland instead of growing the port in Auckland.
Maybe just what the north needs and more importantly what Auckland needs- taking off the pressure.
“The now-infamous whistleblowing website has published an archive of what is said to be over 1,200 of Hillary Clinton’s private emails pertaining to the Iraq War. Julian Assange previously said that the release would be “enough to indict her.”…
..”.In March, WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive consisting of 30,322 emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server that she used while serving as Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents cover Clinton’s correspondence from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. Out of that number, 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton…
The use of private email for state-run business has become a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. With Democratic convention just weeks away, the public eye is following a close watch of a potential grand jury indictment…
Cheers, chooky. Could make for interesting reading, however it may add nothing to what is already known. As it stands, this isn’t looking like the knock out blow an increasingly desperate right needs. Trump’s a busted flush and Hillary Clinton’s going to be president in a few months. Which is super exciting, y’know?
I’m with Assange on this one:
“We could proceed to an indictment, but if Loretta Lynch is the head of the DOJ in the United States, she’s not going to indict Hillary Clinton,” “That’s not possible that could happen.”
As it stands, this isn’t looking like the knock out blow an increasingly desperate right needs.
Their desperation could well see HRC off the hook.
But before that happened, according to LawNewz, the conservative activists at Judicial Watch inserted themselves into the Clinton email controversy earlier this year in the hopes they might find something to destroy Clinton’s White House hopes.
With that in mind, the legal watchdog group filed multiple FOIA lawsuits against the State Department in regard to the issue of the personal server. Agreeing with their demands, federal judge Emmet Sullivan allowed Judicial Watch to depose several of Clinton’s top aides, including Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Patrick Kennedy.
[…]
At this late date in the game, as the FBI is reportedly wrapping up, investigators are likely following up on any questions still outstanding and making sure there are no discrepancies between Clinton and her advisors that might raise red flags.
Armed with hundreds of pages of testimony, Clinton may well have been aware of her aides’ answers to the same lines of questioning that both the FBI and Judicial Watch were pursuing.
As attorney Elkan Abramowitz explained to LawNewz, a well-prepared Clinton would have been in a good position to make sure that she and her team had their story straight — thereby helping to bring the investigation to a more rapid close.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
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Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
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TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
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About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
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I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
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You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
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A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
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Another day in John Key’s neo-liberal nightmare.
We have become a cruel, greedy, uncaring and selfish nation under his wretched leadership.
It was 4 degrees in Auckland last night.
It was 4 degrees in Dunedin last night.
Not very warm to be sleeping in a car.
Not very warm to be sleeping in a container.
Not very warm to be sleeping in a garage.
Not very warm to be sleeping on the street.
The New Zealand Herald may think that ‘Chris Evans quits Top Gear’ and ‘Furore over Wimbledon crotch shots’ are news items, but they are not.
The majority of the media are doing everything they can to support Paula Bennett and move homelessness off the headlines.
“Try walking in my shoes, it’s not actually that easy.”
This was the challenge TA set to Prime Minister John Key. But really it’s a challenge for us all.
Key when pressed said something to the effort of he’ll work harder. A guy sleeping rough ends up dead. He’ll work harder, how so?
You’re not a winner to walk into WINZ. All spectrum, pathologies, legal histories turnup at winz at their worse. Is there a bonus culture, are managers rewarded to skimp on assistance, how would such a culture be exposed, by their nature the powerless have least assistanced from govt that espouse profit and avoid intervention. But we’d recognize the effects. People turned away, or not even considering it an option, or culturally self denying. A man dies by cardboard. A child dies by babysitter as family prent at star ship. A loose cannn explodes at winz staff with a shotgun. Maori turning to a Maeri to get winz help.
Yeah what gives. How does a rural community where shotguns are common, access a man, who failed overseas, returned to his hometown, living rough?, with a culture of move to Auckland depopulating them, and not realize, or did but did not act, when a sociopath goes berserk again, this time with a shotgun? wtf, it was the furniture!! Not the manager/s? enacting policies few would know about as there are few votes from people withou homes to goto. but reaaly, the furniture! the fault wathe furnishings. Or worse, they dont have to do anything coz its going to happen eventually, wtf, or worse, that he’d have just waited outside and only killed one and maybe some innocent bystanders … …which as we know he did not. No, really,
oh poor thing. fucking up your country is hard work. really really hard work.
the poor dear wants his life back. Seventeen years on the EU payroll obviously is hard hard work n stuff.
Words to not describe just how much of a cunt this geezer actually is.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/04/nigel-farage-resigns-as-ukip-leader?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
“peaking at a press conference in Westminster, he said it was time to get his life back after successfully campaigning for the UK to vote for Brexit.
“During the the referendum I said I wanted my country back … now I want my life back,” Farage said on Monday.”
Words to not describe just how much of a cunt this geezer actually is.
The generally genial Euronews isn’t holding back.
http://beta.euronews.com/bulletin
Then select
“Farage legacy one of lies, prejudice, ignorance and political chaos”
Sounds familiar doesn’t it, especially the lies and prejudice.
Lies, prejudice and ignorance seem pretty standard for the far right. It’s the level of political chaos and ignoring what they’ve done that has take Farage and Johnson to a level of bastardry that hasn’t been seen in the western world for a several decades.
In the wake of the assassination of Jo Cox, I won’t ever forget Farage saying it was a revolution without a shot being fired. The jury is out on whether the unleashed racism will result in more lost lives.
they have essentially sown the seeds for something like ‘civil war’, created a huge divide within the country and now collect their baubles to run away.
fuckwits that should be tried for high treason.
Sabine,
You seem to have forgotten it was the people who voted for exit.
Yes, Farange campaigned for exit and in fact to have a referendum, but how is that “high treason”. Presumably in a democracy people are entitled to have a view on such issues without being accused of high treason.
I personally thought remain was the better option, but I would hardly accuse the other side of high treason.
A lying politician is, ipso facto, a traitor.
But was Farange lying, exaggerating maybe, but actually lying?
“exaggerating maybe, but actually lying?” – very slippery.
I’ve seen reports of outright lying.
Wayne, that is why i called Farrage a cunt and not the people.
Go away.
Good fucking gawd. No male would get away with using that foul language on The Standard.
This is very true.
Just as I also refrain from dropping the n-bomb when discussing rap albums.
Flutter your fan a little faster and drink some water, you’ll be ok.
A wee Drambuie might prove medicinal.
Farage- seagull politics. Fly in sh*t on everyone and fly off as fast as you can to avoid the consequences.
Farage was just saving taxpayers money on a bielection to election… …or replace him from a party list. Its not about his pay, or that he won, its about how the Conservative Party built a shotgun, then Cameron put the barrel in the mouth of the patry, and begged the Thatcherite children to burn done what wasn’t personally working out for them by pulling the trigger. Brain splatter across the wall, now the press can gloat, its like the British let a global immigrant buy out their media and destroy his favored political party. Global immigrants, live everywhere pay no tax anywhere.
Homeless people in cars doesn’t seem to stir the conscience of the government.
Working people struggling to pay their rent doesn’t seem to stir the conscience of the government.
Maybe these stories of the Auckland housing crisis failing the middle class will prompt some action.
And if not, will ensure this regime will be turfed out at the next election.
Capital-bound family say Auckland too dear on $120k
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11668669
Auckland’s housing crisis creating brain drain
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11668578
but retires baby boomers in their huge empty million dollar houses DESERVE the pension on top of all time heir rrntal income
“You can’t compete in the auctions. What you think is the maximum you can go to is where the auctions start – which is about 20 per cent over the CV.” – That’s what my brother tells me up there.
I don’t care about blaming the baby boomers for all our ills but I am thinking they might be fucking things up for themselves & they may want to think about that.
excuse spelling. typed from the bus while crossing the akl harbour bridge in the morning
Listening to ShonKey, idiot Smith on RNZ, about land bankers. You just know they are lying. They say yes, no, maybe, maybe not all in one sentence.
Did RNZ bother to point out there is plenty of land, show us the affordable houses?
Or even better Why are you selling state houses when we have a homelessness crisis and Key lied about no more asset sales?
+100 save nz…
1.)the first thing they should do is repair existing State houses …NOT sell them off ( unless to existing tenants at an affordable price)!
2.) the second thing they should do is put a capital gains tax on all Auckland houses bought in the last 5 years
3.) the the third thing they should do is ban foreign owned housing in NZ until all NZers are housed
4.) the fourth thing they should do is give squatter rights to empty houses
5.) the fifth thing they should do is put a freeze on rental properties rents down to an affordable level for NZers to live in for life ( like they do in European cities)
Jeremy Corbyn pledges to veto TTIP if he becomes PM, calling it ‘irreversible’ privatization
https://www.rt.com/uk/345198-corbyn-ttip-veto-pledge/
No wonder he is the people’s hero and revitalised Labour membership in the UK.
Ruthless people out there who will disappear Jeremy. For the greater good of course.
The party will return him and the rump of MPs will turn on a dime and support him because everyone can see the tories imploding and getting press, getting compared with tories and coming out as not parliaments choice… …now how to get press attention, pick at the festering scab that is Israel…
Or alternatively Labour splits into two. It has happened before with the SDP, in the 1981, in similar circumstances, with Militant Tendency instead of Momentum. They merged with the Liberals 1988 which was strengthened as a result, though in 2015 the tide turned against the Liberals.
Is there a mood for a moderate centrist party, especially with a strong green and social aspect in the UK? I guess people are already polling on that point.
But it is hard to start and sustain a new party especially in a FFP situation, unless there is a specific regional strength, which the Liberals used to have in the west of England. The traditional parties have great reservoirs of strength that has lasted for 100 years. All that strengthens Corbyn’s situation.
Though that might be the only scheme that could (briefly) save the failed far-right neoliberal governments of the world, there is no credible left cleavage point. If the Blairates candidly abandon the traditional left they won’t take a voter base with them large enough to support much of a rump – they’d be like Peter Dunne – a harrumphing non-entity with negligible support.
Politician seek attention. The tories implosion takes burns of the oxygen. So ask the question what would Labour be like if they were not having rumbles, and then add that if there were a time to shake the leader and create a stronger party then when the tories are headless running around the coup.
Split in the tories along the EU fissure got us here, they were never in th EU so its not like Ffrance exiting.
GO Jeremy Corbyn!
Avert your eyes all you moistie save the planet types, the rest of you welcome to the great world of America again. I give you: the rise of competitive hot dog eating.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/competitive-hot-dog-eaters-have-made-america-great-again/
Beer Pong. Hot Dogs. Yoyo Champs. Competitive breakdancing. Dressage.
Here you get to some of the great human impulses about the human desire for sport itself:
– The more crowds it draws, the more it draws us.
– There’s a little self-loathing in every sports fan. Some sports more than others.
– It appears to have nothing to do with politics or policy; it appears to be a realm of freedom from the machines of the world
– You get to see a body rail against language
– You get to see them beat the other guy
– You get to see losers, and find an ethical way to cheers for or against the loser
– You see the results in minutes, unlike life
-You revel in common ecstatic impulse, without all the emotional baggage of sex or intimacy
Welcome to the anti-HungerGames!
“You get to see them beat the other guy” – Very funny Ad, sums up sport brilliantly.
suicide bombings in Medina, Jeddah and Quatif.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36706761
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11668677
An interesting article but is what he says a possibility or has he just had an idea and formed a decent argument around it?
My reading is that he is saying labour should ditch all that old fashioned socialist, “applied christianity” shit and try to muscle in on on some of that National Party buzz.
It’s hard to imagine National Party members prostrating themselves before images of Sid Holland or Rob Muldoon at a party anniversary, longing for a revival of those “good old days”.
Probably because National have already ditched their traditional values, are no longer old school conservatives, and instead have adopted neoliberalism.
National are hard-core followers.
Labour led into Keynesianism and National both followed and doubled down on it until we got to Muldoon with massive subsidies to sheep farmers and debt.
Labour led into neo-liberalism and National both followed and doubled down on it until we got to Key with massive subsidies to multinational corporations, huge increases in poverty and homelessness and massive debt.
He spends the article outlining how amazing Savage was, and then the last three paragraphs trying to justify not following Savage’s principles.
Doesn’t seem like he logically thought through the article – it reads like the first third of an article, then one paragraph each out of the last two thirds of the article. Maybe he was heavily paraphrased by some editor. That’s the charitable explanation, at least.
Yeah true, I guess re-reading it sounds like hes not sure what Labour should do or was that what he was trying to say?
Maybe trying to say that Labour should either go back to what Labour was like under Savage or stop paying lip service to Labours history, one or the other maybe but not both?
Maybe the whole object of the article is to keep portraying Labour as a party in turmoil , you know the standard dirty politics that has been going on for fucking ages.
nah, puckish wouldn’t link to just any old muckraking, surely. There’s genuine concern behind pr’s faithful linking of every slight rumour about Labour… /sarc
Meh – just another ‘not about McCully or the other floating turds who comprise the Key kleptocracy’ story.
When we hear about Key’s new plans to forcibly take land ‘for housing’ Ha ha (read private developers of his choosing), let us look at how the practise of privatising public land has been in the USA…. extract
“The land heist, which is being masterminded by the American Lands Council as well as Koch brothers-funded groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Americans for Prosperity, has two basic fronts: 1) Lobby Republicans to pass bills, often written directly by ALEC, that make the corporate land grab possible, 2) Propagandize to the public about how their rights are supposedly being violated by having publicly accessible land that is owned by the American people.
The lobbying efforts are fairly straightforward. Here, for instance, is a photo of AFP staffers visiting Alaska Rep. Don Young’s office on June 10. A few days later, Young, who gets hefty amounts of campaign funding from oil/gas and fishery interests, kickstarted his efforts to pass a bill to transfer 2 million acres of national forests from federal to state hands, where it can then be sold off to corporate interests.
The amount of sleaze and dishonesty in the propaganda effort is truly stunning. Witness, for instance, this excerpt from an AFP brochure on federal land management, which a wonderland of doublespeak.
afp
This is the kind of propaganda that snakes its way down to people like the Bundys and their supporters, convincing them that the existence of national forests is somehow hurting them.
But nearly every word in that paragraph is a lie. The land is already owned by We the People, and AFP is agitating to take it from us and sell it off to private interests. And it is not sitting idle or inaccessible. National forests and other lands are used for hiking, camping, rafting, fishing or just sitting in to enjoy the bounty of nature. By “inactive,” they obviously mean that the land is not being strip-mined for corporate profit, but it’s a small mind that thinks that the only value nature can provide is squeezing every penny you can get out of it.”
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/04/its_political_sleight_of_hand_for_their_next_trick_republican_magicians_will_make_your_federal_land_disappear/
More bad news for those clinging onto neoliberalism….
“Millennials are ripe for socialism: A generation is rising up against neoliberal oppression
Gallup finds up to 70 percent of young Americans favor wealth redistribution. Elites have only themselves to blame”
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/04/millennials_are_ripe_for_socialism_a_generation_is_rising_up_again_partner/
All talk of “wealth redistribution” typically frames it as something which doesn’t currently exist, as if the current system is some sort of natural order..
.. as does this above “Gallup finds up to 70 percent of young Americans favor wealth redistribution”
This framing must be resisted at all costs and at every opportunity because the implication that there is currently no wealth redistribution is not true.
Currently wealth is redistributed towards certain groups in society and away from other groups in society. This is done by way of subsidies, tax rates, tax groupings, regulations, legislation, tax loopholes, welfare, minimum wage rates, import export tariffs, the list goes on and on and on …
.. this issue must be framed as..
“a new model of wealth redistribution”
or
“change away from the current wealth redistribution”
Imo this is very important. Currently many people seem to think the current settings are some sort of natural order ….
resist
resist
ageed. Language is a powerful tool.
“re-distribution” itself is a loaded term. IMO It’s current meaning is something akin to ‘taking the hard earned income of the self made and giving freebies and handout to losers, wasters and the undeserving poor’.
Really this argument should be about getting fair shares and fair rewards.
Even the way the rich and privileged now term themselves ‘elites’ is telling.
“a new model of wealth redistribution” – that used to be called fairness or social democracy!
As for the use of language, I don’t have a problem with wealth or elites – it is how they are using it!!
ie Edmund Hillary – elite – but in a good way! Not due to money or privilege but his personal actions!
And wealth, a word that means different things to different people – is wealth a safety net? Is wealth ability to retire early, Is wealth ability to rest and do what you have always wanted to do with your life, Is wealth having a healthy happy family and society, is wealth having a low crime rate?
Wealth to me, is not a $ amount and sometimes when I see people hating the idea of ‘wealth’ I feel it is counter productive in terms of gaining traction and votes for the left to the centre and right.
+1111
+100 save nz…great news!
Dunne is NZ’s “most successful politician” according to this analysis. That is, he epitomises politics as a purely self-serving career.
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2016/07/peter-dunne-new-zealand-most-successful-politician/
According to staffers, he is “a good minister”, which I read as “acquiescent” and indeed the writer damns Dunne as a facilitator for hire in contrast with “an avatar of greed” like Collins or a showman like Peters.
Interesting read, though I still consider Dunne to be something I’d scrape off the sole of my boot.
If Dunne was hit by a bus tomorrow nobody would notice apart from his vote to prop up the Natz and hopefully his salary could be better utilised…
I think cancer sufferers would notice.
Yet if the polls get closer Labour may end up needing his seat (I personally think that if either National or Labour get enough seats to win with out Dunne then he should be ditched)
Dunne is the only Party leader currently receiving net Negative ratings in UMR Research Leader Favourability polling. Last Poll – Dunne on minus 12
In contrast to other leaders, he’s been down in negative territory for more than 5 years. (Winston – previously seen negatively by voters – has found himself in positive territory since 2014 and everyone else has enjoyed positive ratings for quite some time – albeit Key down to a mere + 2 rating a few months ago).
Helen Kelly, bless her tenacious yet tender self, will never be honoured or acknowledged by this heartless nat govt but we can now honour her at the portrait gallery.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/81776416/wellington-honours-helen-kelly-with-portrait-in-national-gallery
I hope Labour/Green does not take the bait, like last election where the talk about crashing property was met by Natz winning the election and decimating our country.
For those that think crashing house prices 40% will be positive and somehow redistribute wealth, have a look at the fall out from the crashed property prices from the GFC in the USA. Did it somehow make poorer, working and middle class people better off, or did it make them lose everything and be worse off than before? Likewise the Greece crash – are the poor better off?
“Former Reserve Bank economist Arthur Grimes suggests a radical solution to the housing crisis: crash the house price by 40% by building 150,000 houses in six years:
In March 2016, the REINZ Auckland median house price reached $820,000. Four years previously, it was $495,000 – that’s a 66% increase in 4 years. What’s more alarming is that in 2012, many people considered that house prices were already getting out of reach for most people. That was particularly the case for young people and low income earners.”
We have had left wing economists talking about this crash for 20 years but because they refused to take account the growing immigration levels, their forecasting falls short. I have personally had a lot of friends listening to these experts and refusing to buy years ago thinking prices would come down, now they can’t afford to!
I notice Arthur Grimes does not mention halting immigration. So the idea seems to be, crash property 40% so that families with mortgages go into negative equity (like the 1980’s).
Sounds popular to middle NZ (sarc).
Why African Americans should be dubious about the 4th of July.
Great wee read – totally with the 2nd of July be a day of celebration!
http://90sloverboy.tumblr.com/search/4TH+OF+JULY
Why the Irish should be dubious about St Patrick’s day – ’cause the ‘snakes’ he rid the country of, were the Old People with their non-Christian ways.
Here are some ideas I put up couple of mths ago to help the housing market
Introduce transaction tax about the same size as cc charge on all financial transitions
Differentional interest rate- ie 1% surcharge as tax to council
Increased deposit e.g. 40%
Only sell existing to residents
Only allow over seas resident new builds.
Add interest free loans for infrastructure
WE NEED a joined up plan.
Interesting to hear Winston advocating a major port in Northland instead of growing the port in Auckland.
Maybe just what the north needs and more importantly what Auckland needs- taking off the pressure.
‘WikiLeaks rolls out archive of over 1,200 ‘Clinton Iraq War’ emails’
https://www.rt.com/usa/349492-wikileaks-iraq-clinton-emails/
“The now-infamous whistleblowing website has published an archive of what is said to be over 1,200 of Hillary Clinton’s private emails pertaining to the Iraq War. Julian Assange previously said that the release would be “enough to indict her.”…
..”.In March, WikiLeaks launched a searchable archive consisting of 30,322 emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server that she used while serving as Secretary of State. The 50,547 pages of documents cover Clinton’s correspondence from 30 June 2010 to 12 August 2014. Out of that number, 7,570 of the documents were sent by Hillary Clinton…
The use of private email for state-run business has become a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. With Democratic convention just weeks away, the public eye is following a close watch of a potential grand jury indictment…
Cheers, chooky. Could make for interesting reading, however it may add nothing to what is already known. As it stands, this isn’t looking like the knock out blow an increasingly desperate right needs. Trump’s a busted flush and Hillary Clinton’s going to be president in a few months. Which is super exciting, y’know?
I’m with Assange on this one:
“We could proceed to an indictment, but if Loretta Lynch is the head of the DOJ in the United States, she’s not going to indict Hillary Clinton,” “That’s not possible that could happen.”
The link to the latest emails is here.
Man your political radar is way off calibration. Easy win for Trump over Killary come November.
A tenner to the Victory for Labour fund says you’re wrong. You in?
Their desperation could well see HRC off the hook.
But before that happened, according to LawNewz, the conservative activists at Judicial Watch inserted themselves into the Clinton email controversy earlier this year in the hopes they might find something to destroy Clinton’s White House hopes.
With that in mind, the legal watchdog group filed multiple FOIA lawsuits against the State Department in regard to the issue of the personal server. Agreeing with their demands, federal judge Emmet Sullivan allowed Judicial Watch to depose several of Clinton’s top aides, including Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Patrick Kennedy.
[…]
At this late date in the game, as the FBI is reportedly wrapping up, investigators are likely following up on any questions still outstanding and making sure there are no discrepancies between Clinton and her advisors that might raise red flags.
Armed with hundreds of pages of testimony, Clinton may well have been aware of her aides’ answers to the same lines of questioning that both the FBI and Judicial Watch were pursuing.
As attorney Elkan Abramowitz explained to LawNewz, a well-prepared Clinton would have been in a good position to make sure that she and her team had their story straight — thereby helping to bring the investigation to a more rapid close.
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/did-a-clinton-hounding-conservative-group-accidentally-help-hillary-with-her-fbi-interview/
Crikey! It’s kinda like being slipped the exam answers the night before the big test.
Treating the consummate professional HRC as political naif who came down in the last shower really isn’t a winning strategy.